New Guineas... MORE Questions...

[FLOWERPOT]

I got a pair of Guineas today!!!
YEAY!!
I have liked them forever but havent had any till now.
They are in between the size of my standard hens and the bantams, they are young, But dont they get just a little bigger than my standards??
I left them in a crate in the coop for a while but it was apparent my chickens didnt care about them at all, They looked at them and then paid no more attention to them. So I opened their door and they are with the flock now acting like they have been there forever.
Q.1 How big do they get in comparison to my hens?
Q.2 Do I need to feed them something other than the chicken food?
-----Starter or layer pellets?
Q.3 Do I need to lock them in the coop? or will they stay with the chickens?
Q.4 I understand they fly pretty good. Will they fly away?

Probably more questions to come.. That will get me started though.
Its raining pretty hard today, (Thank GOD its not snow) so even though the coop door is open the chickens are all staying inside.

 

[NewChickenMom]

they will be about the size of a bantam chicken.

feed them what you feed the chickens.

LOCK THEM IN THE COOP for at least 2 months!! they are not very bright and will fly away and get eaten if you let them out now. after two months, they should realize where home and food are.

they do fly VERY well! like i said, dont let them out now, but after a couple months they will fly on top of your house, car, anything they can get to.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
1. our neighbor has them, they look like a large chicken in size, OR like a turkey hen in size...hard to tell unless i could scoot another bird over to them to compair but if i had to say that's what i'd say.

2. not sure cant help here sorry
3. yes you should, they need several weeks i've been told to learn where HOME is or they won't learn to come home for safety and can roam very far distances. My neighbor kept his guineas housed for months, and just reciently let them out and they stay in his yard for hte most part, i've seen them cross the road twice into our woods, but were soon spooked back to thier home (by a speeding car).
4. Yes they can from what i've read and been told, but this applies with teaching them where home is.

sorry i can't help completley but i thought this might tide you over until a true guinea owner can get on here and help hehe

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
A1 about 4 to 5 pounds
A2No
A3Yes/Yes,, after awhile
A4Yes/Yes, at first,, Once they get used to being with the chickens they will stay..

make sure that you make them go into the coop EVERY night.. It might look cool to see them roost in a tree, but discourage them at all effort.. a loose guinea is a dead guinea..

we have 6" of new snow and it is still snowing..

.......jiminwisc.........

 

[FLOWERPOT]

Thanks yall
Sound advise so far, I dont want them to fly off, I just got them!!

Another Question.. Do they ever go broody? Will they hatch their own eggs and/or steal the chicken eggs like some of my hens do?

 

[jvls1942]

Oh yes, they will lay about 20 eggs and then go broody..
another reason to teach them where home is.
they can hide a nest right under your nose and you will not locate it without a lot of effort..

they make lousy mothers.. your est bet is to take their eggs away and set them under chickens or in an incubator..

If you know where a guinea is setting on eggs and you want to et her hatch them, fine.. what you have to do here is build a vary small fence around the nest that will keep predtors out and newly hatched babies in.. as SOON as the babies are hatched catch them and put them into a brooder.. their survival rate with a guinea hen is very poor.. do not allow them to get wet.. they WILL die..

after they get all their feathers, they become very hardy, though..

keep asking questions...

....jiminwisc........

 

[Cackel]

when you let them let them out one at a time ,it will stay there and not leave the other one 2 days later let the other one out ,and they will stay pretty close to where you have them , but do keep them up for a while or they will wonder away , Guineas stay where they are raised ,We have had them for a long time ,they follow us everywhere when we go outside and they are so nosey. we call ours the investigatetors.And they are good to let you know when someone or something new comes around .the boys make a cack cack sound ,but the girls have a sound that sounds like , come back come back ,,This is about the only way you can tell a girl from a boy ,so I hope you have a pair, And they do not lay eggs from Oct. untill around May , Ours has a house to get in out of the weather but they choose to roost in the trees. You will enjoy them ,they are nice to have around

 

[txchickie]

Our guineas are huge. HUGE. I'd say they weigh 8-9 lbs.

Lock them up for at LEAST a month. Then only turn out a couple (or in your case, 1

) for a day or so, then let out the other. They fly extremely well and decorate your yard with all sorts of spotted feathers

Ours are NOT gentle and I don't want them that way. We can't get within 10 feet of them, and I think that is good for their survival to be wild.

Ours totally free range and refuse to enter the coop at any time. They roost super high up in the trees, I can barely tell they're there. We've only lost one and that was in broad daylight and it was our own dog

We've since fixed that issue. They will wander a bit, but there's nothing around our property to "go" to, so aside from hopping around a wheat field, they stay fairly close.

I feed them in the exact same spot every day, 3x a day and they are always waiting like clockwork for a meal LOL. I feed layer crumbles mixed with cracked corn. I throw scratch out sometimes as a treat. At first we fed the wild bird/game feed stuff, but switched to layer crumbles.

I am not sure about the egg/broody issue. Haven't got there yet.

Ours are extrememly low maintainence. I love those birds and plan on getting 20-30 more next coming spring (we have 16 now). They kept our yard free of fleas, ticks, and other yuckyucks all summer & fall. I do not find that they are extremely noisy either, no more noisy than our screaming goats, crowing roosters, calves, horses, or my 2 year old

 

[sweetshoplady]

I feed mine gamebird breeder and cracked corn and scratch and wild bird feed with the sunflowers in it. Mine love corn.

Mine are about the same size as my hens, Black Star, RIR, Delawares. Mine are friendly and sleep with the chickens.

If you grow corn, you would do well to fence it off. They love corn. Mine love popcorn too. They will eat your corn plants. They will also prune tasty landscaping (like Hibiscus bushes and rose bushes)

They don't seem to care for fruit. They do like cheerios, the plain kind, or at least mine do. They like millet. Once they associate you with food, and know where home is, they will come back. Mine travel around the property farther than my chickens but always come running. At first they just hung out in the garage, (where they sleep) when I started to let them free range. I had them in a tractor before that. I have 8.

Oh, and did I mention that they like corn.

Enjoy them! What colors did you get?

 

[FLOWERPOT]

So, Do they like corn?? LOL

They are a really dark purple'ish' with white spots on the wing feathers. I dont know which ones that is.
And they are a bit on the wild side. I just figured they arent as cuddely as the chickens, but they are pretty cool.