Could my Male Guineas actually be Females?

[johnpitt]

We have Three Wonderful guineas who are less than a year old. We think they are males based on the sounds they make(we have gone to various websites and heard the comeback sounds made by females). Recently all three are looking like they are trying to nest. Could thses be females? please help some very misguided folks.(US)
Thanks

 

[chickenlittle32]

I was told of another way to sex them...not exactly sure how correct it is....but it is correct for mine. lol The males wattles curve...

Females wattles hang down....

 

[MuranoFarms]

If you can post a video of them calling we can tell!

 

[A1 Steak Sauce]

Quote:
That!

 

[glenolam]

Females can make the same calls as males, but males can't make the same calls females can. People say females say "buckwheat" but I don't hear that. Mine sound like a high pitch "er-eh, er-eh, er-eh" and the males just do short, frequent cackles (similar to the chi chi chi they say males make), to which the females cackle back.

If you do have females, you should expect eggs soon if they are almost a year old. Mine were hatched in June 09 and we started getting eggs in April.

 

[BC_Farms]

We thought we had 3 males and 1 female based on sounds...yesterday we got 2 eggs. They are about 6 months old. The second egg was lacking a shell and was like an egg in a sack instead...so maybe it was the same female, I'm not sure. Good luck

but just wanted to say that we're in the same boat.

We also have two that walk around in the aviary (they're being held captive for another week until they start free ranging), and two that roost.

The other problem with sound that I've read about is what Glen said above me. I was also told you can sex them by their wattles and will be studying pictures of ours to figure it out today.

 

[chickenlittle32]

IMO, you can't distinguish who is yelling...they all start doing it lol I've learned the wattle sexing and will depend on that for now...until it proves me wrong...haha

 

[MuranoFarms]

I recorded 2 of mine this morning:

Edited to add: I just realized the image quality was set really low since I was working on a dial-up version for a project when I decided to take a break and make this clip. Sorry!

 

[gardenknitter]

We have 1 male, 2 females...the male's helmet and wattles are bigger than our females. He is noticibly bigger then they are too. He is also VERY protective of his girls. Their calls are distinctly different too.

 

[damselfish]

Also, guineas sometimes just sit down in the middle of the yard and hang out a while, male or female. I never see my chickens do this out in the open but the guineas will plunk it right down in the grass, not dusting, just sitting.

So the call they're making will definitely be a better sign of gender than this "pseudo-nesting" behavior.

Or you could post pics. We like pics!