How tame are your guineas.

[FLchook]

I have been thinking of getting a couple guineas, but need to do research before I venture out.....

How do they get along with chickens? Can they share a coop??

Do they really act as "watchdogs" toward predators? They go after snakes??

From reading here, I'm getting the feeling that over all they typically are not aggressive.

Thanks

 

[melroseladi]

Quote:
Well if you feel like driving up to Melrose I can set you up with 5 or 6 pearl greys. They have been penned in a coop with no heat lamp and doing great. It is a mixed flock about 11 weeks old, of males and females and all are bonded. If you coop them for the winter come spring they will be ready to clear away your ticks.

Some people have problems with their guineas attacking their chickens but I have the opposite problem. My hens boss around the guineas. I did have them cooping together but have since moved the guineas out of the chicken coop since the hens kept picking on them. I have 4 adult guineas and the rest are keets.

My guineas alert to snakes and will surround them to escort them back into the woods.

 

[terrilhb]

My guinea's do not like anything that is different. I put hay in their pen and coop today and they screamed so loud and threw a hissy fit. Silly birds. But they do put themselves up now. Thank you Peeps. But they do not want to be touched. It is like you are killing them. UUUGGGGHHH

 

[RoyRooster]

My guineas are fairly tame. They stay home, return to their pen without a hassle and follow me around when I'm holding any container which they believe to contain feed. I handled them quite a bit as keets. I've read that they can be made tamer by letting a friendly breed of chicken hatch, raise and adjust them. That's something I'd like to try in the future.

 

[Fenika]

My jumbo guineas are fairly tame and well trained.

They used to eat out of my hand but I stopped trying. They don't like getting as close to me as they used to (maybe because I keep grabbing them off the perch to send to freezer camp!) but I can still herd them. They turn their beaks up at millet so don't come when called any more. They will approach me out of curiosity when they want to though.

I let them out and they are pretty good about staying put. Sometimes they run across the lawn, but when I herd them to the woods they stay by their fallen tree. I don't herd them to the side yard any more because they always wanted to check out the six foot landscape rocks on the neighbors yard!

They go back in their pen with little fuss. They are getting a bit wilder though, so it's a good thing I don't let them roam all day.

As an aside, my jumbos aren't very jumbo. I think I got poorly bred birds.