GUINEAS

[MissPrissy]

It is my experience that guineas are best left to themselves. They really do not like much human interaction. Which is good because they do not like change and will tell you when something different is going on in the yard. I have 6 right now but I would like about 20 more. I have 10 acres. I would think 3 - 5 would be good a good start and hopefully you'll get more hens than males. They are hard to sex and even as they mature it is hard to tell which is which. As they mature the females sound like they are calling 'buckwheat'.

My guinease free range and I do not provide alot of feed for them. They have to forage for most of their food. I toss out a small scoop of feed daily to keep them coming back to the barn.

The eggs are similar to chicken eggs slight more roundish shaped.

A guinea can cross breed with a chicken and if hatched those things are seriously ugly. LOL

 

[jkcove08]

LOL, dont get attached to them. LOL Either you love them or hate them. I have about 20 right now and have about 6 eggs in the bator. I am amazed to find that one of my hens is laying and they are actually fertile. I have part of them that like to stay in the coop with the chickens and then another group that run free and stay in the barn. I will be buying a couple more dozen eggs from a huge guinea farm that is about a hour from here. I will buy some eggs at the end of may and go and get them to have non shipped eggs. This farm has TONS of different colors and for the rare color variety pack it is 24.00. By the time you pay for shipping you would pay about that anyway...I love my guineas, they eat all of the tics that were around last spring. Before I let them out for the first time I found several tics on the animals and my boys. After I turned them out to free range there were no more tics. They are owl bait if you let them roost in the trees though. I lost several to an owl last year. They can be very noise. They are pretty quiet when I am out but if my kids or hubby goes out they will not shut up.. Sooooo, if you can tune sounds out you will be fine, if obnoxious noises drive you nuts you wont want these...Jenn

 

[raffello]

When I was researching guineas, I found this website. It has a ton of information, and if you scroll down to the very bottom, there is an FAQ section that is also very helpful. Hope that helps.

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

 

[DESI]

Thank you so much so informative.I'll have my husband doing his homework ASAP.I will keep them up @ night your right owls are ruthless.

 

[Heme]

Guineas are great for free range areas and the bugs are consumed fast when 6 to 12 hens are roaming the area. A bit noisy when in a group, but they really get around.