BYC Guinea hen club

[guineapeeps]

Is there anything special I would need to know about guinea hens before getting them. I have a neighbor whom I Doing a favor for and taking some guinea hens. They are ordering from a hatchery and have to have a certain number. We have 12 chickens. This neighbor has done plenty of favors for us so we feel obligated to help him. Any advice is welcome

I am certainly no expert on guineas, but wanted to chime in. I have had my guineas for 4 years now and have never regretted getting them. I do not have chickens or any other type of poultry or fowl, so I cannot speak to keeping them with chickens. I know they don't always work out for everyone, but I have nothing for praise for mine. They are great for pest control, like ticks, grasshoppers, crickets, etc. They are also great for gardens as they don't eat the plants or veggies. They can be very noisy and are a bit on the wild side, but I really love mine. If you do decide to get guineas, I would say to get no less than 4 (and that would be a bare minimum), as they are very much flock animals. I usually have an average of 10 or so, which works well for me. Also, a few things to keep in mind is that they do need a higher protein food than chickens do, so they will need game bird food rather than your typical 16-18% crumble. Also, they do take awhile to get them to learn where home is, so several weeks of locking them in a coop/pen is needed to ensure that they return each day. I would highly recommend locking them in a coop at night, otherwise they are easy prey for raccoons, owls, etc. (Mine free range all day and roost in a locked coop at night). Hope this helps....good luck!

 

[Cooper Gs Coop]

Thank you very much everyone. I like to soak up as much knowledge about the animals I'm going to care for as I can. The more I know about their temperament, preferred climate, coop/roosts, feed etc. just like with our chickens I want to make sure I'm fully prepared. Thanks again!!

 

[GlennLee]

Is there anything special I would need to know about guinea hens before getting them. I have a neighbor whom I Doing a favor for and taking some guinea hens. They are ordering from a hatchery and have to have a certain number. We have 12 chickens. This neighbor has done plenty of favors for us so we feel obligated to help him. Any advice is welcome

I have a flock of 12 guineas, but no other poultry. Since you already have chickens, you'll be further along with your knowledge base than I was when I got them last May. It's been a learning curve and I've received a lot of support from my neighbor and the folks on BYC. I love my guineas - they are entertaining and keep me on my toes. During the first couple of months, we spent more time trying to problem solve and keep one step ahead of them than we did anything else.

We've had a lull this winter, but things will pick up once they start to nest and we have keets running around here. They are VERY flock oriented and move together as one unit. They will go farther than your chickens. I'm fortunate to have good neighbors who also enjoy my guineas since they free range and check out all the bird feeders. They travel about 1/2 mile from one end of their range to the other and that's probably typical.

I have trained them to a bell to come in to the coop about an hour to a half hour before sunset. It usually works, but when they are mating, all bets are off and their typical behavior goes out the window. They do require a high protein diet and mine LOVE going into tall grass. We've had some taken by coyote and red tail hawks. Dogs can be a concern as well. And, if they don't get into a routine of roosting inside at night, they will try to roost outside and then owls become a problem as well.

Overall, once established, they sort of take care of themselves and just enjoy poking around the yard. The sooner you can integrate them with your flock of chickens, the better. Some people have very good luck integrating them with other poultry, others don't and find that the guineas can be aggressive. My neighbors have both and don't have any problems, but a friend of mine had to get rid of hers since the guineas would terrorize the flock and actually chased her smaller chickens away.

We must live near each other so if you have any questions specific to Central New York, feel free to PM me. Good luck!

 

[Cooper Gs Coop]

Sorry it took so long to respond. Thank you for the helpful tips. We live near baldwinsville so I'm a little worried about them going too far and then having issues with the law. Technically in our area our livestock or pets have to be fenced in. Should be an interesting spring/summer nonetheless!

 

[GlennLee]

Sorry it took so long to respond. Thank you for the helpful tips. We live near baldwinsville so I'm a little worried about them going too far and then having issues with the law. Technically in our area our livestock or pets have to be fenced in. Should be an interesting spring/summer nonetheless!

The big thing will be to make sure your neighbors are on board. Mine are all more than happy to have tick eaters around and they get a kick out of watching them. I sort of keep track and if they've overstayed their welcome, I go up with two pool noodles and move them out of their yards. They are really easy to move that way and you just have to do like Tai Chi moves to get them to move as a flock. The slower, the better.

Are you all set with the heat lamps and brooder? They have to be kept quite warm 95 degrees then decreased by 5 degrees each week until they feather in - about 6 weeks total. And their feed has to be higher protein than a chicken. I'm not sure what information you already have, so I don't want to flood you with info that you are aware of, but they will require a bit different care than your chickens.

Are you planning to keep them in a coop and/ or run at first? I had mine in a coop and covered run for about a month before letting them out to free range and then I would only let out some of them at a time for a few hours to make sure they came back. I kept increasing the time until at last they were all out for the entire day. I've heard that some people have guineas who just take off and they never see them again. It takes guineas longer than chickens to imprint on where they live, but having your chickens should help. And sometimes when the guineas first get out of the coop / run and can't figure out how to get back in. I had to use a planter to block the area behind a door so they wouldn't go in there and get stuck. Most of mine needed to practice on how to get AROUND the dog fence, rather than try to go through it, to get to the door and entrance to the coop. Seriously, get some pool noodles at the Dollar Tree. You can guide them very easily that way and it will save you running around in circles.

We are east of you, probably about 45 minutes away. If you think of anything else, feel free to post. I'm happy to share my experiences, not that I have all the answers, but we're learned a lot over the past year and are still learning! Hopefully hatching our own keets this spring.

 

[Cooper Gs Coop]

Well as of right now we're still not sure if we're getting them. My neighbor hasn't let me know about them. Just want to make sure I'm prepared if I do. As far as the lights and brooder I have all that fun stuff. Was hoping to do just chickens this year so we could work out the kinks. But we'll see how it goes. Thank you

 

[GlennLee]

Well as one of my friends and fellow guinea lovers is fond of saying, "You don't own guineas, they own you". With that in mind, it might be good to just start with chickens.

Good luck with everything and feel free to give a shout out with any questions.

 

[guineapeeps]

Well as one of my friends and fellow guinea lovers is fond of saying, "You don't own guineas, they own you".  With that in mind, it might be good to just start with chickens. :cd

Good luck with everything and feel free to give a shout out with any questions.  

Great saying......so true!

 

[Mysterious]

Hello, I just found this thread.  We are new to guineas and chickens.  We received one guinea keet by mistake with our chick order.  Our chick feed is 20% protein and I have read that the keet needs 29% protein.  I have tried to separate it to give it some egg yolk and chick grit, but it got very upset at being by itself.  Any suggestions on how to feed the chicks and the keets together.  I was told that the keet will be ok on 20% feed, but it will not grow as fast.  It is definitely not growing as fast as the chicks.  Thank you for your help! 

I would recommend giving it a stuffed animal, when my chick was the only one that helped.

 

[Hofcahs]

Thank you for your reply. I had not heard that idea before. The guinea ended up passing up the chicks and growing very well.