Are guinea a good choice for my situation

[terrilhb]

I agree with Peeps. I was having a fiasco trying to get my guinea's up at night. She so nicely helped me. I kept them locked up 7 weeks. And now they put themselves up everynight. Mine will be a year old in May. We had a hawk fly over a few weeks ago. Did they scream. They saw it before the chickens did. Chickens ran and guineas ran. Everyone survived. They are awesome.

 

[Trefoil]

Full time free ranging guineas doesn't work unless you don't mind replacing your flock every year. If you have a safe place for them at night, free ranging during the day may work. The best thing to do is talk with your neighbors about them and your reasons for wanting them and see if you can get them all on board with having guineas. Then you won't have to worry about them staying home. If you try to full time free range them you will either lose them to predators or they will go somewhere else.

 

[daylily]

Yes you have to talk with the neighbors about the birds! Luckily for me they all agreed that getting rid of any ticks and annoying bugs in the garden was worth more than the noise. Strangely they love the noise and look forward to hearing them!!!! ?/?
Howeverrrrrrr.......
Tonight I had to go find them as they hadn't returned by 6:30 pm EST, it's dark by 7:15. So I'm out calling "Come back, come back, come back" and "Here Baby, Baby, Babies", Which always brings them running, or at the very least, yelling to let me know they are coming. Not tonight!!!

So off I go, (still in my pj's, as I was not feeling to good today), down the drive , checking all the yards as I go. NO SOUND? Then I rounded the corner to the third house and I saw a white football on legs walking in the yard! Bingo!!!! Their driveway is sooo steep but as I climbed Sal saw me and came running, then he stopped, as if to say, "Oh no! It's almost dark, got to get everybody home!". And of course I'm talking to him, "Hey Sal", "what are you doing out so late?", Hey Etta, Pavi, Isn't it past time you guys got home?" They turn to go behind her arbor and then I see them RUN for the house to get home before me!!!!!
Ah but the neighbor is in her yard and she wants to talk, she is digging in her garden to make it easier for the birds to get the bugs!!!!!! No wonder they were late! Gourmet service!!!! She says they are right over there and where she had pointed was blank , they were back home raising a racket, "Mom, Mom, where are you we're home!!!!" . All I want to do is get home and put them away in the coop, but the neighbor wants to start in on how cute they were all day, etc., Now her grown daughter come out to join us. NOOOOO!

However I did discover I was on the cutting edge of fashion by being in my L.L.Bean PJ's with the duck's on them!, turns out they were all in PJ"s too! Hahahaha!

When I made it home they were in their coop! Yeah!!! But NO, Sal jumps out and won't go back in, he has to run back in forth in front of the coop acting like an idiot! And he's cooing in their baby meet voice!!!! How can you get too mad at that! So like a fool I'm out there freezing my B*** off sweet talking sal "Go in baby, go ahead I'm not mad, really", Really? Now I feel more like a fool!

But 10 minutes of this and he goes in. Whew!

At least I found out how much the neighbors love them. Now I have to dye eggs for them for Easter!!!! Anything to keep everyone happy!

 

[perchie.girl]

I wanna see you dying guineas for Easter...... too.

deb

Yes you have to talk with the neighbors about the birds! Luckily for me they all agreed that getting rid of any ticks and annoying bugs in the garden was worth more than the noise. Strangely they love the noise and look forward to hearing them!!!! ?/?
Howeverrrrrrr.......
Tonight I had to go find them as they hadn't returned by 6:30 pm EST, it's dark by 7:15. So I'm out calling "Come back, come back, come back" and "Here Baby, Baby, Babies", Which always brings them running, or at the very least, yelling to let me know they are coming. Not tonight!!!

So off I go, (still in my pj's, as I was not feeling to good today), down the drive , checking all the yards as I go. NO SOUND? Then I rounded the corner to the third house and I saw a white football on legs walking in the yard! Bingo!!!! Their driveway is sooo steep but as I climbed Sal saw me and came running, then he stopped, as if to say, "Oh no! It's almost dark, got to get everybody home!". And of course I'm talking to him, "Hey Sal", "what are you doing out so late?", Hey Etta, Pavi, Isn't it past time you guys got home?" They turn to go behind her arbor and then I see them RUN for the house to get home before me!!!!!
Ah but the neighbor is in her yard and she wants to talk, she is digging in her garden to make it easier for the birds to get the bugs!!!!!! No wonder they were late! Gourmet service!!!! She says they are right over there and where she had pointed was blank , they were back home raising a racket, "Mom, Mom, where are you we're home!!!!" . All I want to do is get home and put them away in the coop, but the neighbor wants to start in on how cute they were all day, etc., Now her grown daughter come out to join us. NOOOOO!

However I did discover I was on the cutting edge of fashion by being in my L.L.Bean PJ's with the duck's on them!, turns out they were all in PJ"s too! Hahahaha!

When I made it home they were in their coop! Yeah!!! But NO, Sal jumps out and won't go back in, he has to run back in forth in front of the coop acting like an idiot! And he's cooing in their baby meet voice!!!! How can you get too mad at that! So like a fool I'm out there freezing my B*** off sweet talking sal "Go in baby, go ahead I'm not mad, really", Really? Now I feel more like a fool!

But 10 minutes of this and he goes in. Whew!

At least I found out how much the neighbors love them. Now I have to dye eggs for them for Easter!!!! Anything to keep everyone happy!

 

[daylily]

All I need is to find out how long does it take to hard boil a guinea egg? And don't worry! I'll post a picture of them for all to see. Happy Easter Week to all of you!

