Can guineas help keep predators down

[Cheryle Linturn]

I have 5 male guinea, 1 rooster, and 9 chickens and 7 female guineas, the girls all get along, after I gave the boys their own space. I bought them all together and this July they will all be a year old! Party! Does the sound of the guineas help keep predators down, I don't mean owls, I mean the weasel? We only ordered 8 guineas and 8 chickens but the wonderful company sent us extras incase we lost one...we didn't, much to our surprise and we do love them all. Thanks

 

[21hens-incharge]

The short answer is no.

Think of them as an early warning system.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

They will sound the alarm but they won’t keep the predators down.

 

[50-45-1]

Your owls and weasel are mostly nighttime hunters. Along with racoon and opossum.
As long as you provide a secure coop, that is locked down tight at night, and all your guineas and chickens go in at roosting time. You should not have losses to these preditors.
Not sure where you are located, but daytime preditors would be fox, coyote, hawk, bobcat, neighbors dog, just to name a few. Guineas help by sounding an alarm whenever they see a threat. Giving the vertual RUN AND TAKE COVER comand.
I love my guineas!

 

[Biddybot]

IF you've got a good-sized flock of flighted guineas who are allowed to free-range within a limited yard of about an acre or so and who stick within that territory for the most part, then yes, they can help with keeping daytime aerial predators at bay and sounding the alarm on everything else. They especially hate hawks and ravens who try to roost nearby to look things over and will typically gather en masse under wherever such predators are sitting on and start screaming their heads off at them. The noise alone usually drives these birds off. They will also follow and scream at anything doglike...foxes, coyotes, actual dogs they don't know...and will alert and yell some at mink and weasels, but aside from being annoyed by being discovered, ground predators won't be much deterred by them. Snakes are an exception. I always knew when the guineas had found some poor garter snake trying to cross the lawn portion of my yard because I'd see them clustered together and circling around in a ring, yammering and working up their collective courage to attack. I'd go break it up and there'd invariably be a freaked-out snake in the center of the ring, partly coiled up and striking out in a desperate attempt to save itself. Don't know how guineas would do with large snakes. Ours are all small and were always in far more danger of being killed by the guineas than vice versa.

Guineas are brave birds and one of my males, who was accompanying two females who each had a clutch of several-weeks-old keets, once stood up to a goshawk who flew down at them and landed to try and flush the families into flying and scattering. Didn't work. The hens and keets just scooted into the nearby weeds and crouched, and the male guinea came forward to confront the hawk, doing that hatchet hack thing with his head to show that he was willing to fight. The hawk was so flummoxed by this unexpected behaviour that he just stood there until I came running up to chase him off. I would have found it hard to believe that a guinea would offer to fight with a hawk who stood as tall as himself, but now I know that there was at least one who would, and as far as I know, that particular hawk never bothered my guineas again.

 

[Fishkeeper]

I know I've read that guineas, if in a large group and feeling bold enough, can kill big snakes. I don't think I'd let them- that'd be a nasty slow death for the snake, being more or less stoned to death with beaks.

And no, they won't keep predators away. The predators will hear guineas and think either "I don't know what that is, let's go find out" or "oh, that's food".

 

[Cheryle Linturn]

Your owls and weasel are mostly nighttime hunters. Along with racoon and opossum.
As long as you provide a secure coop, that is locked down tight at night, and all your guineas and chickens go in at roosting time. You should not have losses to these preditors.
Not sure where you are located, but daytime preditors would be fox, coyote, hawk, bobcat, neighbors dog, just to name a few. Guineas help by sounding an alarm whenever they see a threat. Giving the vertual RUN AND TAKE COVER comand.
I love my guineas!

I love my guineas, too, we do have a very secure barn and attached coop, I am a lunatic when it comes to them protected, they have a lot of space, we even added 6 foot fencing around our home and to the barn, we left some of our land open, because duh we have 5 acres. Not worried about dogs, maybe just hawks, eagles, and cats during the day. Will cats bother them? My guinea boys are quite aggressive and will squawk over the least amount of disruption. I don't let them roam during the day without being out in the yard. I'm an over protective mother hen! Thanks. Live in Indiana, northern.

 

[Cheryle Linturn]

IF you've got a good-sized flock of flighted guineas who are allowed to free-range within a limited yard of about an acre or so and who stick within that territory for the most part, then yes, they can help with keeping daytime aerial predators at bay and sounding the alarm on everything else. They especially hate hawks and ravens who try to roost nearby to look things over and will typically gather en masse under wherever such predators are sitting on and start screaming their heads off at them. The noise alone usually drives these birds off. They will also follow and scream at anything doglike...foxes, coyotes, actual dogs they don't know...and will alert and yell some at mink and weasels, but aside from being annoyed by being discovered, ground predators won't be much deterred by them. Snakes are an exception. I always knew when the guineas had found some poor garter snake trying to cross the lawn portion of my yard because I'd see them clustered together and circling around in a ring, yammering and working up their collective courage to attack. I'd go break it up and there'd invariably be a freaked-out snake in the center of the ring, partly coiled up and striking out in a desperate attempt to save itself. Don't know how guineas would do with large snakes. Ours are all small and were always in far more danger of being killed by the guineas than vice versa.

Guineas are brave birds and one of my males, who was accompanying two females who each had a clutch of several-weeks-old keets, once stood up to a goshawk who flew down at them and landed to try and flush the families into flying and scattering. Didn't work. The hens and keets just scooted into the nearby weeds and crouched, and the male guinea came forward to confront the hawk, doing that hatchet hack thing with his head to show that he was willing to fight. The hawk was so flummoxed by this unexpected behaviour that he just stood there until I came running up to chase him off. I would have found it hard to believe that a guinea would offer to fight with a hawk who stood as tall as himself, but now I know that there was at least one who would, and as far as I know, that particular hawk never bothered my guineas again.

Thanks so much, that's very helpful. Yes, they have learned to stay within our area, and come in at night when out for worms. I have not clipped any of them yet, was thinking about it, but probably not now.