Chickens or Guineas?

[RAWR]

get like 3 guinesas, and some chickens
the chicks wont got far from their food suply you know

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey bettacreek!

you know my position on guineas... SCREEECH SCREECH SCREECH.. dang. its not that they are just loud. they are annoyingly loud

as for the hens - dont rule out craigslist for laying hens. i'm seeing a lot of adds for chickens lately - that way they would immediately (after they got settled ) be laying instead of feeding them until this fall for your first egg.

dont worry about mixing - we have a completely mixed, muddled flock. everyone gets along.

 

[Bettacreek]

Quote:
Would that work for free-ranging? I could probably find a good deal on CL around here, but I didn't know if I could free-range them if they were adults. I didn't know if they'd run off or not. I mean, obviously, I'd want to keep them penned for a few days at least, THEN free-range, but, still.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

yep! you can free range them... but you might want to check with the more learned folks over on the guinea page about how long to keep them penned... here's the scoop. different folks say you should keep them penned for different amounts of time. some folks have had luck with a week-couple weeks, but the gal we got ours from said to keep them penned for a couple MONTHS. we got ours late in the fall so it worked to just keep them penned for the winter (they have a lovely coop in the turkey house).

so we've just started letting ours roam around when the weather got warm. at first we just let two of the five out as they flock together and dont go too far.. then one day we just threw open the door and wished them luck. they did great. in fact, they hang around the turkeys. they are harder to wrangle/drive than geese/ducks/hens... but once we got the hang of it.. we have been able to get all of them in every nite. so far so good. the only bad part about herding them is that they are not afraid of the dogs AT ALL. so my hard workin' farm dogs cant go around them up like the do the rest of the poultry. so its me and the beatin' stick out there herding those silly guineas in.

and the best thing about free ranging them.....the more they are outside during the day...the quieter they are during the nite. honestly when they arent screaming we really like them. they have a funny little way of running and their quiet noises are really cute.

our big mistake tho, was putting them in with the turkeys which is closest to the house. dang our bad planning!!!