Guinea talk.

[pattyhen]

My husband and I had discussed getting guineas for quite some time.. And just bought four keets on a whim. We love them! We have the slate color, so right now they're light with blue stripes. We've only ever heard good things about them and we're excited for the diversity they will bring to the flock. So glad there's a guinea thread, because we are definitely beginners with these guys!

Welcome to

. I would love to see pics of them if you post them. We've had our 2 guineas almost 7 months now. They are a joy to have. I've had chickens and ducks for quite some time but guineas were very new to us. I had only seen a guinea one time before we got these.

 

[pattyhen]

This morning when the guineas come out of the coop I almost saw them mate. Spider run and then come back to Mary Jane and pecked her then she pecked him and he turned and run again and come back to her and she squatted down and Spider said no I have a headache.

I guess girls mature faster then boys.

 

[GlennLee]

That is too funny! Spider has a headache.... When they finally do start mating, you'll have to worry about how many keets you'll have running around there.

 

[Dmontgomery]

Guineas came up on the porch for the first time this afternoon to get some treats with the other hens.

Its also the first time they sat "still" long enough for a decent photo. I took 6 and this is the least blurry. Gertrude is the one at the top, who was sitting on the nest with 17 eggs last week. The one on the bottom is Ginny.
So I'm guessing Ginny is a pearl gray. Gerdy (not pictured) looks like Ginny but has white patches on her side and stomach, so that's a pied, right? Is Gertrude a slate or something else?

 

[GlennLee]

Nice pic DMontgomery! So glad they sat long enough for you to get their picture. Since Ginny looks like mine, I would guess she is a pearl gray as well. I'm not really sure about Gertrude or Gerdy. Maybe a chocolate or bronze? It doesn't look like there are any dots. I'm not really sure, but here are some pictures for you to consider while you're waiting for someone else who knows their colors to respond.

http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/colors/

Update on the new barn: I've been keeping the door open for the past month and have tried to encourage them to visit with food and meal worms. They're now going in on a regular basis and have been up on the roosts and leaving "calling cards" all over. I don't think the transition will be difficult and we'll probably make the change mid-October. At that point, the nights will be getting cooler and they'll look forward to staying in an enclosed building versus a shed that's open to the covered run.

 

[pattyhen]

Guineas came up on the porch for the first time this afternoon to get some treats with the other hens.

Its also the first time they sat "still" long enough for a decent photo. I took 6 and this is the least blurry. Gertrude is the one at the top, who was sitting on the nest with 17 eggs last week. The one on the bottom is Ginny.
So I'm guessing Ginny is a pearl gray. Gerdy (not pictured) looks like Ginny but has white patches on her side and stomach, so that's a pied, right? Is Gertrude a slate or something else?

I'm not for sure on the colors of your guineas but they sure are cute. Are all your guineas names start with a G? Thanks so much for sharing the pics. Be careful about them on the porch pretty soon they will be wanting to come in the house.

 

[Dmontgomery]

I'm not for sure on the colors of your guineas but they sure are cute.  Are all your guineas names start with a G?  Thanks so much for sharing the pics.  Be careful about them on the porch pretty soon they will be wanting to come in the house.

Yeah, all the guinea names start with G. My wife likes for all the birds to have names, they are pets who just happen to give us eggs. But with 46 of then now, the naming gets difficult and finding something we haven't used before is tough. We've got 1 little chick who gets a new name everyday because we can't remember what we called her yesterday, poor thing. All our Barred Rocks are Barbaras. Barbara #1, Barbie, Barbara Crooked Toe, etc. All the Golden Comets are Rosie, all the RIRs are Ruby. They only get distinctive names when they are easy to tell apart. The 3 boys are Rufus, George, and Elvis.
When we built the new coop next to the house I told my wife not to feed them off the back porch. They would gather around it all the time. Then I said don't feed then ON the back porch. Then I said don't let them in the house. Well today we made our monthly trip in to town for supplies and one of the chickens ended up getting locked inside the house. Big mess inside when we got home. Apparently she wasn't smart enough to follow the dogs in and out of the pet door. I can just envision her standing at the back window laughing at the other chickens through the glass.

 

[pattyhen]

I can just imagine the mess that chicken made in the house. She probably did stand at the window showing everyone how special she is to be able to be in the house. That is too funny. Of course she didn't want to go out the doggie door she had the whole house to herself.

 

[Dmontgomery]

She must have been very comfortable. I found an egg in our shoe rack this morning.

 

[pattyhen]

She'll want to come in everyday now to lay in her spot in the shoe rack.