How many of each sex is necessary with guinea fowl

[fave-oxymoron]

I have 7 amazing and beautiful guinea fowl! And I totally adore them... At 15(ish) weeks old now the 5 female guineas have finally ticked off the neighbor with their (every other day for the past week... I swear it IS constant) calling. I understand they can be a little crazy driving because on those loud days I sometimes can't think! But, I know they are still in a growing and exploring the big scary world phase... And I am totally in love with them! The neighbor was not pleased when I showed up with my 3 sheep 3 years ago, hates my barn cats because one apparently scratched his ($30,000 paint job) prize winning show car, and said I had too many animals when I brought home the two horses to foster for a rescue I work with...

So, since I'd like to try and appease my neighbor (and prevent any "accidents" that could occur if he gets too angry) my question is... Since it is the girls are the main noise makers... And I got them for bug control more than eggs... If I can find a new home for some of my 7 guineas... Can I keep a few? How many? How many of each sex? Do I need to keep at a 1 to 1 male female ratio? And most of all... How do I chose?!?!?!? :-(

 

[Wisher1000]

Are there restrictions on how many/what kind of animals you can have? Why does your neighbor think he has any say over what you have and don't have? If your animals are on his propery, though, he has a right to complain and to do whatever he needs to do to keep them away (including trappingand/or killing them.)

Guineas do best one to one, but maintaining that ratio is hard. If you are going to have a few spares they need to be girls. A lone female will tag along with a pair and the female of the pair will be huffy to her. If the lone bird is a male, he will constantly try to steal a female and the paired male will fight him. They can have serious fights. They will choose mates, just try to keep the ones that have already paired up.

 

[fave-oxymoron]

Hi Wisher1000! Thank you for your reply!

I am within city limits... So, yes, I do have restrictions. But, I am within my rights and have permits for everyone... ACCEPT for the guineas but ONLY because I haven't gone to register them yet. In the animal ordinances under fowl it does say they need to be confined to the property and not within 30 ft of the residence. And, since I am out with them pretty much all day the noise is the only issue. They say they can hear them in their house. I have checked our house with no A/C or TV running and I don't hear them... But, I won't say they are making it up. They may very well have a different angle or something that causes noise to flow that way. AND, we do have a NOISE code. :-/

"Sec. 6-3. Noise
Definition~ Prohibited noise is any noise which is unreasonably loud, disturbing, or unnecessary that is offensive to the ordinary sensibilities of the inhabitants of the city, and which noise renders the enjoyment of life or property uncomfortable or interferes with public peace and comfort.

Prohibited noise. A person commits an offense if he or she makes, causes to be made, or allows to be made any prohibited noise in the city, including but not limited to prohibited noise from the following activities.
...
3. Keeping or harboring an animal or fowl which emits prohibited noise."


So, I think I am pretty much outta luck if it continues as it is. Yesterday, of course, they hardly hollered at all until late in the day. And, I think they are just so tired at that point! I totally get it!

Anyway, my two boys have definitely chosen a favorite each... And, I will say, they did choose the two with the least ear piercing calls. So I will see if a friend of mine (who is further out) will take the three other girls and see if the noise level decreases at all.

Fingers crossed. I wish we could all move further out...

 

[gguineasfamily]

If you take some of their friends away they will only be noisier. They will call and call for their friends back for a few weeks.
If you want to keep them in your property I would suggest making your fences high, making sure there are no gaps in the fence and clipping wings.

 

[wyoDreamer]

We have 5 guinea fowl, we used to have 8 but three disappeared this summer. I don't know how old they are, I would guess a couple of years, and they are still pretty noisy. Just wandering around the barnyard and fields they always chatter to each other, constantly and then honking out warnings when something startles/excites them. They are noisy birds, and have well deserved the nickname of watchdogs of the barnyard.

How big of a lot do you have? These are really not a city bird, but to be honest, I would rather live next to guineas on a city lot, than pea fowl.

I have only been living here in the house for a little over a week, but I have grown used to them and now I worry when I can't hear them. We have 25 acres, and they spent the last 3 days at the neighbors, cleaning up the bugs around their barns I guess.

 

[soldier]

I have had just two in the past both males and they had no problems. The problems with a male and female is the female will nest and usually something will get them or eat them. So if I only could have a few guineas I would chose two males.