i need some just YES or NO answers by today at 4:00pm!.PLEASEEEEEE!!!!

[robin416]

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Then the conclusion is . . .

Guineas will do whatever the heck they feel like.

 

[Finn's Mom]

I think you've hit the nail on the head, Robin.

 

[firedove]

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I can't say much for guineas since I just got my first keets today but I know for certain that my chickens eat small snakes (6" or less) and will happily tear apart in tug of war and eat, or eat whole, yes whole, a mouse if they can catch one, you'd be surprised how much the throat of a large chicken can expand. They throw a party if one is found drowned in a water bucket and we throw it out for them. So if my chickens can be that happy about small snakes and mice then I'm sure some guineas would be just as happy to take them out. I think you really can't underestimate a predatory bird's appetites. As Robin astutely wrote, they do what they want. As far as my chickens are concerned, if it moves, shines, or stands out in any way, and they can make it fit down their throat, they will eat it. Snakes, mice, toads, frogs, salamanders, bugs, bits of glass, plastic, styrofoam, and fertilizer beads, even once the filter of a cigarette, I've seen my chickens scarf them all and I expect no less of my new guineas when they get out there. For anyone curious, none of my birds ever got sick from, or hurt by, anything they have eaten, including the broken glass bits. Guts of steel! Also I will have it be known that the non-food items are unusual finds here from them scratching up the ground, not something I put out there (except the fertilizer beads, those they foraged from one of my raised beds one day, which I did not expect, but one hour I had fertilizer and the next hour I caught my chicken flock scratching through the soil and nearly all the white and yellow fertilizer beads were gone from the top 6 inches or so of the bed).

So in summary, if they can eat it and it calls attention to itself, my guess is they will. If they come across a hive and the bees can't or won't fend them off then they may indeed decide it's a good snack bar. If there is any worry my first suggestion would be to put a wire fence around the hives just a foot or two out from the sides so the guineas can't have access right to the opening of the hive and the bees can come and go on different routes if needed to avoid invading birds. If they are your neighbor's hives and you are the one with the guineas, I would say you should volunteer to buy the materials and put up fencing for them if you don't plan to fence the birds themselves, it would be the neighborly thing to do.

 

[MuranoFarms]

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Now that you mention it.....I haven't seen 1 nest this year! Usually they build them under the awnings of the house. I just looked...NONE! This is my first summer with guineas.

 

[darkmatter]

Yes, Guineas can and will wipe out a honeybee hive-----one bee at a time plucked from foraging at the flowers. I have not seen them stationed at the hive eating, but they will eat the bees.