What would we do without??

[11squawkers]

I <3 BYC!
What would I do without the ear piercing squawks of my guineas to keep my mixed flock safe and alert me to a danger in the yard?!
:yiipchick

 

[City farm]

What would we do with out BACKYARDCHICKEN ?!!!! AGH, .

A good site
Great info and advice
And good people

Glad you joined in, come check out the Arizona thread..

 

[City farm]

I <3 BYC!
What would I do without the ear piercing squawks of my guineas to keep my mixed flock safe and alert me to a danger in the yard?!
:yiipchick

Ya know we thought of having them in our flock, we have a net up along their run, we don't want hawk's swooping down for their daily meal.. Still thinking about them..

 

[11squawkers]

Ya know we thought of having them in our flock, we have a net up along their run, we don't want hawk's swooping down for their daily meal.. Still thinking about them..

I have 7 guineas and 4 chickens and I do believe they keep the flock safer. Anything flying in the sky and they let everyone know of the danger and they and the chickens run for cover. Also alerts my dog and he will go find out what all the fuss is about. We have every predator under the sun, on land and in air, as we live rural in the Sierra Nevada mountains bordering the national forest. I love my guineas. Not only do they help make my flock safer, they cover my 3 acres pretty well and eat every bug in site, snakes and other creepies too. Haven't had any ticks on us or the dog since we got them. And mine only make noise when they see something they aren't familiar or comfortable with and certainly anything threatening. So for us their noise hasnt been any problem. Seem to keep deer at bay, as well, and out of my garden, which is a HUGE plus for me, have not had any losses due to deer in my garden. Actually witnessed them chase off a deer once and see no more evidence of deer within my property, ei poop, tracks, eaten vegetation. And we have a small orchard of 100 apple trees that, prior to getting guineas, seemed to attract every deer in the county!

 

[City farm]

Ya know we thought of having them in our flock, we have a net up along their run, we don't want hawk's swooping down for their daily meal.. Still thinking about them..

I have 7 guineas and 4 chickens and I do believe they keep the flock safer. Anything flying in the sky and they let everyone know of the danger and they and the chickens run for cover. Also alerts my dog and he will go find out what all the fuss is about. We have every predator under the sun, on land and in air, as we live rural in the Sierra Nevada mountains bordering the national forest. I love my guineas. Not only do they help make my flock safer, they cover my 3 acres pretty well and eat every bug in site, snakes and other creepies too. Haven't had any ticks on us or the dog since we got them. And mine only make noise when they see something they aren't familiar or comfortable with and certainly anything threatening. So for us their noise hasnt been any problem. Seem to keep deer at bay, as well, and out of my garden, which is a HUGE plus for me, have not had any losses due to deer in my garden. Actually witnessed them chase off a deer once and see no more evidence of deer within my property, ei poop, tracks, eaten vegetation. And we have a small orchard of 100 apple trees that, prior to getting guineas, seemed to attract every deer in the county!

Ok, now you got us.. I will have to visit someone that has them here.. How often do they lay, egg color,& how often do they reproduce & are the boys loud? I do have way more questions, just don't know where to start.

 

[11squawkers]

Ok, now you got us.. I will have to visit someone that has them here.. How often do they lay, egg color,& how often do they reproduce & are the boys loud? I do have way more questions, just don't know where to start.

I really do enjoy having my guineas, chickens are pretty funny but these guys are just flat out hilarious to watch! I do interact with them several times every day and that has made them pretty tame. Hens will pretty much lay every day during the laying season, spring through fall. Egg color is more pinkish tan and the shape is more triangular with the tip being sharper than that of a chicken, and they are smaller than chicken eggs. I have never hatched any but have witness them in the "act". The boys can be loud, but I have found that spending time with them to familiarize yourself to them and them to their surroundings helps reduce their outbursts. Sometimes when one of the girls gets left behind when they are out she will get the boys started and I will have to go find her and get her back to the flock before they calm down. Oh and they don't really like to lay in the coop, so sometimes finding the eggs can be fun or frustrating. There is a lot of great info here on BYC about guineas, so any and all questions you may ever have about them can most likely be found here! Visiting a local farm that has guineas will give you a really good feel for how it would be, I definitely recommend it! Good luck

 

[chicksurreal]

