BYC Guinea hen club

[1finechick]

Mine are 3 weeks old and just saw one on top of the feeder. Time to put a top on the brooder !!!

 

[ducklucky]

We just ordered up 20 pearl guineas. They will be somewhat new to us, but we have chickens and ducks and hatch our own. The chickens have their coop, the ducks have their winter house and summer pen (for night time). I'm thinking once the ducks move out to their summer pen, the guineas once feathered out and old enough, can have the duck house, we will put a screen door on it so they can get acclimated, and also has a couple screened windows. I assume we need to put perches up, no problem, we have tons of nice skinny birch trees down from the winter. Any other advice you can give us? I assume they eat the starter feed, is it safe to feed them table scraps too and stale bread, or should we stay away from that? I know with ducks not to do that as it can swell up in their tummies, and we never had and they won't touch it anyway. Is there a particular treat I can train them to come to, peas work for the ducks, fresh or frozen corn for the chickens, what would the guineas like?

I hope to join into your little club here, sure I will be needing some advice. We have plenty of land, many acres for them, so no problem there, and lots of trees, but we have already pulled 2 ticks off the puppy, so we are very excited to have them join our family, as are the neighbors. Ticks are epidemic here after many years (Maine) of never seeing a one. Thank you all for any advice!

 

[OzoneGuinea]

We just ordered up 20 pearl guineas. They will be somewhat new to us, but we have chickens and ducks and hatch our own. The chickens have their coop, the ducks have their winter house and summer pen (for night time). I'm thinking once the ducks move out to their summer pen, the guineas once feathered out and old enough, can have the duck house, we will put a screen door on it so they can get acclimated, and also has a couple screened windows. I assume we need to put perches up, no problem, we have tons of nice skinny birch trees down from the winter. Any other advice you can give us? I assume they eat the starter feed, is it safe to feed them table scraps too and stale bread, or should we stay away from that? I know with ducks not to do that as it can swell up in their tummies, and we never had and they won't touch it anyway. Is there a particular treat I can train them to come to, peas work for the ducks, fresh or frozen corn for the chickens, what would the guineas like?

I hope to join into your little club here, sure I will be needing some advice. We have plenty of land, many acres for them, so no problem there, and lots of trees, but we have already pulled 2 ticks off the puppy, so we are very excited to have them join our family, as are the neighbors. Ticks are epidemic here after many years (Maine) of never seeing a one. Thank you all for any advice!

Hello!
I am glad to hear that you are getting some keets soon!
To answer some of your questions: Setting up some perches is a great idea but make sure they are not too high because a guinea's bones are not as strong as a chickens bones so not having enough room to fly down may cause them to accidentally hurt a leg. Turkey starter feed is best for Keets because of the hight concentrate of protein, but chicken starter feed will do just fine
I find that guinea's are very picky eaters and they tend to ignore the scraps I give to my chickens. I know that they LOVE tomatoes so is you have a garden with tomatoes, it is best to not feed them tomatoes when they are young. But the best treat to give to a guinea is WHITE MILLET. This is the best if you want to train a guineafowl. When I had a bunch of guineas I would call out "babeeees" and the would come running up from the barn :')

A few things to know about guineas: these birds know how to free range. This is good because they eat up annoying insects like June Bugs and Ticks but sometimes they wondering into neighbor yards plus they do love to roost in trees so it is important to train them while they are young to come into the coop at night. I find that putting a small feeder with food or millet near or in the coop will keep the birds within your property and make it easier for you to put them in at night.
Guineas are also very skittish. I highly recommend handling them a lot when they are growing up. This will help with putting them away at night and with the noise level. Guineafowl (especially the female) can be EXTREMELY loud. If the guineas were not use to me, they would make a loud "SQUAK" or the females would "BUCKWHEAT" constantly. I have had guineas for over 10 years and found that the more I spent time with the birds when they were young, the less annoying noise they made when I was around them. Instead of the annoying noise a mention before, I would hear a noise, which I call it their sweet noise.

Let me know if you have anymore questions!

Here is a link of the "sweet noise" and a female buckwheat-ing:

 

[margaret8]

Also you might add that they are NOT sweet and gental. They are wilder than a March heir! My guineas (app 14 of them m) just ran the neighbors German shepherd back home! They think that your property is their property! They don't like strangers! I let mine out since they were 5 months old. I get them back in their coop at night by putting out feed for them in their coop. They come into eat, well almost all of them. There always has to be 2 of them that chase other around the coop for a while. They finally get tired and go in. They also like grasshoppers. I was worried about my cats getting them, not to worry. When the guineas got about 6 months old my cat tried to get one and the turned him every but loose! He doesn't bother them any more. I call them and they come to me. They mind me better than my peafowl do! That is why my peafowl are still in a coop!

