Are Guinea Fowl Friendly?

[Larafamilychickens]

Hello,

This year I am raising chicks, but I was thinking about raising guinea fowl next year to curb ticks in my yard, I was just wondering if they are friendly with small children? Will they mostly ignore them?

 

[Ozarkhomesteader]

In my experience with my little flock of 12, they will be totally fine with kids! Guineas are a very wild bird, SO different from the domestic chickens and other fowl you are used to. They will steer clear of humans for the most part. Mine trust me enough to come near me (to see if i have treats haha!) but one quick movement and they scatter. They are not a friendly pet bird at all, but they shouldn't attack you or your kids

Just be sure to do research to make sure they will fit in your lifestyle! They are such funny, awesome birds (and great at tick control!) but they are loud, and very hard to handle compared to chickens. They require training to get them to come back into a coop at night, and you can't really catch them easily if you need to move them or something like you can a chicken. And i don't know how big your yard is, but they will not stay in a little yard, haha. They like to move, and mine range around 10 acres of my land, and neighbors land. One second they are on my back porch, and then not even a minute later i hear them scream at the neighbor's dog as they are chased away from the bird feeder! I still shocks me how fast they cover ground! lol

Hope this answered your question! And good luck with your little chicks this year!

 

[Isadora]

Mine are very skittish and not docile, and I have not had any issues with aggression. Sometimes the flock will follow me around outside if I have food, but other than that they don't care to be near me or the kids. They like to be off, doing their own guinea thing.

 

[Larafamilychickens]

Mine are very skittish and not docile, and I have not had any issues with aggression. Sometimes the flock will follow me around outside if I have food, but other than that they don't care to be near me or the kids. They like to be off, doing their own guinea thing.

In my experience with my little flock of 12, they will be totally fine with kids! Guineas are a very wild bird, SO different from the domestic chickens and other fowl you are used to. They will steer clear of humans for the most part. Mine trust me enough to come near me (to see if i have treats haha!) but one quick movement and they scatter. They are not a friendly pet bird at all, but they shouldn't attack you or your kids

Just be sure to do research to make sure they will fit in your lifestyle! They are such funny, awesome birds (and great at tick control!) but they are loud, and very hard to handle compared to chickens. They require training to get them to come back into a coop at night, and you can't really catch them easily if you need to move them or something like you can a chicken. And i don't know how big your yard is, but they will not stay in a little yard, haha. They like to move, and mine range around 10 acres of my land, and neighbors land. One second they are on my back porch, and then not even a minute later i hear them scream at the neighbor's dog as they are chased away from the bird feeder! I still shocks me how fast they cover ground! lol

Hope this answered your question! And good luck with your little chicks this year!

Thank you! space is not a problem, and neither is noise, foxes are though, my plan was to let the free range around the yard, and woods eating ticks and stink bugs. My closest neighbors are a pretty good distance away, but I’ll make sure everyone is ok in case they escape.

 

[african chickens]

i have owed guineas for a long long time they will leave kids alone they aren't a very tame bird no matter how much i work with them they can be caught but they can fly and are usually very alert they just cant see in the dark

 

[Guinea Hens]

I have 7 guineas and they were fine with the kids. We had them for a year and no issues with aggression towards humans.

They will roam, they need to be trained for a coop - we had a long ordeal with them - started with 18 keets, got 14 to 6 weeks and then lost half of them over the summer during the day and a few nights when they did not return for the night.

They are also loud, really loud. They sing a quiet aojf when eating or walking and then something spooks them or they get separated from a part of their flock and all hell breaks loose