I really do enjoy having my guineas, chickens are pretty funny but these guys are just flat out hilarious to watch! I do interact with them several times every day and that has made them pretty tame. Hens will pretty much lay every day during the laying season, spring through fall. Egg color is more pinkish tan and the shape is more triangular with the tip being sharper than that of a chicken, and they are smaller than chicken eggs. I have never hatched any but have witness them in the "act". The boys can be loud, but I have found that spending time with them to familiarize yourself to them and them to their surroundings helps reduce their outbursts. Sometimes when one of the girls gets left behind when they are out she will get the boys started and I will have to go find her and get her back to the flock before they calm down. Oh and they don't really like to lay in the coop, so sometimes finding the eggs can be fun or frustrating. There is a lot of great info here on BYC about guineas, so any and all questions you may ever have about them can most likely be found here! Visiting a local farm that has guineas will give you a really good feel for how it would be, I definitely recommend it! Good luck

Thanks for the info on guineas! I'm interested in adding them to our place as well, so I'll be looking into it too.

 

[Sylviaanne]

I <3 BYC!
What would I do without the ear piercing squawks of my guineas to keep my mixed flock safe and alert me to a danger in the yard?!

How do you keep your guineas home?

This will be my 3rd batch of guineas and if they leave also, it will be my last batch.

My first guineas just showed up one summer in our yard and stayed. Had about 9 of them and one way or another whittled down to 5 before they left.
The next summer I got an incubator and guinea eggs. About the time they grew up, they were gone.

One time, between the first guineas and my first hatchlings, we were out driving around and way out back of where we live there was some guineas. I figure the first guineas came from there and went back. I figure my first incubated guineas must have heard the guineas way out back and went to visit and either got locked up or decided to stay. I have read here that if I raise them with chicks, they should stay but when I first incubated them, I got adult chickens to mother them. Of course the hens didn't mother them but even though the keets were raised with the chickens, it did not stop them from leaving.

About 4 1/2 weeks ago I put chicken eggs and put guinea eggs in the incubator together, at first not realizing that guinea eggs take longer to hatch but they are in with the chicks now and don't seem to be having a problem. The chicks are about a week older than the keets but the keets were trying their best to get under the chicks wings. So cute.

I just need them to stay here.

 

[City farm]

what we do without the baby chicks trying to hide?

 

[11squawkers]

[COLOR=FF0000]How do you keep your guineas home?[/COLOR]

This will be my 3rd batch of guineas and if they leave also, it will be my last batch.

My first guineas just showed up one summer in our yard and stayed. Had about 9 of them and one way or another whittled down to 5 before they left.
The next summer I got an incubator and guinea eggs. About the time they grew up, they were gone.

One time, between the first guineas and my first hatchlings, we were out driving around and way out back of where we live there was some guineas. I figure the first guineas came from there and went back. I figure my first incubated guineas must have heard the guineas way out back and went to visit and either got locked up or decided to stay. I have read here that if I raise them with chicks, they should stay but when I first incubated them, I got adult chickens to mother them. Of course the hens didn't mother them but even though the keets were raised with the chickens, it did not stop them from leaving.

About 4 1/2 weeks ago I put chicken eggs and put guinea eggs in the incubator together, at first not realizing that guinea eggs take longer to hatch but they are in with the chicks now and don't seem to be having a problem. The chicks are about a week older than the keets but the keets were trying their best to get under the chicks wings. So cute.

I just need them to stay here.

That sounds pretty frustrating Sylviaanne, since you do have other guineas nearby that may be drawing your guineas away and might be tough to keep yours home. Me, I am kinda OCD and have the chance to be home to spend a lot of time with my flock and what I have done is, first and foremost I kept my flock in the coop for 6 weeks before letting them free range to establish that to be home. And when I did first let them out, I only let out a few at a time so they didn't want to go far so they didn't leave the others. Did this for probably 3 days for about a half hour at a time. Then, when I did let them all out I stayed with them and would corral them back after an hour or so. And little by little gave them more time out and let them go further, still mostly supervised for about a week or so, to where now I let them out in the morning while I go tend to my garden and work outside, and they will do a tour of the yard and then after about 2-3 hours they will come back to the coop to get water and nibble some feed. At this time I will close them up for an hour or two while I go indoors and do my cleaning and indoor work and then let them back out to do another tour of the yard, and then again around dinner time and possibly once more in the evening if they're lucky. I really do think getting them into a routine is helpful to keep us all happy. I don't know if you have the time to spend with your flock like I do but I do feel it has helped in my case. I also have 4 chickens I raised them with from the start. Got them all from the feed store the same day as chicks, but only 1 of them, a jersey giant, can keep up with the guineas while free ranging and the others stay near the coop, this might also draw them back. Hope this is helpful. Good luck with this round! I do love having guineas and chickens!