Husband brought home 5 guinea babies.. oh boy...

[toredano]

so.. as the title said..
Not knowing what they really are ( he had some when he was younger) I looked up the grown up version.Well they are .. pretty... from the neck down. The top.. not so pretty.

Anything different from my Buff Orpingtons I need to know about ? Husband said they are just like chickens but are really good alarm clocks and eat ticks.


And the noise they make... ermm..when grown up..
Ever been in a really cheap motel room? Its like the bed next door is getting a workout. Thats exactly what it sounds like. I cant stop laughing .

..

But they are babies yet.. just feathered out.
Hopefully they will grow on me.
I am sure the eggs will be tasty.. if I could just stop laughing at the youtube videos .

 

[cluckychick]

DH brought home 15 guinea babies yesterday from the feed store. He said they can stay in our room tonight, then he heard them and said "maybe not"

 

[Ghostchick]

I read these and just had to look at some videos. Wow, that is an interesting noise they may! Good luck to ya!

 

[sred98]

You are so lucky! I wish my DH would bring me home ANY kind of animal!

I love my guineas. They are AWESOME! They really are funny little birds. I keep mine with my chickens, and they just follow each other around.

Shelly

 

[toredano]

Quote:
Well this is kinda a dilemma we have right now.
We had 4 Buff orpingtons.. 1 died of airsack rupture and other got killed by 2 stray dogs while freeranging. Now down to 2 ( a roo and a pullet) Pullet not laying yet. The 2 that are left over are now so frightened from us.They used to be handfed and sit on the lap ect.. really tame. I htink the whole episode with them seeing their buddy killed made them shy .
They will go in their coop at night tho and I just go out and shut the door. Now we have another BO that is larger and she has to stay in the coop for a bit until she gets used to us. On top of that the baby Guineas are in there with her.She doesnt bother the guinea babies and they are old enough to stay out there. Its warm , they got shelter from sun and rain also. The other 2 freeranging birds are still outside , but close to the coop and fence and they are talking to each other.So not to worried about it.I have the feeling the roo is interested in her) which is good, i want more BO`s for sure.
I am not sure if I should move the Guineas out of the chickenpen and house them until they are bigger. My concern is that they will get stepped on ( they have a halfround shelter with hay in it to get out from under the big ones.
I have a really huge dog crate I can make their home but not sure where to keep them( cant keep them in the house for sure. What about the porch?. Porch is covered. 60 feet long and shaded most of the day. If not they have a fan etc to keep them cool also..
Would that be better for them for now? I have hardware cloth i cna put around the bottom to keep them a little safer also.
Husband says they will be ok in the big coop with the big chickens. But since my 2 chickens just now getting to know the new hen( as in today) I want to keep them safe.( they just feathered out)

sorry for the novel sized explanation lol

Petra

 

[sred98]

I moved my guineas in with my chickens when they were fully feathered out, but still quite a bit smaller than the other chickens. Some people may disagree, but I found that they bonded to the chickens, and stayed put. A lot of people have problems with their guineas wandering off, mine don't. They roost, eat, and free range with my chickens. Of course, I can't touch them, but I have my chickens for petting.

I am curious, on your airsac rupture, how did you treat it? I had a Chinese goose with a severe rupture that took me weeks to treat. She is all healed up and you can't even tell it happened. I thought she was going to die, which made me more aggressive with her treatment.

Shelly

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Quote:
agreed

Move your babies into the coop at about 12 weeks of age.

Be careful not to let the chickens harm them.

They should free range and come home every night.
They should eat and sleep with your chickens no problem.

Have fun with them, they are an interesting bird.

 

[ScoobyRoo]

I wanted to get some guineas but my DH said "ABSOLUTELY NO!"

You make me jealous.

Have fun with them!

 

[crtrlovr]

Quote:

Sorry; I just couldn't help myself!

Guineas operate on a survival / instinct level. They have the most primal type of behavior I've ever witnessed in a warm-blooded creature. They do not "reason", and there is no "logic" involved in their day to day lives. For example, I had the gate from the chicken run into the yard OPEN. The other chickens and guineas walked through it and were happily freeranging in the yard. The straggler guinea saw the others getting further away from her, and throws herself frantically against the fence, repeatedly... She was maybe 18" from the opening, but couldn't figure out how to get through the fence. I shooed her toward the opening, and b/c she wanted to get further away from me, she edged toward the opening, then when she was directly in front of it, she bolted through like she had a firebrand on her behind...
As another poster mentioned, they are very suspicious of anything new or different. The chickens are curious and will stroll right over to check it out. The guineas will chatter about it, shriek a while, walk in a WIDE circle around it, making sure to give it a wide berth in case it MOVES, MAKES SOUND, OR BLOWS UP.

Eventually they may get close enough to give it the head-sideways glare and if they're feeling REALLY brave, they may even give it a peck or two for good measure.
My guineas generally get along well with each other & the chickens until the male guinea decides to be a PITB and grab the chickens by their tails, hanging on like a bulldog while they run screaming, dragging him behind them. I swear sometimes I can almost hear the little devil laughing...
Guinea eggs are quite tasty and rich, with very hard shells. Right now I'm not getting any guinea eggs b/c the white guinea is broody, and is NOT AT ALL thrilled when I come into the henhouse to collect eggs, even the ones the chickens have laid in HER nestbox and she has dutifully gathered under her as her own. She has a NASTY temper when it comes to giving up anything she's claimed as hers! The other 2 females (gray pearl, gray pearl pied) aren't quite so high-strung as the white one.
They can be a source of extreme frustration (especially when they wander 3 yards down from mine and are enthusiastically destroying the nice landscaping of my neighbors and refuse to be "herded" back to my house), and when one flies onto the roof and screeches nonstop for "backup"

but they are an endless source of entertainment, too. Just DON'T expect them to be "just like chickens"; they're not, they'll never be. Just enjoy them for what they are.

 

[toredano]

Thanks for the replies

I have moved them into the dog crate asn the rooster seemed to play football with them.They are too small yet I think.So they have a good area by themselfs and are safe for now.They are feathered out but have a few spots that are yet still downlike. So I rather have them safe than beeing hurt. I put hardware cloth all around it and they are safe right by my bedoom window.

So.. they are not too bright? is that what you are saying ? lol..ahh I can live with that.Husband said they are different but still chicken like.I am hoping they will stay around once they get bigger. I freerange my other 2 chickens now and so once the guineas get bigger they be freeranging also.

As to the airsack dilemma with my hen...
By the time we noticed anything wrong with her it was to late to do anything. We got meds and the syringes to draw out the air .By the time we got to her she was drooling so bad and just kinda slumped over and so full of air we thought it was best to put her out of her mysery.
If we had noticed it earlier , you can draw out the air carefuly with a syringe and hope her airsack will heal on its own. Meds should help her along.
We didnt know how or when she ruptured it. It was in the course of 2 days where she looked like a pillow tho. There was no outside injury at all.No clue as to how it happend.
But it was fast and by the time we really seen her fluffed up and diagnosed it , it was to late. Someoen said it was E.coli, but from talking to a vet and some chickenpeople , they said that sometimes it happends if they have a weak spot or some internal injury.I wont venture to guess how it happend. Maybe something got a hold of her and let her go and ruptured it but no external injury. No clue.