Guineas and Eggs

[ozark hen]

I had a man out here last night who wanted to buy some guineas. He wanted two hens and a male..roo? I told him I had no idea how to sex them unless they sounded. He said, oh, it is easy, the females waddles face towards her ears and her helmet/horn is smaller. the male's waddles face towards the front and his helmet/horn is very tall. I thought he was crazy until we started to catch them and they sounded. Females were like he said and the males were like he described. I was amazed. Does this stand true for all? I kept my seven with my flock with no problems what so ever. Not a one of them is aggressive towards people. If my dh goes outside to work on something they gather around to either see if they can learn anything or help?

We call them the nosy bunch.

I would be interested if anyone else says the same thing on sexing them??

 

[Oblio13]

We have a bunch who live in a tree in our front yard. One is so tame that she lands on my arm like a falcon. (I used to call her my "Guinea Falcon" until I found out a neighbor was offended by that, thinking it was an ethnic slur!)

One of them disappears for an hour or two every day, and I suspect that she's laying eggs somewhere.

They can be incredibly loud sometimes, I get nervous that they're disturbing our neighbors. They even seem to be attracted to loud noises. If I'm in the garage running power tools, sometimes they'll stroll right in to see what's up.

 

[speckledhen]

For the most part, Carrie, that's true. The males have larger, longer wattles and the helmet is taller. Females have more backswept or smaller wattles and the helmet is sort of backswept and shorter. But there are individual variations in those traits. Females have a more horizontal posture, while males tend to stand more upright, also. And then there's the call, with females sounding like "Come back! Come back!" and the males just sound like noisy machine guns, LOL. I could try to find pics of my male and female guineas for comparison and post in another post so I don't intrude on MissP's.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

My kids think our guinea hens are saying "Butt-crAAk! Butt-crAAk!"

Go listen to what they sound like BEFORE you get some of your own. They are awfully noisy and take some getting used to. Consider how tolerant your neighbors are too.

My guinea hens don't bother the chickens, they mix in nicely. They allow the children to handle them and have never tried to hurt them. But the cock would get defensive with his hens and chase the kids. On his last day he went over to where my youngest was sitting on the ground in his sandbox and pecked him repeatedly all around his eyes.

 

[MissPrissy]

Hahaha! butt crack!

It is my understanding that the female can only make the 2 syllable sound.

"buck wheat ... buck wheat"

Cyn you can put the photos here. I'd like to see them

We were sure our female was the one we found dead. Last night we went out and one of the was screaming 'buck wheat' so maybe it wasn't her we found. I am so confused now! LOL