Good information. Our girls free range, so we don't give them anything that we grow in the garden, so that they don't get a taste for it. Vegetable peels and scraps all go into the compost pile. We do give them left over beef fat, or other cooking grease, melted and stirred into raw oatmeal...
Home Depot buckets and lids:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/5-gal-White-Pail-10-Pack-RG5700-10/204082827
https://www.homedepot.com/p/3-5-Gal-and-5-Gal-White-Easy-Off-Lid-10-Pack-RG5502-10/207004930
I use them outside all summer in Texas. No problems.
I drill a small hole in the bottom and leave...
Eureka! I found the solution. The one that works is shaped like a triangle with a knob on top. This cracker tool does a good job of cutting a circle in the shell, which avoids crushing it and getting bits of shell in with the egg white...
My guineas are free ranged. To "herd" them into the cage at dusk, I use a 10 ft long piece of white PVC pipe, 3/4 inch in diameter. I hold it horizontally in front of me and walk toward the cage. The guineas avoid the pipe and go right toward the cage door.
I keep my guineas penned up until afternoon. This is to encourage them to lay inside the enclosure where they live, and also to keep them safe from hawks, which tend to hunt in the mornings where I live. I keep 6 fake ceramic eggs in the nest and remove all real ones daily, to eat. I never leave...
Well, for future reference: I ordered a cracker and tried it. They do not work on guinea eggs because the egg is too small. They will only work on a large or jumbo size chicken egg. The cracker goes completely over a guinea egg instead of resting on top of it.
Thanks, really I'm not complaining about the noise. They earn their keep.
I know what you mean about the ticks. We only have a few here, but when I lived in Kentucky, they were very bad.
That's a beautiful swan in your avatar.
Guineas are very noisy. In an enclosed building like a chicken house, they can be deafening. They are said to be good alarms when something strange is lurking around, but mine yell most of the time during daylight, so you never know if there is something to be concerned about or not. One will...
I agree with all that has been said on the topic. Our guineas yell at everything and at nothing. They fight each other, sometimes to the death. They are more likely to be a threat to chickens, than to protect them.
We caught the fox that was prowling around here using a Hav-A-Hart trap baited...