intelligence of guinea fowl

[SimplyForties]

Thanks Old Rebel, those are great stories! After 10 years I think there is some basis to hanging the "expert" label on you!

 

[ziggywiggy]

Very well said Rebel. I love my Guineas and wouldn't want to be without them.
I think we look at intelligence as it applies to humans and foget that even with everything we know, we have not been able to explain some of the amazing instincts and abilities that animals have. Guineas come from African Savanahas. Imagine how we would look to a wild Guinea if we had to survive in their territory. I'm pretty sure we'd probably get ate.

 

[CrazyFowlFreak]

Are we insanely lucky?
Naw, just stupid. I've lost 3 of my original 7. But the one's that are left are super duper smart, cunning, and quiet! LOL

 

[alwayswantedchicks]

THANK YOU REBEL!!!!

I have 15 guineas, 9 of them 19 weeks old and 6 that are 17 weeks old. My husband would get rid of them all today if I'd let him.

He's been making me start to wonder if I made a mistake getting guineas. We live in the mountains with a lot of trees and wildlife. Our property is fenced for most 4 legged predators. My first 9 guineas had a rough start, with 23 'litter babies' dying in their five days. The 9 'older' guineas sometimes pick on the 6 'babies'. They have all been with my chickens for a few months now. It took some time and patience introducing them to the flock. Sometimes I'll just take a bucket of feed, spread it on the ground, flip the bucket over and have a seat among the birds. They seem to enjoy my company as much as I enjoy theirs. I too have noticed that if it's rainy, they take shelter while the chickens look like drowned rats seeking out fat juicy worms. My husband swears the guineas only eat feed and pieces of our roof. I keep defending them that "they're still very young. They'll mature to be the bug/guards that we need". They also will wear a hole into the ground, pacing the fence, unable to go 6 more inches to get around the gate or fly over 4' of fencing.

They can and do fly high into the tallest oaks, also following their leader. They are a beautiful sight to see when the fly back down into the fields or yard. They are usually the first of our birds into the coop (best roost poles) at night and when I 'tuck' (count) all my birds in before locking the door (I count them at dusk to make sure none have lost their way back home), they are side by side with the hens. Sometimes, like colder evenings, the smallest keets are hard to find because they might be tucked between two fat feathery hens. One cold rainy evening I missed counting all the guineas and mistakenly locked one out. First thing the next morning I found her, still pacing the fence line unable to get in. She was wet, cold and exhausted. I wonder if she paced all night long, poor thing. Now I count until all are accounted for. They stay very close to home still. I've never seen them venture more than about 50 or so yards away from the pen. All of my birds free range our property and all were originally gotten to help control ticks. We have a service dog that we had to retire this year due to Lyme's disease (chemical vet treatments don't always work). We're training a successor golden for that job now and don't ever want to see another being suffer as our old boy has. He doesn't understand why he can't help anymore.

We just want him to relax now and enjoy retirement. Our hens are older than the guineas by several months. We rarely see any ticks anymore. I do think that is mostly due to the chickens though since the guineas mostly stay so close. The guineas are venturing out a little at a time and my expectation is that they will munch down on the ticks in areas that I won't allow my chickens to go. When I'm working near the wooded areas of our place the hens go with me and have a blast eating bugs in new territory but the guineas aren't ready to go there yet. They're invited but still decline. I was kinda hoping they would learn some bugging skills from the chickens but maybe the little bullying the chickens do with them keeps that from happening. I worry, when reading posts on aggressive guineas, about my chickens and golden retreivers being picked on not to mention the daughter in the wheelchair. But I'm keeping the faith that since we keep them close (we're outside with them a lot) that they will think we're all just one happy family.

So my reason for posting is simply to say in a long about way, THANK YOU. I needed that. The guineas are staying.

