guinea education wanted, please!

[hensonly]

Hi, all

I've had chickens for a year now, but they don't free range. We've been thinking of getting some guinea fowl primarily for pest control, but we know nothing about them...

Please, can y'all tell me:

What kind of shelter do they require?

Are they cold hardy enough for my upstate NY winters?

What do I feed them in the winter?

How many do I start with?
(we have 60 acres, mostly wooded, no problems with neighbors)

Do they lay eggs daily like chickens? And do they use nest boxes, or hide eggs in the woods - we have lots of poison ivy around; I really don't want to hunt eggs!

How long do they live (assuming they avoid the foxes, coyotes, owls, hawks...)

Do I shut them up at night like I would chickens?

We have five dogs who are always contained except when we're back in the woods on walks. It seems that guinea fowl have enough self-preservation instinct to keep away from the dogs - yes?

Do the males get nasty like some roosters?

If they come into a coop at night, how much space per bird do they need?

And any other info y'all can supply!

Thanks much

 

[featheredfriendlover]

Hi, all

I've had chickens for a year now, but they don't free range. We've been thinking of getting some guinea fowl primarily for pest control, but we know nothing about them...

Please, can y'all tell me:

What kind of shelter do they require?

Are they cold hardy enough for my upstate NY winters?

What do I feed them in the winter?

How many do I start with?
(we have 60 acres, mostly wooded, no problems with neighbors)

Do they lay eggs daily like chickens? And do they use nest boxes, or hide eggs in the woods - we have lots of poison ivy around; I really don't want to hunt eggs!

How long do they live (assuming they avoid the foxes, coyotes, owls, hawks...)

Do I shut them up at night like I would chickens?

We have five dogs who are always contained except when we're back in the woods on walks. It seems that guinea fowl have enough self-preservation instinct to keep away from the dogs - yes?

Do the males get nasty like some roosters?

If they come into a coop at night, how much space per bird do they need?

And any other info y'all can supply!

Thanks much

1. you can sometimes train them to go into the coop with the chickens, other times they will roost in the trees ( my adults do ).

2.they are very hardy after there first 2 weeks so ive been told. mine are to no exception. very hardy. could sleep outside all winter long if they wanted to but mine are big wimps and are afraid of the snow.

3.i feed them what my chickens eat. but i guess it depends on the owner.

4. AS MANY AS YOU WANT!!!! i love my guineas alot. but keep im mind they are very social birds and will travel like a school of fish.

5. during nesting/laying season they have a 32 week laying season. they will lay an egg just about everyday until they get a clutch of what i think is about 30-40 eggs. once the eggs hatch you will need to either catch the mother and babies and put them in a safe/dry place or raise them yourself. otherwise the mother will lead them through the wet grass and they will die. after 2 weeks they should be fine. a trick to get them to lay in the coop is to place a piece of wood against the wall in a corner. kind of like an A-frame.

6. i can't really help you on the how long do they live. if nothing gets them that is if there smart and they learn what a predator is and isint they could live for quite a while. and they can fly like the dickens so that will be a good advantage for them. so dont clip there wings.

7.like i said you can but then again they might roost in the trees. you might have to train them. and its best to start with keets ( babies ) so they know where home is. put them in the coop and leave them in there for about 6 weeks then just let one out for a day then another then another and so on.

8.if they know it is a predator they should stay away.

9. sometimes but sometimes not. none of mine are. we have 3 males. they just charge at each other and the chickens and peacock.

10. im not quite sure. i dont really go by that anyway. if theres enough space for them to walk around then i say there fine. but thats just me.

11. any other info. hmmmm lets see..... THE BABIES ARE ADORABLE...

i could be wrong on this stuff i just said but that is just what i have learned.

cole.​

 

[morninggloryhatchery]

Quote:
They can live in shelter like chickens but if you free range them on your property they will make shelter for themselves most likely in tree's since they love to roost.

Guinea's are hardy but they prefer to be out of the snow from what i have heard ( sorry this is going to be my first winter with Guineas).

If you want for winter you can keep them on the same feed or you can give them a food that is higher in protein or a feed to bulk them up a little. You can't just change them abruptly. I would take their old feed and still feed it to them but start mixing in the new food a little by the time and eventually completely switch them.

If you want you can start out with 5. 4 females and 1 male then if you have a incubator you can hatch out some of their eggs and have keetse! Or you can always let the hens go broody on their clutch of eggs.

Guineas will start laying in spring and then will slow down with the laying around august/September. Depends on the bird. From my first guineas they gave me one egg a day and one day i even had 2 from one guinea. They like to make nest and the shrubs or a pile of branches. So what i did since they wouldn't use a nesting box i would make a big pile of branches that has a opening big enough for the bird.


Guineas can live pretty long. On average around 12 years in the wild so maybe in captivity they will live a couple more years.

Guineas can fend for themselves. But it is up to you if you would want to bring them in at night. Yes it would lessen the chance of getting attacked by a big predator but you have to remember that Guineas are strong flyers to so they could probably fend for themselves.

Yes it should come natural to them to stay away from them but there are always some that are very curious lol. But if the dogs do go after them the Guineas could fly into a tree and stay safe.

