do guinea's really protected the flock??

[jackrooster]

last night something got 2 of my ducks! I herd the guinea's are good guard dogs? is this true??

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
They certainly make a racket alerting the rest of the flock that they've seen a predator, but protecting ???????

 

[robin416]

Guineas have no night vision, none. That is one of the reasons they should be in a secure building at night.

They will actively run off interlopers during the day but they have to be around to see it. We've watched them chase off a fox, a deer, the neighbor's chickens, a cat. So yes, they will run off anything they are not familiar with. These days they've come to realize the doe that lives in our lower field is part of the landscape and no longer have stand offs with her.

 

[nursesammy]

Wow i didnt know they would try running off fox and deer! I know mine make a loud racket that makes you want to go see what the noise is about. Ive hear they chase off snakes as well. i do agree that they have no night vision. Its worse than mine!

 

[nursesammy]

Also im very sorry for the loss of your ducks. I take it harder loosing a duck than i do one of my guineas or chickens. At least they can fly where as my ducks have no chance. So sorry for ur loss.

 

[robin416]

Quote:
The deer was the fascinating one to watch. They flocked up and approached her, not making a lot of racket. Then they charged. The deer backed up, stamped her foot and then charged them. They went back and forth for several minutes before the deer finally decided to heck with it and walked off.

The fox tried to snatch one of the Guineas while they were out free ranging. The Guinea shot straight up in to the air with the fox leaping after it. They flocked up and high tailed it after the fox.

A decent sized Guinea flock can be a formidable thing to watch.

 

[mama2many]

My Guineas are serious about their jobs. If anyone other than myself or the kids come into the run they go nuts. My guinea hen screams until you are ready to just duck and run. I have seen them charge the gate when my DH comes by himself to care for them. Mama Guinea is also very receptive to the loving (or not so very loving) advances of my head rooster. Papa Guinea dosn't seem to mind. They are wonderfull parents and papa is just as protective of the babies as mama. I love to watch them as they are so different from my chickens.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

Here we have 4 adult guineas who sometimes form one flock here recently, but usually are split into two pairs, one pair the pearl pair have 3 babies. The other day I watched the pearl pair attack the neighbor's dog (the guineas are technically the neighbor's, but everything round here is practically mine and his, since they all share 2 yards together - lol) anyway one of his son's hunting dogs got loose and it caught the male guinea by surprise, i think it nicked his leg but that mama pearl and then the two porcelians came out of NOWHERE and mobbed the dog, you want to talk about racket...Dog ran off howling and yipping, I'm thinking one of the guineas nabbed him in a tender spot. The male has a tad bit of a limp but now they are all in one flock since he was injured and they are formidable! They go after anything that looks threatening to them, I watched them attack a scooter/moped of a vistior of my neighbor's yesterday..That was funny. They didn't understand why it wouldn't run away and they were after it about 10 minutes.

You want a guard dog of a bird though - get an emu

those suckers will take on anything - lol. I won't go near one and have been oh so tempted to get one, I should have taken the two I was offered earlier this year for 20$ ....but at the time I hadn't really thought about it and just automatically said no.

wish i hadn't now! I think that would be interesting to have a pair of emu

 

[mama2many]

Well it is official. My guinea male is protective of the flock. I found feathers last week, lots of feathers. It took me 3 days to figure out it was the male guinea who was hurt and to get him captured and cared for. He has a huge hole in this back and side but was still doing his guinea thing. If the feathers hadn't been ruffled up on his back I would have had no idea he was hurt. I brought him in, bathed him and put medicated ointment on his back and he is doing fine. He lives in the bath tub in a cage until he is all better to prevent flies. ( I have seen too many of those bot fly videos on the internet!!) I have no doubt that what ever got a hold of him he was manning up to keep the other guys safe. I had a plymoth barred rock rooster and a silkie rooster in there with him plus the boocoo ladies. There were feathers every where but his were centered in one spot. GOOOO Pappa Guinea!!