BYC Guinea hen club

[JustHenny]

My male guinea is a ****. He pecks everyone on the head. Even my big roo! They all run from him. But that is all he really does. He is VERY protective of his girlfriend. Some may be better or worse, just like roosters. Put them together when they are about the same size, and let them grow up getting used to each other. It worked with my turkey (until thanksgiving anyway).

 

[nicktrkula]

The problem here is I have an established two year flock with a sumatra/with a old English .and 7 miscellaneous hens .that I'm trying to introduce into a group of 6 month old guineas .neither group has ever encountered the other .directly I tried introducing them through chicken wire but the guineas just tried to push through to attack the chickens so I'm in a dilemma

 

[R2elk]

The problem here is I have an established two year flock with a sumatra/with a old English .and 7 miscellaneous hens .that I'm trying to introduce into a group of 6 month old guineas .neither group has ever encountered the other .directly I tried introducing them through chicken wire but the guineas just tried to push through to attack the chickens so I'm in a dilemma

I have had guineas with chickens and turkeys and now I have guineas separate from the chickens and turkeys. My recommendation is to continue to keep the guineas separate. I had all kinds of problems when the guineas were part of the mixed flock and now that the guineas are a separate flock I don't have any of those problems.

 

[JustHenny]

The guineas could really go after the more decorative chickens too. So tempting.

 

[TJChickens]

I used to have all my Guineas in with my peafowl. They got along fine, but the Guineas couldn't resist biting the peacock's tails. So out of all my beautiful peacocks, none had pretty tails. I removed most of the Guineas and made them a separate pen. Much nicer this way. Some of the mixed color Guineas are still in with the peafowl, but it's just a few and things seem to be going fine. It also helps a lot to keep Guineas busy with a flake of alfalfa hay.
My Royal Purples are the ones with their own pen now. I'm getting lots of fertile eggs from these if anybody wants some, let me know. I have also been putting them off and on, on the "Crazy 24 Hour Egg Auction Thread"

 

[JustHenny]

Just out of curiosity how much would a dozen go for? I would love to get my male another girlfriend and a friend of mine wants some. My male seems like the sister wife type. So far this year my one lady hasnt been laying. Too early in Illinois? I don't know.

 

[1crazychick]

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!

 

[1crazychick]

hello. I am reading thru these old posts as I am about to receive a flock of adults soon. I wanted to see if you still ha e your flock and how you have faired with them!! We are in the same predicament we have an enclosed pasture we let our great danes run in and the first warm day out after winter, both had ticks! Very surprized to see them this early. So we are going to try a flock of guinea that have just come to their first breeding season start. I have a huge coop and outside enclosure they will stay in for a couple months and then hopefully transition well to free range with coop at night! Crossing my fingers but all does not always go as planed. Wanted to see what we are in for!! Lol

 

[nicktrkula]

Guineas are tough as steel and i still haven't had the nerve to totally put them together

 

[TJChickens]

Just out of curiosity how much would a dozen go for? I would love to get my male another girlfriend and a friend of mine wants some. My male seems like the sister wife type. So far this year my one lady hasnt been laying. Too early in Illinois? I don't know.

Could be too early. Mine have been laying for about a month but I'm in Southern CA and we really didn't get much winter this year. I sell them for $1.50 an egg and $12. shipping.
I sell my mixed color pen for $1. an egg, but they are not laying consistently right now.