 

[herrdogs]

I just love my guineas! I got hooked on them when my neighbor had a bunch, and one of them adopted us. We called her Henrietta--but she finally was caught by one of the many foxes around here. So last year I started 17 of them at 48hrs old. We still have 6 now--full grown. Even though we have 10 acres, the little stinkers ran across the road. We just discovered that by having at least 2 in a pen they can get out of keeps the "parolees" around the safe part of the farm and off the road. We swap out who's in and who's out so that every one has a free-range experience. They interact with me--and you can't beat their bug control services!

 

[OzoneGuinea]

Also you might add that they are NOT sweet and gental. They are wilder than a March heir! My guineas (app 14 of them m) just ran the neighbors German shepherd back home! They think that your property is their property! They don't like strangers! I let mine out since they were 5 months old. I get them back in their coop at night by putting out feed for them in their coop. They come into eat, well almost all of them. There always has to be 2 of them that chase other around the coop for a while. They finally get tired and go in. They also like grasshoppers. I was worried about my cats getting them, not to worry. When the guineas got about 6 months old my cat tried to get one and the turned him every but loose! He doesn't bother them any more. I call them and they come to me. They mind me better than my peafowl do! That is why my peafowl are still in a coop!

^Yes I agree.
These birds can be very aggressive with one another and to other animals. I suggest making them use to all the animals in and near your property. And again, handle the the keets everyday. Even though these birds can be very aggressive, I've had a few that I was persistent on handling everyday until their adulthood and they were the sweetest guineas I've every had. I still have one and his name is Culvers. He will let me pet him and pick him up and he will even follow me around. He was also an amazing father too. Protected his keets from a hawk.

Also to take in consideration, every bird is different, their personalities and how they act, just like a dog or any other animal.

 

[freebirds]

I just joined this sight and just bought 7 guineas! Never had any chickens or birds before just feed all the wild ones. I decided to do this to try and combat the tick
population explosion. Our 5 year old granddaughter has already been diagnosed with Lyme's. My baby keets look just like yours in this picture I am not sure how
old they are and did not ask the people at the feed store where I bought them. So how old are these in your picture? We have them inside with the light in a wooden
box that is plenty big enough. Food and water of course. Just not sure how big they need to be before we move them out to the coop. I have to say too, so glad
I found this sight I have already read so much good advice! We are already considering some chickens or turkey's maybe?? We bought a huge coop and have 40 acres.
I am worried about the road though. I see them roaming the roads around here in front of peoples homes. I hate to think of one getting run over!

 

[margaret8]

I just joined this sight and just bought 7 guineas! Never had any chickens or birds before just feed all the wild ones. I decided to do this to try and combat the tick
population explosion. Our 5 year old granddaughter has already been diagnosed with Lyme's. My baby keets look just like yours in this picture I am not sure how
old they are and did not ask the people at the feed store where I bought them. So how old are these in your picture? We have them inside with the light in a wooden
box that is plenty big enough. Food and water of course. Just not sure how big they need to be before we move them out to the coop. I have to say too, so glad
I found this sight I have already read so much good advice! We are already considering some chickens or turkey's maybe?? We bought a huge coop and have 40 acres.
I am worried about the road though. I see them roaming the roads around here in front of peoples homes. I hate to think of one getting run over!

Be sure you keep them warm until they are fully feathered. When they move away from the heat lamp they are too warm. The three that I hatched out about 3 weeks are fixing to get put outside. I've never seen jeers grow like these have. I put some vitamins I got from McMurrys hatchery and I feed them 28% protein. It is the game bird formula. I raised 15 last year and these this year. I'm not finished yet!

 

[herrdogs]

Congrats on getting keets! They are so much fun--and really not a lot of work once they are feathered out. I kept my keets for a month in a huge bathtub size plastic tub with a heat lamp inside. Towards the end I would take out during the day in a brooder box--almost like conditioning them to wind, outside temps, etc. My biggest concern with them is that they cross the road---seems like they do that no matter how many acres you have, and we have lost a couple to fast trucks. Still looking for the best way to stop them from doing the road crossings. :-(

 

[gander007]

Congrats on getting keets! They are so much fun--and really not a lot of work once they are feathered out. I kept my keets for a month in a huge bathtub size plastic tub with a heat lamp inside. Towards the end I would take out during the day in a brooder box--almost like conditioning them to wind, outside temps, etc. My biggest concern with them is that they cross the road---seems like they do that no matter how many acres you have, and we have lost a couple to fast trucks. Still looking for the best way to stop them from doing the road crossings. :-(

Ya they do not like to be confined at all and like to wonder my 6 foot fence is only something for them to jump up on to get a better look around or to make noise from it defiantly is not a barrier for them and the sheds are only something to roost on nothing more .....

But they do chase after the Bob-Cat's and Fox and time to time there are losses do to their bravery .....