Considering Guineas????

[R2elk]

I will have dogs to guard at night. guineas will be somewhere at the far corner of the 2 acre property and separated from the chickens. I hope they will wake up the dogs at daytime and scare off any fox that dares to come from that side at daytime. there are hundreds of acres with olives surrounding the plot so I don't know if there are foxes at daytime.

Fox are a daytime predator. They also hunt at night but they definitely hunt during the day.

 

[chickengr]

Fox are a daytime predator. They also hunt at night but they definitely hunt during the day.

we don't really have winters here so I guess foxes here are not starving. I have never seen any fox during the day but I lost 2 muscovy ducks to foxes within a month and a few of my neighbors lost their chickens to foxes. about a month ago someone who lives near me trapped and killed 3 foxes. all the attacks happened at night, between 3 and 6 am.

 

[EldritchAcres]

I love my guineas! I lost a few of mine to predators late last fall so I currently have one adult and 4 keets soon to go outside. If you want a bird that's interesting to watch, does a great job at controlling ticks, they're great. I got mine because we had a horrible year with ticks - I had 5 on me most days, but I haven't seen any in awhile after I got the guineas. Could also be the chickens.

They're very noisy, especially females. I haven't had any weird behavioral issues from mine, she sleeps with the chickens and has never acted out towards them, gets along with the pig etc. But everything deserves an alarm. New stick in the yard, new coat on. It's lessened over time, and she has alerted me to hawks and cats but most of the time she just lets me know that it's me she's screeching about.

They're not as friendly as chickens, even as babies. I've had them from 3 days old, and had them from 5 weeks old and neither have made a difference as far as handling. I've seen some people have loving guineas but mine aren't haha.

 

[chickengr]

I cannot wait to get guineas! I am going to appreciate to have an extra alarm. I need some help to wake up my lazy dogs, lol.

 

[Allie Grace Sanders]

Probably a stupid question, but do you need to provide food in the summer? I can provide good in the winter, but the guineas would roost on the trees, and have total free roam. Would this work?

 

[R2elk]

Probably a stupid question, but do you need to provide food in the summer? I can provide good in the winter, but the guineas would roost on the trees, and have total free roam. Would this work?

I provide food all year long. Their processed food consumption is greatly reduced during the summer but they still eat some.

I found that allowing the guineas to roost outside of the coop at night was a quick way to lose all of them to predators. I lost my entire first flock of guineas to Great Horned Owls who picked them off one or two at a time until they got all of them.

Allowing guineas to have their hidden nests outside very frequently results in the hen being taken by a predator.

I now make sure my guineas are in their coop every evening before I close it up for the night. I do not allow any of my guinea hens to sit on their hidden nests overnight. As I find these nests, I replace the eggs with a fake egg in order to keep them using the same nests. As they abandon the known nests, I hunt out the new nests which can sometimes take several days to find.

 

[red horse ranch]

@R2elk has given you excellent advice! They need food year round and if you want them to survive they HAVE to be confined at night.

 

[Allie Grace Sanders]

Oh, Thanks! Do you know how much 20 guineas will eat per month?

 

[red horse ranch]

Depends on the time of year. I feed 50 birds and use 50lb a week. So I guess you could figure a pound per week per bird. My birds free range thru the day but come back in to eat several times thru the day no matter what time of the year.

 

[Ms Biddy]

We currently have 2 guineas, a mated pair, living with 14 chickens which they grew up with. They get along fine and aren't unhappy just being a single pair instead of a flock. The real problem was when we had an extraneous male. My goodness, there was a lot of yelling. He was also assaulting the hens. We put a quick end to that and immediately there was peace within our group. They are much quieter now and seem free from stress. When guineas really get yelling, its like a sonic weapon. My cats won't go anywhere near them.