Yes the Cocks can get aggresive but it is natural since they want the girls.

A Minimum of 2-3 square feet for bird.


Hope it helps!
Joy

 

[Akane]

It's best to train guineas to go in a coop. It takes more effort than chickens since they do like to try to roost in trees but odds are they will get slowly picked off if you don't lock them up at night. Plan to lose lots of them if you leave them outside all the time. Even if they are good flyers when they are sleeping they are vulnerable to anything just like chickens. Anything that can fly (owls) or climb a tree can get a sleeping guinea easy. Wooded areas also make it more likely something will get them. I've heard many times of people who have wooded areas on their property and end up fencing it off because of the predators that hide in the woods and grab their birds from the edges or any birds that stray into them.

They are very hardy to bad weather and will do better than most chickens. You can feed them non medicated chicken feed, game bird feed, or non medicated turkey feed. They tend to do a little better with slightly higher protein than chickens but aren't picky and again hardy. People raise them all sorts of other birds on all sorts of poultry feeds without problems.

How many you start with depends how many you want and your risk of losing them. If you plan to not put in the effort to keep them going in to a coop then start with a lot more. If you aren't sure if you'll like them or how much effort you can put in to care then start with fewer. They won't cover 60acres. They probably won't even cover 30acres. They'll stay within a few hundred feet of their shelter. Adding more doesn't really change that too much same as with chickens.

They will lay eggs seasonally (start in spring and stop in fall) but otherwise about as well as chickens. They probably won't use nest boxes. You will either have eggs scattered about or they will dig out nests in the dirt and under or in things to collect their eggs. If you don't want to have to hunt for guinea eggs then you have to pen them up.

Guineas are more agressive than chickens but not in the same way a rooster is. They are less likely to flog and cut you with spurs. They are braver though and will gang up on potential predators including sometimes dogs.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Once they get older and you turn them out it's a good idea to keep a couple breeders in a covered pen if you can. Every late spring and early summer here when the hens start sitting on the nest they turn up missing one by one. We have quite a few night time predators slinking around. This year we had one nesting in a hollow log about 20 feet from our back door. She sat and sat, was doing great, one day she even had a Copperhead in the log with her, I pulled the snake out and killed it, she went right back to sitting. One morning she was just a pile of feathers right beside the log.

I gathered the eggs and put them in the incubator and they hatched 2 days later - she was sooooooooo close.

Steve in NC

 

[Aj1911]

i kept mine locked in they're pen for 4 months and they roost in it every night.

i feed 28% protein feed 24/7 just add oyster shell in laying season.

they are much more hardy then chickens.

they can live up to 20 years.

they fly very well.

mine would out right attack the dogs and win.

mine out right attack me some times and win most the time though we are ok with each other if i hold really still or have food

if all 5 dogs went for them they would: A: call in reinforcement (more guineas and then go to attacking the dogs) or B: fly up in a 50ft tree and scream at the stupid dogs that cant get them.

 

[racuda]

 

[hensonly]

Wow, thanks for all the info, everyone! I'm glad a lot of it agrees - I wouldn't know how to sort the accurate from the mistaken, since I'm new to chickens and know absolutely nothing about guineas!

I gather that guineas are much wilder than chickens - but if handled when young, will they be tamer/friendlier? or would that blunt their ability to survive?

I would plan to pen them when young, and at night. I'm not too worried about the egg gathering, as I have chickens for that, who don't free range.

I have 60 acres total, but I'm not concerned about the wooded part, which is most of it. I have two fields that I use for training the dogs, and the garden, and that's where I'd like to concentrate the pest control. would guineas head for the woods, or stay closer to the house?

If I can get them trained to pen up at night, that would be my preference - they'd have enough to worry about during the day from hawks. We also have foxes and coyotes around, though because of the dogs they don't seem to come close to the house...as well as raccoons, skunks and opossums. NOthing has ever tried to get in to the chickens, so hopefully the guineas would be relatively safe if they stay around the fields...should I plan to put up hawk shelters for the guineas to run to?

Thanks again for all your input.

 

[damselfish]

One thing I didn't see mentioned is that guineas mate singly...you wouldn't usually be aiming for a bunch of females and one male, but for a evenly mixed group.

Start with more than you think you'll need, they do tend to get killed early as they're learning what is and isn't smart. We started with 20, I think. Right now we have ten, including two naturally hatched two-month old keets.

Keep them in a coop for the first six weeks and they will be likely to roost there (for instance tonight I have nine in and one in a tree). The fact that you have chickens first is good, that seems to help give them the idea of going in to roost at night.

They do stay in the more open areas of our property for the most part. We have 40 acres, they don't cover a tenth of it. But the parts they do cover have no ticks!

They will go walkabout on you when young. Try to be sure they like you a lot so you can get them to follow you back home, because you won't catch them. Millet + kind words + hanging out with them when young = guineas who will follow you.

You got lots of good advice, good luck and have fun with them. We love our guineas!

Edited to add: You don't need to keep additional generations in for six weeks, I'm just talking about the first keets you get. Later generations will just learn from their parents.

 

[Jim & Jo]

Another valuable piece of information we have found is the book "Gardening with Guineas". We have had no problems whatsoever since day one by following the advice contained within its pages.