Pearl Guinea

My Guineas are actually very smart. Maybe yours were just dumb.

I want guineas soooooooo bad!
when we finally get chickens we will get guineas also.
I have an idea for keeping them from getting over somebodies fence... CLIP THEIR WINGS!!!!! ... yaaaaaay!!!! lol
my parakeets get their wings clipped so the don't fly all over the house and hurt themselves.
And i know that a lot of people clip their chickens wings so the don't fly away or in this case over neighbors fence... I don't think it would be such a big deal if our guineas got over the neighbors fence because our next door neighbors have both chickens and ducks... and they are LOUD, but nobody in the neighborhood bothers him.

Must be an individual thing. I have 3 male guineas and no guinea hens. My male guineas get along with my rooster and hens and my hen turkey, they are at the bottom of the pecking order and even my serama hens will chase them. They only fight with each other.

wow, I have had mine since they were babies with my flock! They were really sweet! I guess they just got mean once I got a rooster.

My Guinea males are gangsters, rude, noisy, and generally horrible critters. I now have them locked up. They will fight each other to death for no reason, They attack my chickens. I like to free range, at this point they may never see the range again, unless it is a Westinghouse range!

The Guinea Fowl that you have is a game bird, indigenous to Southern Africa. There is also the Crested Guinea Fowl unique to the Kwa-Zulu Natal province on the East Coast of South Africa, a very beautiful but rare bird. There is also other species of Guinea Fowl in the rest of Africa.

I live on a farm in the Cape Province of South Africa, about 260 km north on the east coast from Cape Town. We have hundreds of Guinea Fowl roaming free in the pastures here on the farm and around our house. This is their natural habitat. We love watching them doing their sprints up and down the slopes, herding their harems together and keeping the competators out. They feed mainly on insects and on the odd occasion on seed. One of the reasons that these birds should not be kept in captivity is because we can not provide for their natural diet.

Various hens would lay eggs in the same nest until they think it is enough before one would start to sitting on the eggs. I have a wild Guinea Fowl nesting in my front garden. They normally start laying in early Spring (September in SA) and will lay from 15-20 eggs in a nest before they will start sitting on the eggs. They love to build their nests in the wheat, barley and canola fields that we plant. Unfortunately that leads to us sometimes cutting open the nests with the harvesters during harvest time. They will then abandon the nest because the protection is now gone. They also like to nest next to rivers or creeks in their natural habitat

The behaviour that they display comes from their natural instinct. Guineas can not fly well and whilst they nest on the ground they sleep in trees. That is why they will forever fly up in trees because that is what they instinctively do, to protect themselves against predators at night. That is also why they are so noisy, sounding the alarm should they notice any movement. The males are fiercely territorial and will protect their hens and territory. They see chickens as intruders when kept in a coop and with nowhere to go, they will kill them. It is just natural instinct.

This is not aimed at any person in particular, but how and why these birds ended up in your neck of the woods would be difficult to say. They are a good example of an animal that should not be kept in captivity. They have not been domesticated and "keeping" them goes against everything a Guinea Fowl will do or behave like in its natural habitat. My advice would be not to keep Guinea Fowl unless you have the space and provide for them as close as possible to their natural conditions in Africa. If you already have them, at least try and understand their behaviour.

zuluhen, good post! Duluthralphie, I totally understand! My males beat up my hens too. But the females are really sweet to everyone!

thechxwhisperer: Beating up on your hens in an enclosed area is just natural and instinctive behaviour.

Duluthralphie: "They will fight each other to death for no reason,". There is a reason. They are locked up and being males, they will fight for territorial space - again natural instinct..

If you have to keep Guinea Fowl, the best way to do it is to place fertilised eggs under a hen and let she bring them up like her own chikens as part of the flock. That will help with integration but 99.9 % of the time the males will become a problem once they are fully grown and start to display their natural instinctive behaviour.

Very well said and to the point and I can only confirm your experience. I love them for all the same reasons but in my family I am the only one that has warm and fuzzy feelings for them.

I don't have guineas but enjoyed reading your review of them (I learn best through humor)! Entertaining and informative review.

Update: I picked up two babies this spring at an RK because zoning issues were about to change in my area, and it was "now or never" on having guineas again. I really did miss the original guy, but if these two don't work out here, I have another home lined up for them in advance. I purchased these two a little younger than the first one in hopes of better socializing them (and it's worked out much better!). Had to resuscitate the smaller one yesterday because it was in the duck pool and had all its back feathers ripped out when I came home from school. Not sure what happened because the ducks really like my guineas and sleep with them all the time.

Guineas are such neat little birds

That's a great picture of Spider and Mary Jane. I wish I had had more hands to tame my flock when they were keets so that they would have been tame like them. You are an amazing bird woman!

Thanks so much. I think they bonded with us because they didn't have any other flock members to bond with. Plus I think we got some special guineas.

I have two and absolutely love them. Raise these two with my chickens they are not scared of me and come running to be close but will not let me pick them up. They noisy when other people are around but with me they are quite.

Best watch dogs ever. I just hatched 31 mixed: pearl, white and pied.

Had them growing up. I am pretty sure they evolved directly from the velcoraptors in Jurassic park. Their prey is bugs. They were so fun to watch hunting grasshoppers. They would hone in and attack from all angles and rip them to shreds. Ticks get eradicated from the area they are allowed to free range. I have seen them group up and scare off stray cats. They are extremely loud, but very fun. If they were allowed at my current residence, I would have them in a heart beat.