Guineas eating fire ants?

[Irishgirl]

I'm trying to hatch out some pearl guineas (I have extra if anyone wants them) and I was trying to figure out what age guineas started eating fire ants. Or if they eat them at all, 'cause if they don't I'll prob'ly have to get rid of all the guineas and not just a few.

 

[Kevin565]

My guineas never ate fire ants.

 

[PeepsCA]

Some eat them, some don't. I've seen several posts on here about Guineas sitting at ant hills and feasting, but I have never witnessed that with my flocks. I don't have fire ants here but I have seen them eating the big red and black carpenter ants. My Guineas seem to eat anything that crawls, hops, slithers etc and fight over it and chase each other down to get it if it's too big to swallow quickly tho, lol. Not everybody's Guineas are this way, some Guineas can be very finicky (spoiled, lol).

What you can try to do is catch and kill a bunch of fire ants once your keets are a week or so old and introduce the keets to eating them in the brooder. If you drop them in (and they are still kicking a little) it may attract the keets to eat them. Maybe if they develop a taste for them at a young age they will seek them out when they mature and free ranging your property. Worth a try, IMO.

 

[Irishgirl]

Thank you PeepsCA, I will certainly try that. Lucky you, I HATE fire ants!