Considering Guineas????

[WildWyandott110]

I've been rasing chickens for nigh on ten years now, and was introduced to guinea fowl by one of my chicken buddies. I fell in love immediately. Now, I'm considering guineas as a sort of guardian for turkeys and chickens. Would that work? What else are guineas good for? Do they need separate housing? Can they stand cold temperatures? (Things get quite brisk here!) What do they eat? How friendly are they?
Thanks!

 

[R2elk]

I've been rasing chickens for nigh on ten years now, and was introduced to guinea fowl by one of my chicken buddies. I fell in love immediately. Now, I'm considering guineas as a sort of guardian for turkeys and chickens. Would that work? What else are guineas good for? Do they need separate housing? Can they stand cold temperatures? (Things get quite brisk here!) What do they eat? How friendly are they?
Thanks!

First off, guineas are not a guardian for anything. If raised with chickens or turkeys they can turn into terrors that harass the other fowl. There is a common misconception that guineas make good "guard dogs". They can make a lot of noise but it does not have much value for guarding the flock because only the guineas know what they are alarming about and the alarm often continues long after they forgot what they were alarming about. One of the things that can set them off is just the fact that you wore different colored clothing.

I highly recommend that guineas be housed separately and that an effort is made to not imprint them with chickens or turkeys. If they do not get imprinted they understand there is a difference between them and the other fowl and therefore do no try to force their ways on the other fowl. Guineas have completely different mannerisms than any other fowl that I have kept. The other fowl do not understand the ways of guineas and can get completely stressed out by them.

Guineas are a flock bird and do best in large groups. I never recommend anyone keeping fewer than 10 guineas for a flock.

Guineas are excellent for controlling the tick population as well as many other insect pests. There are very delicious to eat but are not a large bird. An adult guinea will dress out to about 2 1/2 lbs.

My guineas do fine in the cold. We usually get to -30°F during the winter.

Guineas are not as domesticated as many chickens and retain more wild traits than almost all other domesticated fowl. They can be trained to respond to come when called through the use of treats. Mine have learned that lawnmowers make foraging easier and will follow behind me whenever I am mowing to feast on the smorgasbord of insects and small animals that get exposed by the lawnmower.

 

[red horse ranch]

I have been keeping guineas with my chickens for close to 7 years. You will get differing opinions on whether they can live in the same building but mine get along fine with each other. But you will need a good size building to keep them together. Crowding them will cause problems.
My guineas make a huge racket when there are strange dogs or any other predator around. (Or the mailman or a visitor ) I watched a group of my guineas gang up on a fox one day and chase it out of the pasture. But I wouldn't count on the guineas being protectors of the other birds. They will just let you know that something different is around.
I live in Wyoming and the temperature was below zero this morning. So guineas can take the cold as long as they have a good shelter. I don't heat my insulated henhouse but with 50+ birds inside it usually is 20 degrees warmer than outside temps. I don't know that they would survive sub zero temps if they were allowed to sleep in trees or insufficient shelters.
I love my guineas and life would be a little dull without them.

 

[WildWyandott110]

First off, guineas are not a guardian for anything. If raised with chickens or turkeys they can turn into terrors that harass the other fowl. There is a common misconception that guineas make good "guard dogs". They can make a lot of noise but it does not have much value for guarding the flock because only the guineas know what they are alarming about and the alarm often continues long after they forgot what they were alarming about. One of the things that can set them off is just the fact that you wore different colored clothing.

I highly recommend that guineas be housed separately and that an effort is made to not imprint them with chickens or turkeys. If they do not get imprinted they understand there is a difference between them and the other fowl and therefore do no try to force their ways on the other fowl. Guineas have completely different mannerisms than any other fowl that I have kept. The other fowl do not understand the ways of guineas and can get completely stressed out by them.

Guineas are a flock bird and do best in large groups. I never recommend anyone keeping fewer than 10 guineas for a flock.

Guineas are excellent for controlling the tick population as well as many other insect pests. There are very delicious to eat but are not a large bird. An adult guinea will dress out to about 2 1/2 lbs.

My guineas do fine in the cold. We usually get to -30°F during the winter.

Guineas are not as domesticated as many chickens and retain more wild traits than almost all other domesticated fowl. They can be trained to respond to come when called through the use of treats. Mine have learned that lawnmowers make foraging easier and will follow behind me whenever I am mowing to feast on the smorgasbord of insects and small animals that get exposed by the lawnmower.

