Guinea talk.

[GlennLee]

Ya I am getting a little help I don't like tobacco ask for whelp so I deal with it as best as I can. I am going to start go be back on now. So what all did I miss anyone else join?

I'd say you missed about 70 pages and a lot of new peeps! I'm sure you'll get up to speed with this thread in time. So glad you started this thread, Clay....

As far as getting some guineas, I did a mapquest and it looks like we are 4 hours apart with Elmira being about the halfway point. I have friends in Elmira Heights, so if you are able to make that drive, it might be doable for me to get some guineas to you.

I guess the next question is how soon.. and were you looking for adults or keets? I'm hoping to have keets this spring.

I'm not planning to give up any of my adults at this point, but may be interested if I have an overflow of keets. Too early to tell.... so this may be an option for you to consider at some point. BTW - 4 of my birds are regular pearls (add ons to my original flock) and the remaining 8 are French Jumbo pearls. I'm not sure if it matters to you. The Jumbos are bigger, seem to be a bit calmer and hop rather than fly.

 

[GlennLee]

How loud?
on a scale of 1-10 how loud would you say a (Chicken) rooster is
and on the same scale how loud is a guinea?
Edit: can you feed adult guineas just regular chicken layer feed?

I can't help you out with where to get them in Canada, but craigslist is a good place to start. A bit early now. You could also check into mail order; they start shipping keets in May - I got mine from JM Hatchery in PA - originally 16 French Guinea keets. They had a stupendous survival rate. I'm down to half of the original flock, but that's because of coyotes, hawks, a car and coop injury.

Most of the time, my flock just chirps - they are very happy free ranging on our property. The annoying call to me is the female "buckwheat" or "come back". Everyone once in a while one will get started and just keep it up - sometimes a couple more will join in. I often said I don't have to clip wings, but I would clip vocal chords on a couple of my females! They make more noise when they are younger - everything is new to them and they are trying out their voices. They also do a collective machine gun noise as an alarm. That doesn't bother me as much - it's loud, but doesn't last a long time.

My neighbor has chickens and she claims her roosters are noisier than my guineas. It's good to have your neighbors on board as the whole community "benefits" from their noise and free ranging.

Hard for me to use a 1-10 scale - I think when they make their "buckwheat" noise they are on par with a rooster. When the flock machine guns, it hurts your ears. When they just chirp, all is good with the world.

I don't use layer feed due to the extra calcium that could cause kidney problems with my males. I use regular Purina flock crumbles and have granite grit and oyster shell available for them to use as needed in two rabbit feeders. I train with bird seed and meal worms.

 

[Dmontgomery]

Im thinking about guineas but need the pros and cons to convince my parents
Also anyone know where to get keets in canada?

Pros: They are extremely entertaining! Hilarious, crazy, aggravating. Beautiful to watch them fly. Baby keets are adorable, adults not so much.
Cons: They don't produce a lot of eggs all year long like the hens do.
I don't think mine are any louder than my roosters. But the rooster crow only lasts a couple seconds. The guineas can scream non-stop for a long time.

 

[dragonthehunter]

I can't help you out with where to get them in Canada, but craigslist is a good place to start. A bit early now. You could also check into mail order; they start shipping keets in May - I got mine from JM Hatchery in PA - originally 16 French Guinea keets. They had a stupendous survival rate. I'm down to half of the original flock, but that's because of coyotes, hawks, a car and coop injury.

Most of the time, my flock just chirps - they are very happy free ranging on our property. The annoying call to me is the female "buckwheat" or "come back". Everyone once in a while one will get started and just keep it up - sometimes a couple more will join in. I often said I don't have to clip wings, but I would clip vocal chords on a couple of my females! They make more noise when they are younger - everything is new to them and they are trying out their voices. They also do a collective machine gun noise as an alarm. That doesn't bother me as much - it's loud, but doesn't last a long time.

My neighbor has chickens and she claims her roosters are noisier than my guineas. It's good to have your neighbors on board as the whole community "benefits" from their noise and free ranging.

Hard for me to use a 1-10 scale - I think when they make their "buckwheat" noise they are on par with a rooster. When the flock machine guns, it hurts your ears. When they just chirp, all is good with the world.

