Interested in getting guineas

[CDennis]

Looking for any advice before I take the leap into Guinea ownership, currently have 11 chickens, 3 goats, 3 horses, 3 dogs and 1 barn cat. My husband and I live on 6 fenced acres. Neither of us have ever been around guineas so I want to make sure I know what I am in for. First of all do we have enough land for guineas? I hear they are loud, exactly how loud? I know they are social birds and from all the research it says get at least 6, is that a decent number or less/more. Any advice at all you can lend I greatly appreciate. Thank you in advance!!!! -Cortney

 

[PoultryPotts]

They are VERY VERY noisy. Even if they are I still love my guineas. I hope you are pleased whith yours.Good luck.

 

[sal64]

I had guineas had to get rid of them nabers compland, they wander to much and are very noisey.

 

[new-roo]

You should be fine with 6 acres

 

[chickensioux]

6 acres is plenty of land. They are very noisy when alarmed. They are not constantly noisy. They are great "buggers" and will get rid of fleas, ticks, etc. Keep them in a pen for the first 2 weeks so they know where their home is otherwise they will just run off and roost in the trees or further away off your property. They will learn to come back to a coop or pen. Guineas are awesome and fun to watch.

 

[farmgirlie1031]

I got mine as keets. They are now a year old. They are loud but there were a lot less ticks around last summer. We have 10 acres here but they only roam on about an acre. They fly back to the horse stall to roost each night that I housed them in as keets. My chickens have learned to listen for when they are alarmed and head for cover. I have one guinea hen that sleeps under the wing of our big BO roo each night like a chick would under it's mother's wing. They do wake me up some mornings up on the barn roof making noise but I have pretty much gotten used to it.

 

[cw]

there not bad just remmber to handle them a lot when there keets if you want to handle them as older birds/ i would go with keets and let them grow up with you , if you get older birds they will want to runn off looking for home, you would have to keep them cooped up for 6 wks, be hard to manage, etc

 

[Sunny Side Up]

You should go see and hear them for yourself before getting them. Some people cannot bear their noise. Others don't mind it so much, or count it as part of the cost of owning such unique & interesting birds.

I like mine because they look like something drawn by Dr Seuss, because they're so self-directed and spend their days roaming the yard together, because they're so amusing to watch with their tiny bobbling heads & their big blimpy bodies. I like finding pretty polka-dotted feathers around the yard.

But when my girlfriend's husband heard them for the first time he said to her "I don't care if they s**t gold bricks, don't you ever bring home birds like that!"

My kids think their call sounds like they're saying "butt-crAAK! butt-crAAK! butt-crAAK!" and find it hilarious.

 

[CDennis]

Thank you for all the information. I wish I could find someone around me that has some so I could hear what I am getting into! Hard to measure how loud is loud!

 

[PoultryPotts]

I may have some Keets this year.