Other uses for guineas?

[Nichole]

I have wanted to get guineas for quite a while, but I can't justify the cost of feeding them just to keep the insect population down. Are there any other benefits to them besides that, and the eggs (which are quite small, correct?)

Thanks!
Nichole

 

[SassyKat6181]

They are quite funny to watch. And, unless you are not able to free range them, they really don't eat all that much feed. My chickens and ducks are more like pigs, but the 10 guineas use maybe 30 lbs in a month. Here, my feed costs $17 per 50 pounds.

The eggs are small, maybe 1/2 chicken size. I hardly get any eggs from my 5 girls, since I let them out in the morning and they come in before dark. On rainy days when they are kept in, I do collect the eggs, and they are delicious

 

[GuineaLady93]

Quote:
The best way to get them to pay for their own feed is to incubate and sell them. I know this sounds like a lot of trouble, but this is how i pay for all of my animals feed (not just the guineas but: horse, chickens, ducks, goats, and a peacock).
To get started it will cost you a little up front but, trust me, it will be worth it.
My hens lay everyday during their season. I wait til I have enough for a nice size batch and then incubate them and sell them for $3 each when they are about 3 days old.
With my first batch I paid for the incubator, the second batch paid for feed for a while, and all the batches after that just help keep paying for the feed.
The only other thing you could do (that I can think of) is to sell hatching eggs for like $6 or $7 a dozen.
Hope that helped!

 

[1st_chicken]

Hi, actually guinea eggs are about the same size as chickens. And it is actually easy to get nice guinea eggs. Just locate their nest and you'll find a bunch. YUM!!!!

pros
Guinea birds keep the insect population down.
Guinea birds scare of predators.
Guinea birds are very tasty, about a lot times better than chicken or turkey.
Guinea birds eggs sell very well for hatching them. I have pearl and white guineas, When its season my pearl guinea hatching eggs go for ten dollars a dozen, and the white go for $15.

cons
Guinea birds are really loud and noisy
Its hard to regularly keep their wings trimmed.
They aren't as tame as chickens.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
what the other people said.... plus they are good eating.... supposed to taste like Pheasant. The eggs are good eating too but they dont like to lay in a chicken nest nor do they go broody the same way so finding your eggs is always an adventure. In the wild they like to lay in scrapes in the ground so you will find them in all sorts of places. Other people here keep them in the run till they lay their eggs then let them out to forage.

I have mine primarily as a burglar alarm. Hopin to sells some Keets and hatching eggs too.

 

[PeepsCA]

perchie.girl :

.... plus they are good eating.... supposed to taste like Pheasant..

Actually... I just recently had 6 extra male Guineas butchered by a mobile butcher as a trial run the other day... to see if I'd like the taste of the meat or not (I've never had pheasant, so I was a bit leary). He said leave them in ziplocks for 48 hours, then cook them... so I did as he suggested and I waited.

So.... after 48 hours I cooked 2 in the crockpot on a bed of fresh herbs from my garden (rosemary, oregano, plus 8 cloves of garlic and 2 big handfuls of chopped chives) and topped the pot off with some chicken broth and cooked them on low until the meat was just about falling off the bones... and I have to say they were ABSOLUTELY FABULOUSLY TASTY, and the broth they were cooked in made some super yummy gravy too!!! drool

My Mom came over and we stuffed the other 4 with cornbred stuffing and roasted them like a stuffed Chicken or Turkey yesterday, 2 to a baking bag... and they tasted just like roasted Turkey and the house smelled just like Thanksgiving while they were roasting!

They only drawback is that they don't provide a lot of meat, It was tasty and tender, just not much there. These guys were all pen raised, between 16-18 weeks old and weighed about 2 to 2.5 lbs each dressed out. 1 bird is a decent meal for 2 people tho.

 

[StevenW.]

Oh my gosh you are makeing me hungry!

We had Pork Roast, Carrots, taters, gravy, and rolls on Sunday since my older sister and nephew came down for a visit.

ETA: We are having Duck for thanksgiving this year.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Actually... I just recently had 6 extra male Guineas butchered by a mobile butcher as a trial run the other day... to see if I'd like the taste of the meat or not (I've never had pheasant, so I was a bit leary). He said leave them in ziplocks for 48 hours, then cook them... so I did as he suggested and I waited.

So.... after 48 hours I cooked 2 in the crockpot on a bed of fresh herbs from my garden (rosemary, oregano, plus 8 cloves of garlic and 2 big handfuls of chopped chives) and topped the pot off with some chicken broth and cooked them on low until the meat was just about falling off the bones... and I have to say they were ABSOLUTELY FABULOUSLY TASTY, and the broth they were cooked in made some super yummy gravy too!!! drool

My Mom came over and we stuffed the other 4 with cornbred stuffing and roasted them like a stuffed Chicken or Turkey yesterday, 2 to a baking bag... and they tasted just like roasted Turkey and the house smelled just like Thanksgiving while they were roasting!

They only drawback is that they don't provide a lot of meat, It was tasty and tender, just not much there. These guys were all pen raised, between 16-18 weeks old and weighed about 2 to 2.5 lbs each dressed out. 1 bird is a decent meal for 2 people tho.

I am curious.... how much does the mobile butcher cost....

 

[PeepsCA]

It was a father and son team and they only charged me $5 per bird. They had all the equipment and took all the mess with him. All they needed from me was the birds, my hose, an electrical outlet and an ice chest of ice water to put the finished birds into. They brought their own heavy duty propane burner, scalding pot and even had one of those chicken plucker barrel thingies, lol. That thing only took like 20 seconds to completely pluck the Guineas clean (and he put 3 in at once!). They worked fast, I think it took me longer to figure out which birds to catch and get them caught than it did for them to be butchered and put on ice, lol.

I'm thinking about separating 24 more birds, feeding them nothing but corn and sweetfeed until a few days before Thanksgiving, and then having them come out and do it again

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
Yum, Pork Roast!!!

Wait.... are you having YOUR ducks for Thanksgiving??? Not the cute lil silly hair doo ducks!!!