 

[artsyrobin]

our guineas are wonderful, they follow us around, dust bathe with the chickens when they are out, i think if they are used to other birds, there isn't much of a problem- we do have one we call Thick, he really is a slow thinker, when they first started flying, they all took off at the same time, 3 went the right way, thick flew into the tree truck, he limped around for a few days. But he is our singer- he will stand and just yell, love the eyelashes! yours will learn in time to get the bugs, they are still young...

they will escort us around the property- why do you think yours will get aggressive to people? they really are timid at times- poor little one getting locked out- yes, they do think differently than we expect- our get trapped in the chicken run even with the gate open

 

[Soccer Mom]

Glad I"m not the only one with a "guinea escort." They aren't friendly in the same way as chickens. They don't want to be held or petted, but mine still follow us around the entire property. If anyone is outside doing anything, they came flying in (always reminds me of the helicopters in Apocalypse Now) and will chase after you chattering like mad. But they haven't been aggressive at all to anyone. I wouldn't worry about that.

Whenever I turn out a new group of guineas, I always lose some right off the bat. I generally assume those were the ones that were TSTL--too stupid to live. Then it settles down and the ones left stick around for a long time. I put them up every night and while I lose an occasional guinea, the ones who survive that first year are pretty savvy.

 

[artsyrobin]

They are so awesome in flight, they really remind me of dinosaurs, and they will relax on the porch while I'm having coffee, considering how wild they really are, i take that as a compliment- do guinneas have a pecking order? Thick, the one i posted the pic of is always a bit out of the loop, just a little behind the others, always bringing up the rear, although they do travel together, just he's a bit off

 

[Barry]

I have 5 keets about 3 months old in a coop 7x6 and they have been in there a month. They will not eat any new food like greens or anything else. I can leave the door open ... they may look out but will not go out. They all roost on the 6' high 2x4 that goes across the back. This coop is located on my camp site which is some 4 miles from home so my idea was to to make it to be lower maintenance than my chickens at home. It is not working out that way.
They are supposed to eat ticks next spring, will I have to teach them how to do that? But first I will have to teach them how to get in and out of the coop. The plan was to have an opening high enough up that coons can not climb up the metal siding and just leave it open in the spring and summer. Am I a dreamer?

 

[poultrypatch]

Been reading this thread for awhile now and have to add my 2 cents. I LOVE my little guineas ! Granted, all of abt 9 wks old now. I have 6 RIR that are about 21 wks. They're in a seperate run/coop. Ordered 24 asst girls from Ideal and 7 banties also. Found my 7 keats locally. I forced the Guineas to interact with me. As much as they hated me I picked them up all the time and held them while they had a fit. They were all in my laundry room for 7 wks so much easier to do. Some actually took scratch from my hand...following the chickens' example. I never wanted to feed and raise wild animals. ) Personally, when they look at me I always think what an intelligent look they have. Very inquisitive. They're out in their coop now with all their former friends and just started to let them all out in covered pen. They are a riot to watch. The coop is somewhat in the middle of area...they zoom around chasing each other and buckwheating/chi chi ching like mad. They just love to race around the coop after each other. If either a chick or myself is in they way we coould be run over. I've noticed some of the chicks run with them. They don't run to me like the chicks but don't run from me either.
Liz
Rochester, MA

 

[poultrypatch]

Barry...
Just read your post above mine. When I opened the big door for all the chicks to go out I didn't expect my keats to follow. They did...one after the other. They loved picking through all the leaves that had fallen and all the acorns from the trees. No problem with them eating new things. Perhaps my DH is right ??? Just all spoiled ? LOL When it came time for all to go in that night the keats didn't go... a lot of chickens didn't either. I had put their red heat lamp on about 4 PM as it was getting dusky out and I had been very hopeful they "would follow the light". My DH suggested that I go into the coop and call them. So there I was, "here chicks, chicks, keats, keats, keats. And in came ALL 7 KEATS followed by most of the chicks ! I rewarded them all with their usual evening snack where I mix game food with the grower and add warm water and then some buttermilk, or yogurt. Had whipping cream that soured and they loved it mixed in. I love their prehistoric look ! They are more timid then the chicks. Can you pick up a couple and bring them out into their pen ?
Liz
Rochester, MA