 

[carmentk]

Pink, I agree with most of what everyone has told you about starting out. You cannot fence in guineas. Now if they are on the OTHER SIDE of the fence that is a different story. They see where they want to go and pace back and forth in a panic completely forgetting that they know how to fly! I've told my neighbors to just turn the hose on them or let their dogs out and the birds will remember how to fly soon enough! But they are too tender-hearted. lol

I started out with 3 guineas lo these many years ago. They were adults so I followed advice and kept them up for the full 6 weeks. When I started letting them out I would only let one out at a time and used plenty of white millet to lure it back into the pen. Eventually the 3 ranged all day and came home at night to be locked up. I still follow the 6-week rule whenever I get adult guineas, but I let keets out with supervision at around 3-4 weeks depending on how tall and thick the grass is. If they have a chicken foster-mother I let them out with mom starting at about 2 weeks an hour before everyone else's bedtime. I stand guard with a bamboo pole to discipline any "rowdy" male behavior. I'm always telling them, "Please! Not in front of the children!"

Once in a while we'll have a few birds that go to roost on the roof of the pens, but we discourage that as they are vulnerable to owls and raccoons. Each year is a little different depending on the personalities of the current flock, so there is always a new problem to solve. Once the hormones start to flow I mark my hens with flagging tape and only let the males out to range. The girls must stay in until they have laid their eggs. By keeping the girls up the boys do not range out of sight of the pens.

Before the time change when it was still getting dark "early" I would let the girls out to exercise and "socialize" an hour before sunset - since the time change I now let them out 2 hours before sunset. But in the winter when there is no egg laying going on I let everyone out in the morning and don't see them again until about 3pm - an hour before sunset! But I can hear them and the neighbors will tell me when they see them. The neighbors will actually ask if the birds are OK if they haven't seen them for a few days.

I hatch many guinea eggs every year under cochin foster-moms. I like to go into the winter with 40-50 guinea. Even though we pen our birds faithfully every night by the next spring I'm always down to 20-30 birds, and then lose a few more before egg laying starts. Weather, illness, accidents, and predators always take a heavy toll. And I always have twice as many males as females.

This spring when we did the sorting to ID the hens with flagging tape ribbons we had 8 hens and 20 males! We lost a few birds to mysterious illnesses, I gave away 8 male guinea at a swap, and now have 7 hens, 9 macho males, and 1 sissy-boy. Between the guineas, chickens, and ducks we get well over a dozen eggs each day. I have a cochin mom who already went broody sitting on 9 guinea eggs and 1 silkie egg.

I envy you your goats. I had them for several years even though we are not fenced on all four sides. They were the best landscape assistants. I eventually came up with the tethering-to-a-tire idea. Every day I would simply roll the tire to a new location. But I never thought of putting the water bucket in the middle of the tire! Genius. We gave our goats away when we thought we were going to move. When we didn't move my husband bought me a walk-behind bush hog so I don't "need" goats, but, boy, do I miss them. On the other hand the flower beds around the house have never looked better!

Carmen

 

[pinkfoxfarm]

thanks guys...the goats currently have a pen and house for "free" time, there only 7 weeks old so i havent started them out on the brush yet but the plan is to take 4 cattle pannels and using clips and T-posts move it a couple of feet every day into the brush so they can eat it down as we go. itll take a while to get it all cleard, but i wont have to buy much in terms fo goat feed for a while. ill be starting them out clearing around the perimiter so i can start putting in the perimiter fencing bit by bit. then same method along all the areas i want to put up the cross fencing...then once its all fenced/cross fenced theyll go into each of these pens and clear out everyting in the middle LOL.
their perminent pen will be the last area to get "goat-hogged" which will be 2 acres divided into 2 feilds so i can move them back and forth betwen the 2 areas
itll take a while but its cheaper than brushhogging lol.

i talkedto my direct neighbor and he has no problems with the guinneas...havent talked to the lady across the way yet she seems a little...standoffish...but ill have to go over, introduce myself at some point and see what she thinks, according to my direct neighbor her monthe who reacently passed made him get rid of his chickens because she didnt want them in the flower beds, and aparently her daughter who now owns the house isnt much differenn...are guinneas as destructive to flower beds as chickens are? i knwo chickens eat EVERYTHING and dig up the rest, are guinneas as bad...if i can assure her they wont do any real harm to her pretty flowers she would probably be more open ti the idea...
after getting to know my neighbor who was told to get rid of his chickens...it doesnt suprise me that she was getting fed up lol. hes not exactly the type to respect boundries and personal property/privicy needs.

 

[Lollipop]

Sounds like a good plan. For sure, guineas are no where near as destructive to flower beds as chickens. They may push a little mulch around and occasionally they will dust in a favorite spot, but chickens are a thousand times worse. Recently went through that in my yard, so I have first hand experience. My wife hates the free range chickens.

When I took my 20 keets home, about 3 years ago, I set up my brooder under my pole barn. As the little buggers grew, I was able to open up their view of the area. Finally, when I turned them loose, They decided to roost in the pole barn rafters. great place for them, as owls don't have a view of them and they are out of the weather. Only drawback, in my case, is that I have a concrete floor. Every morning, when I feed, I also scrape the droppings off the concrete floor. No big deal for me, but the wife hates the smell.

Nown in their 3rd year, I have only 3 left and they seem to be the smart ones. I'm hoping to get some new keets this year and add them to the flock. My problem is that any nest that I don't raid gets destroyed quickly. I have one hen and 2 cocks, so that doesn't leave much room for errors. Good luck to ya.........Pop

By the way. A mastiff is a great critter gitter. I have a friend down in South Florida that has 2 of them. He is often finding dead predators in his chicken yard, which is a huge area.