I have been keeping guineas with my chickens for close to 7 years. You will get differing opinions on whether they can live in the same building but mine get along fine with each other. But you will need a good size building to keep them together. Crowding them will cause problems.
My guineas make a huge racket when there are strange dogs or any other predator around. (Or the mailman or a visitor ) I watched a group of my guineas gang up on a fox one day and chase it out of the pasture. But I wouldn't count on the guineas being protectors of the other birds. They will just let you know that something different is around.
I live in Wyoming and the temperature was below zero this morning. So guineas can take the cold as long as they have a good shelter. I don't heat my insulated henhouse but with 50+ birds inside it usually is 20 degrees warmer than outside temps. I don't know that they would survive sub zero temps if they were allowed to sleep in trees or insufficient shelters.
I love my guineas and life would be a little dull without them.

Thanks! Very helpful. I've got a lot to consider then.

 

[Dawnjanell]

I have been keeping guineas with my chickens for close to 7 years. You will get differing opinions on whether they can live in the same building but mine get along fine with each other. But you will need a good size building to keep them together. Crowding them will cause problems.
My guineas make a huge racket when there are strange dogs or any other predator around. (Or the mailman or a visitor ) I watched a group of my guineas gang up on a fox one day and chase it out of the pasture. But I wouldn't count on the guineas being protectors of the other birds. They will just let you know that something different is around.
I live in Wyoming and the temperature was below zero this morning. So guineas can take the cold as long as they have a good shelter. I don't heat my insulated henhouse but with 50+ birds inside it usually is 20 degrees warmer than outside temps. I don't know that they would survive sub zero temps if they were allowed to sleep in trees or insufficient shelters.
I love my guineas and life would be a little dull without them.

Ha ha so true about the huge racket. I am in fact a Mailman and I deliver to a house with Guinea's. Every time I'm there they scream bloody murder, and it's makes me feel awful. Tho it also makes me want to get some of my own.

 

[chickengr]

I have been keeping guineas with my chickens for close to 7 years. You will get differing opinions on whether they can live in the same building but mine get along fine with each other. But you will need a good size building to keep them together. Crowding them will cause problems.
My guineas make a huge racket when there are strange dogs or any other predator around. (Or the mailman or a visitor ) I watched a group of my guineas gang up on a fox one day and chase it out of the pasture. But I wouldn't count on the guineas being protectors of the other birds. They will just let you know that something different is around.
I live in Wyoming and the temperature was below zero this morning. So guineas can take the cold as long as they have a good shelter. I don't heat my insulated henhouse but with 50+ birds inside it usually is 20 degrees warmer than outside temps. I don't know that they would survive sub zero temps if they were allowed to sleep in trees or insufficient shelters.
I love my guineas and life would be a little dull without them.

how many guineas do you have? are 10 of them enough to get rid of a fox?

I heard that they kill weasels. is that true? would they do it at night?

 

[R2elk]

how many guineas do you have? are 10 of them enough to get rid of a fox?

I heard that they kill weasels. is that true? would they do it at night?

Don't count on guineas to get rid of a fox or to kill weasels. There are cases where a flock of guineas have ganged up and driven off a fox but there are more cases where a fox would take a guinea at a time until it had cleaned out the whole flock. Weasels are normally night hunters so guineas would be helpless against them.

 

[red horse ranch]

how many guineas do you have? are 10 of them enough to get rid of a fox?

I heard that they kill weasels. is that true? would they do it at night?

At the time I watched them chase off a fox, there were probably 15 guineas. They all got together as a group and went after the fox making a very loud racket. Must have really scared the fox because I haven't seen it around since. I just have 11 guineas right now.

I don't know if guineas would kill a weasel in the daytime but they wouldn't kill one at night. Guineas are pretty much blind when it's dark and they are very vulnerable to predators then.

 

[BlueShadow]

The only predator my guineas have ever alerted me to is a hawk during the daytime. They do love to alert me to all kinds of non-predators... turkey vultures, blue jays, chickens, etc. Mine do not alert when new people drive on the property. They never made a sound when we had other predators during the daytime such as the neighbor's dog, rather they just made themselves scarce so he didn't kill them like he did the chickens.

Most of the time they alert me to nighttime predators the next morning. I find a pile of feathers and have one less guinea. Broody mama hens have alerted when a possum was snatching their babies.

My guineas and chickens were raised together. The guineas remember and are big bullies to the chickens. I have to keep the chickens penned up for their safety. If they get out, the guineas will attack them and pull out their feathers, even when the chickens are not near the guineas.

 

[chickengr]

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.