Ralph, tell me about guineas. I may want a couple. Give me the pros and cons. They are interesting birds to me.
Beings this is your thread, I will tell you about my guinea experiences which are very new.
I bought a half dozen guinea 30 some years ago when we lived on a small farm. They were all gone within 4 weeks.....
I now have 15, here is how I got these and what I do with them.
I bought 10 guinea babies from a young 4-h girl in the area off craigslist. The first week was very frustrating. I did not have the ideal set up for them. I only had a "box" as a brooder. They were so flighty and scared they squished into a corner or would jump over the edge. I have a small kids swimming pool I use for chicks. IT does not work on guineas! I will be using a cut off plastic barrel next time.
I lost 3 chicks the first week. I have no idea why, other than my poor set-up, it was heart breaking. My wife was nearly in tears daily over the deaths, she loves the birds too, but will never admit it.
We found the best way to keep them alive was to just put fresh feed and water in their and leave them alone. They were really scared by us!
So we raised them in an unfinished bedroom for a nearly month.
I then moved them into a larger swimming pool with some turkey chicks I had. This did not work, the guineas were scared of the turkeys and I lost another guinea. I then moved the guineas to a round stock watering tank I have. I placed an ugly wire cover over them to keep them in. This worked and they thrived, but were still afraid of us. I would try to calm them, talk to them, all in vain.
I then moved them to the tractor that is now the home for my CX's. I had 6 guinea in it and picked 6 chickens about the same size as them to put in with them. I thought it might tame the guineas down. It succeeded in making the chickens more flighty, but the guineas did start to calm down. I kept them in this for a long time, maybe 6 weeks. I would go talk to them, feed them, move them all to try and calm them down. I am guessing they were 10 weeks old when I moved them to the coop. I kept them locked in there for 2 weeks with the chickens.
I then moved opened the doors and let them free range, thinking I would never see them again. Everything I read said you need to make sure the guineas know where they belong!
Amazingly they stayed around the farmyard. They even started coming to "Chicken TV" time. They would come in to the treats and eat then run. They travel in a "school" like fish in the ocean. They are noisy and fun to watch. Where ever one goes the others follow. If one gets separated it will scream and cry until it finds the flock. They are clowns.
They started roosting on the roof of the coop, I let them, and sure enough I lost one to an owl. I found it lying by the coop with the head and shoulders gone. After that my wife and I forced them into the coop at night. It was tricky to start with and very nerve wracking as they refused to go in. Now I run them into the coop about an hour before sunset. They resist but not too badly and once the first one goes in, they all go in. However, I have one little girl that will sneak back out and go to the roof. I counter this by closing the chicken doors for about a half an hour or until they are safely up in the rafters.
Then I open the door for the chickens to go in. It gets kind of tight as the first chickens are waiting to go in when I open the door.
In the morning I let open the chicken doors and the chickens run out. The guineas stay in the rafters and make a ton of noise. It is truly deafening. They will do this for an hour or more before going outside. The only thing I can compare it too is the yelling back an forth I use to hear when I worked at a prison, while going to college (forever ago). When the inmates cells were locked, they would yell back an forth to each other, I have no idea how anyone heard the person they were yelling to. The guineas are like this, all yelling and no one listening.
I bought 10 more guinea about 3 weeks ago, I kept them in a tractor close to the coop and near a unused chicken door. I kept them there until 3 days ago. I know the risks of disease and tried to keep the other birds away from them. At least they could not walk in the newbies poop. 2 days ago after letting the chickens out I opened the door to the coop for the new guineas to enter the coop. I shut the chicken door to force the two groups of guineas to merge. I kept them in the coop for 24 hours only opening the door for the chickens at dusk.
It worked the groups merged kind of. Last night I went to put the guineas to bed and I opened the tractor door and tried to run all the guineas into the coop or tractor. All the new guineas went into the tractor. I locked the in the tractor. Ran the other guinea into the coop. Let them roost and opened the chicken doors. then I opened the tractor door to the coop and ran the guinea into the main coop. All was fine this morning. All the guinea were in the rafters doing their screaming this morning. I have no idea if they have come out or not.
I feed un-medicated feed to all my birds. I have heard guineas do not do well on medicated feed, it could be a wives tale.
I know they are great watch dogs, if anything comes into the yard they make a real racket. They will even call out when a crow flies over. I like that. I am hoping they are my first line of defense.
They attack as a group, they have chased my dog. When one attacks they all do. They have chased my turkey tom away from food. The tom is the boss of the yard even superior to Brutus, my super rooster. I have heard the tales of guineas scaring off predators, I can believe them. Most predators work from stealth, there is no stealth with the guineas around.
Plus the fun I get watching them makes them worth their keep. They never stand still moving constantly, except for when they go into my machine shed where they like to lounge in places they shouldn't!
Sorry this got so long. That is my guinea story.
