Considering Guineas

[TurnipGreens]

Howdy y'all! On advice from a commenter from this thread, I am breaking my question up and addressing the questions about the breeds in their respective forums rather in the original conglomerate.

The ideal bird for me would be: hardy in both North Alabama hot summers and milder (but still cold) winters, excellent brooders and mothers, excellent foragers and predator-evaders, disease resistant, quiet, high layers (including throughout the year, cold and heat), trustworthy to return to the coop nightly and lay eggs in nesting boxes, not prone to wandering too far, not dumb, amiable to other flock members, amiable to me, a breed whose males defend their females well, a good source of meat and fat (for cooking), easily culled and processed by hand by one person, not prone to destroying gardens or vehicles, not prone to pooping on houses and such, and able to keep pest levels down.

Now, as noted in the original thread, some of these are essential for all birds to have to be included in the flock, but many are either preferable but not required or required only for a few breeds out of the flock to have. If you're interested in seeing which is which you can go to the original thread, but it isn't actually necessary information for this thread. Just tell me which of these criteria whichever breed(s) you have experience with passes or fails, along with any other notes, and I'll evaluate accordingly

Guineas would be for meat and egg production. I've heard that they produce seasonally, often hide eggs rather than lay in nest boxes, are rather dumb, are very loud, and are poor mothers. Therefore, I'm on the fence with these, though I could work around some of these ills (such as by having chickens hatch and raise their keets) if there's a reason to (it seems guinea eggs are really high in protein, for example).

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

if you want good layers, I would go for a white leghorn, or some kind of EE mix. if you're looking for a more self sufficient bird, I would recommend guineas, but they don't lay much. something in between may be an Old English Game Bird, or something similar.

also, I live in Ohio and have Rhode Island Red, Brahma, Maran, Plymouth Barred, Buff Orpington, and EE/ Americana chickens.

 

[casportpony]

Welcome to BYC. Guinea fowl are hardy and somewhat disease resistant, but they don't lay well, they are good fliers, which means they will be pooping on your roof, and they are noisy, and I mean really noisy.

 

[Mantisquailman]

Welcome! If your looking for all of those things then the Brahma has a lot of them. ( my Brahma lays almost every day and the days she doesn't lay she makes up for by laying a double yokur the next day!

 

[Mantisquailman]

As for Guineas I had them and they were extremely noisy! And dumbb

 

[R2elk]

The ideal bird for me would be: hardy in both North Alabama hot summers and milder (but still cold) winters, excellent brooders and mothers, excellent foragers and predator-evaders, disease resistant, quiet, high layers (including throughout the year, cold and heat), trustworthy to return to the coop nightly and lay eggs in nesting boxes, not prone to wandering too far, not dumb, amiable to other flock members, amiable to me, a breed whose males defend their females well, a good source of meat and fat (for cooking), easily culled and processed by hand by one person, not prone to destroying gardens or vehicles, not prone to pooping on houses and such, and able to keep pest levels down.

Based on this, guineas are not for you. You should stick to chickens.

 

[R2elk]

(it seems guinea eggs are really high in protein, for example).

Guinea eggs are no higher in protein than any other eggs. They are all about 12% protein.

What differs between guinea eggs and chicken eggs is that guinea eggs have a higher percentage of yolk to albumen than do chicken eggs.

 

[R2elk]

Welcome to BYC. Guinea fowl are hardy and somewhat disease resistant, but they don't lay well, they are good fliers, which means they will be pooping on your roof, and they are noisy, and I mean really noisy.

During laying season, guineas are excellent layers usually laying an egg a day. The problem is they are seasonal layers that prefer hidden nests which make them very susceptible to predators.

 

[SamLockwood]

Guineas would be for meat and egg production. I've heard that they produce seasonally, often hide eggs rather than lay in nest boxes, are rather dumb, are very loud, and are poor mothers. Therefore, I'm on the fence with these, though I could work around some of these ills (such as by having chickens hatch and raise their keets) if there's a reason to (it seems guinea eggs are really high in protein, for example).

Mine are very productive egg layers in season (April to October). I've gotten mine to use nesting boxes but it's tricky to do. Of they catch you raiding the nesting box they will either attack you or abandon the nest and lay somewhere outside .

I don't find guineas to be any dumber than other poultry. In fact, in some ways they're more trainable than chickens. They are semi feral and very flock oriented. If one gets isolated from the flock they do panic and act stupid.

How loud they are depends on how much traffic you get, human or otherwise, around your property. Guineas are very territorial and they will try to chase away unwanted visitors, which is pretty much anything above a certain size threshold that isn't one of their flock members or (hopefully) you.

Guineas tend to be more aggressive than other poultry, and are quite pushy. They will take over a coop and throw other birds out of it, even ones they were raised with. This means you'll need multiple sleeping areas if you keep a mixed flock. If you have other poultry that doesn't back down, it may get ugly because guineas often do things in groups.

Guineas like to roam a lot farther than chickens do. If you have neighbors, they will invade their property. If you have a road l, they will take it over. In the latter case, since their reaction to threats is to scream at it and charge this means they tend to get run over by cars.

You will need to invest in fencing or learn the art of guinea herding unless your property is very large.

 

[Mantisquailman]

Guineas tend to be more aggressive than other poultry, and are quite pushy. They will take over a coop and throw other birds out of it, even ones they were raised with. This means you'll need multiple sleeping areas if you keep a mixed flock. If you have other poultry that doesn't back down, it may get ugly because guineas often do things in groups.

That is not what happened with mine. I put three different breeds of chickens with my Guineas and they were all best friends.