Questions about guinea fowl

[Sherri1990]

Hello everyone.

I am thinking about getting 4 guinea fowl to add to my growing farm. I do have some questions.

It is my intention to free range these birds. I would like to get them while my baby chicks are still young (they arrive march 24th).

1. Is it better to get only female? (dont want any boys going after my buff orphingtons when they are at age).
2. Do I need to provide feed or will they live off the grub on the land?
3. Do they need a coop at night? ( i read they sleep in trees....)
4. Is four enough or should i get more? ( I own 16 acres of land).
5. will they keep possums and coons away.....or attract them?
6. Does any one know a local person in the savannah area that breeds them so I dont have to order a bunch and have them mailed to me.

any other info or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sherri

 

[R2elk]

Hello everyone.

I am thinking about getting 4 guinea fowl to add to my growing farm. I do have some questions.

It is my intention to free range these birds. I would like to get them while my baby chicks are still young (they arrive march 24th).

1. Is it better to get only female? (dont want any boys going after my buff orphingtons when they are at age).
2. Do I need to provide feed or will they live off the grub on the land?
3. Do they need a coop at night? ( i read they sleep in trees....)
4. Is four enough or should i get more? ( I own 16 acres of land).
5. will they keep possums and coons away.....or attract them?
6. Does any one know a local person in the savannah area that breeds them so I dont have to order a bunch and have them mailed to me.

any other info or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sherri

Read the thread Raising Guinea Fowl 101

Guinea fowl are flock birds and do form mating pairs. If you want sexed guinea fowl, you will have to buy adults. You cannot buy sexed guinea fowl keets.

If a person could get only guinea hens, it would be the noisiest possible flock as they would spend all their time calling for mates.

Guineas are seasonal layers and are not normally available until later in the year.

It is a bad idea to raise keets with any other type of poultry chicks as they will become imprinted. Imprinting causes them to lose the ability to understand that the other poultry are not guineas. Guineas have different behaviors than other poultry. Those behaviors can cause the other poultry stress because they cannot understand why the guineas are treating them they way they are.

If you want to keep guineas alive as long as possible, they need a secure coop at night to protect them from predators.

Guineas are a flock bird and do best in large groups. I never recommend that anyone have fewer than ten guineas.

If you want your guineas to stay alive and stay at your property, you must provide food and water for them. Their feed consumption will be lower in the summer than in the winter.

Guineas are vulnerable to all the same predators that any other poultry are vulnerable to. This includes opossums, raccoons, raptors, fox, etc. In large enough groups they may be brave enough to chase predators which can lead to the predator luring them into areas where they can be picked off one at a time.


I am sure there are people in Georgia raising guineas. Local advertising should find those people for you.

 

[Sherri1990]

Read the thread Raising Guinea Fowl 101

Guinea fowl are flock birds and do form mating pairs. If you want sexed guinea fowl, you will have to buy adults. You cannot buy sexed guinea fowl keets.

If a person could get only guinea hens, it would be the noisiest possible flock as they would spend all their time calling for mates.

Guineas are seasonal layers and are not normally available until later in the year.

It is a bad idea to raise keets with any other type of poultry chicks as they will become imprinted. Imprinting causes them to lose the ability to understand that the other poultry are not guineas. Guineas have different behaviors than other poultry. Those behaviors can cause the other poultry stress because they cannot understand why the guineas are treating them they way they are.

If you want to keep guineas alive as long as possible, they need a secure coop at night to protect them from predators.

Guineas are a flock bird and do best in large groups. I never recommend that anyone have fewer than ten guineas.

If you want your guineas to stay alive and stay at your property, you must provide food and water for them. Their feed consumption will be lower in the summer than in the winter.

Guineas are vulnerable to all the same predators that any other poultry are vulnerable to. This includes opossums, raccoons, raptors, fox, etc. In large enough groups they may be brave enough to chase predators which can lead to the predator luring them into areas where they can be picked off one at a time.


I am sure there are people in Georgia raising guineas. Local advertising should find those people for you.

Thank you for your detailed response. I do not want stressed out chickens. I do not think that I am prepared for this yet.

 

[R2elk]

Thank you for your detailed response. I do not want stressed out chickens. I do not think that I am prepared for this yet.

I brood my guinea keets by themselves. I house the adult guineas separately from my other poultry. When the guineas are out free ranging at the same time as the other poultry in the same area, they keep to themselves as do the chickens and turkeys.

My guineas only pick on each other and leave the rest of the poultry alone.

Good luck.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Thank you for your detailed response. I do not want stressed out chickens. I do not think that I am prepared for this yet.

Same for us as with R2elk. When I raised keets with chicks and ducks, the guineas attacked the chickens and ducks during their “keetager” age and older. Once I separated them and added more guineas (currently 28), the guineas only pick on each other and mostly leave other poultry alone.

 

[Isadora]

While it's true that guineas like to roost in trees, that just makes them an easy target for owls. If you decide to get them in the future, they will need a secure coop.

 

[Sherri1990]

I brood my guinea keets by themselves. I house the adult guineas separately from my other poultry. When the guineas are out free ranging at the same time as the other poultry in the same area, they keep to themselves as do the chickens and turkeys.

My guineas only pick on each other and leave the rest of the poultry alone.

Good luck.

I’m going to give this a shot. I’m building another chicken coop and using the old one for the GF. In Your experience Do GF help keep possums away? I am over run with possum.

 

[R2elk]

I’m going to give this a shot. I’m building another chicken coop and using the old one for the GF. In Your experience Do GF help keep possums away? I am over run with possum.

I don't have any opossums here. In my experience the only way to control the opossum population is to start eliminating them. Opossums are for the most part nocturnal. Guineas are diurnal. Guineas will not solve your opossum problem.

The majority of people get into guineas for tick control which they do an excellent job with.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I’m going to give this a shot. I’m building another chicken coop and using the old one for the GF. In Your experience Do GF help keep possums away? I am over run with possum.

We have opossums and raccoons but I almost never see them in the daytime. I doubt our guineas have anything to do with it, though they would certainly alarm at them and harass if they saw them out during the day. I would guess that guineas could handle a daytime opossum/raccoon (by avoiding its reach) but are as vulnerable as any other poultry are at night. I think that our coyotes and bobcats keep our possum and raccoon populations in check, but coyotes and bobcats are much worse predators to deal with, IMO.

 

[Sherri1990]

We have opossums and raccoons but I almost never see them in the daytime. I doubt our guineas have anything to do with it, though they would certainly alarm at them and harass if they saw them out during the day. I would guess that guineas could handle a daytime opossum/raccoon (by avoiding its reach) but are as vulnerable as any other poultry are at night. I think that our coyotes and bobcats keep our possum and raccoon populations in check, but coyotes and bobcats are much worse predators to deal with, IMO.

The more I learn about these birds the more I understand how much they need coop training. The coop I will be using is hardwire and surrounded by paver stones. We are going to add an electric fence. I have not seen any coyotes but I have seen bobcat prints. I do have a Great Pyrenees so maybe that helps to keep the big predators away,