Does anyone else have really DUMB guineas?

[Tony K T]

Yeah I thought all guineas are dumb.Hey wait a minute"I'm a guinea"!
Did you name them Harry and Lloyd?
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[GuineaFowling]

Yeah I tend not to enjoy the "dumb" guineas. Thats why I breed my own and all the ones I have bred are very smart.

 

[orumpoultry]

Yeah I tend not to enjoy the "dumb" guineas. Thats why I breed my own and all the ones I have bred are very smart.

I don't either. My young group I got from Ideal, if they don't shape up they'll ship out... I don't want to babysit guineas.

 

[GuineaFowling]

Yeah I tried that a while ago because I wanted to add new colors into my flock. The guineas where from the feed store and they get them from the hatcheries so I ended up with dummies. The breeder I got my original guineas from retired from breeding so it was get adults from him or buy keets from the store. I dont like getting adults as they are never tame (I only like tame guineas. They have to be smart and tame) so I got the keets.

 

[orumpoultry]

That's why we got these. I've always wanted colored guineas, so I got these. They're very tame and follow me everywhere... But they really are dumb. They've bonded with the horses and the horses are teaching them to get around the property and find their way back so that's a plus.

 

[GuineaFowling]

Aww thats cute. I'd love to get some lavender pintos and off whites but right now I dont want to add to the flock.

 

[taprock]

I agree that it's the breeding. My first batch of guineas were from a hatchery. Very Dumb, although the one surviving has learned. Second pair came from a breeder and were incredibly smart, not smart enough to keep away from a coyote. I bought some locals that were dumb but had never free ranged so the survivor of that group has learned also. Last years group were eggs from a breeder and they seem much smarter. They still have fits if anything is different but that's their job. I have a large enough gruop now that there have been problems between them and the chickens.

 

[mkeawsh]

My guineas I bought from a breeder. I incubated and brooded them in our living room for 8 weeks. Loud is not the word for that last two or three weeks. My husband and I gave up trying to LISTEN to television. They are very tame and follow me everywhere. I feel like the Pied Piper. They wait for me to let out the chickens so they can hang out with them. I was also brooding chicks with them. I read that guineas will go up to half a mile away. Not mine. They barely go into the woods or down the drive. Never out of sight.

 

[Sfraker]

I have had one fly into the side of my house hard enough to knock herself silly, she staggered around for a couple weeks. Another flew into a tree hard enough to kill itself.

Other than that I think they are pretty smart. I decided to train them to go into my garden so that when I put plants in it they will know to look for bugs. I can lead them anywhere with a bag of seeds or mealworms.
I led them to the garden one time and gave them millet. Since then they check it out every day, I put seed or worms in it every few days. They manage to find their way in and out through the opening in the fence without issue.

For some reason they just don't watch where they are going when something scares them and they fly.

 

[GuineaFowling]

Thats odd. My guineas will fly when spooked but they go into the coop or on the roof. Once the guineas had night fright and when I opened the coop door two of them flew straight out. One of them crashed into my gate the other flew straight over and went quite a distance. We found one but it was dark so we waited until sunrise to look for him. He was on top of my neighbors roof and the cats found him for me. Maybe your guineas dont have a sense of direction?