I don't use layer feed due to the extra calcium that could cause kidney problems with my males. I use regular Purina flock crumbles and have granite grit and oyster shell available for them to use as needed in two rabbit feeders. I train with bird seed and meal worms.

The neighbours aren't a problem one side has kids that make more noise then our 3 roosters combined
the other is like a 15 minute walk away

 

[guineapeeps]

How loud?
on a scale of 1-10 how loud would you say a (Chicken) rooster is
and on the same scale how loud is a guinea?
Edit: can you feed adult guineas just regular chicken layer feed?

They can certainly be loud and I, too, think the younger ones are much louder than the mature, older guineas. They seem to mellow with age and calm down as they get to be a year or two old. Despite the occasional chaos they cause, the trade-off is worth it to me for the bug/tick/pest control and for entertainment value. I love my guineas an have no regrets with getting them.
I feed my guineas gamebird crumble as they need more protein than chickens, especially during the winter when there are no bugs for them to eat. I use millet for treats and to train them to come when called. I provide regular grit and oyster shell grit as the hens need this extra calcium to form the extra hard shells that guineas produce.

 

[guineapeeps]

No I wouldn't be able to get there anytime soon. I live in pa. I created this thread. I think u are new to this I don't think I've meet u my name Ian clay.

Hey Ian,
My name is Rhea (also for those on here who just know me as Guineapeeps). Great job in starting the thread....everyone on here seems to be like-minded about their Guineas and I love to get on here and see what everyone is up to. I guess I joined this particular thread last summer. I've been on backyardchickens probably a year or so and was on other guinea threads before this one but find this one to be my favorite so I hardly get on those others much anymore! This is my 4th year with Guineas and I absolutely love them!

 

[BiophiliaDJT]

Ive heard lots of reports of even well socialized and well acclimated guineas deciding to head for the hills one day and getting killed off by predators. If you had a largish garden area and put fencing around it and hung netting over it, would these guys be able to forage and do pest control safely, or would the confinement stress them even in such a large space?

 

[pattyhen]

Hey everyone my name Is Clay for the new people that are on here. I am the one that is responsible for starting this. I haven't been in here on a long time because my son was born and I am now a single father. His mother passed away while giving birth. My guniea Maddison died and I need a new in glad my thread is taking off so well

Welcome back Clay and I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your babys mother. I hope you have lots of help with that little one.

You started a wonderful thread here and we are keeping it togeather with lots of great people. I still have my two original guineas that I started out with, Spiderman and Mary Jane. I look forward to letting Mary Jane hatch at least one brood of keets this spring. They have continued to be a joy to have and I love my guineas very much.

 

[pattyhen]

Im thinking about guineas but need the pros and cons to convince my parents
Also anyone know where to get keets in canada?

Pros , if you have ticks where you live they will get rid of them. They are also great bug catchers. Their so much fun to watch and always put a smile on your face. Mine love to set on your lap and visit inside the house just to check on everybody and see how everything is going. They are much tamer then my ducks ever thought of being. They go into the coop every night as long as I turn the light on they are inside when I go to shut the coop up. They get along good with the chickens but love to tease the ducks.

The only con I can think of is sometimes they can be loud. I don't mind the loudness I'm a little hard hearing so you get the point.

 

[guineapeeps]

Ive heard lots of reports of even well socialized and well acclimated guineas  deciding to head for the hills one day and getting killed off by predators. If you had a largish garden area and put fencing around it and hung netting over it, would these guys be able to forage and do pest control safely, or would the confinement stress them even in such a large space?

I have had guineas for 4 years now and have never had any run off or head for the hills. The first ones you get need to be confined for about 4 weeks to learn where home is, but after that, it's pretty easy. Mine free range all day and go in the coop at night. My guineas love white millet, so all I have to do is call "chick, chick, chick!" a shake the millet bag and they will come running from wherever they are at. I let my guineas hatch their own eggs and raise their own keets and have been very pleased with the results. Although not all guineas owners agree with doing this I have found that it works well for me.
As for getting stressed, if they had plenty of room to roam, perches to roost on, and protection from the weather and predators, I would think they would do ok.