Pro's and con's of using guinneas!

[skrlis]

I'm having the same problems with mice and I'd rather not use poisons, the guineas is a very interesting solution! Could someone give some pro's and con's? other suggestions?

 

[MeepBeep]

Cons...

The biggest thing is they are noisy, they never shut up, and when they alarm it's crazy noisy...

Personally the noise doesn't bother me, so it's a non-issue but many complain about it...

They can also be aggressive towards other fowl...

They like to wander...

They breed like rabbits...

They have what many call 'stupid' antics, I find it entertaining...

Pros...

They are great watch birds, and even offer flock protection....

They are a never ending source of entertainment if you like silly antics...

They love eating ticks...

They will attack/kill small rodents and reptiles...

 

[buckbye]

My guineas aren't aggressive. Some of them don't even leave the property. They REALLY decimated my tick population and pretty much feed themselves except when there's snow on the ground. My friend tells me they're delicious, though I haven't eaten one yet. They do tend to get eaten by predators when they're young and small, but you can order keets year-round for not much. Keep them cooped/penned for 4-6 weeks so they learn where they live. They alert the other birds to ground and aerial predators, and even scared off a bobcat or two.

Some angry old idiot up the road kept complaining that the guineas were loud and woke him up at dawn every morning. My guineas don't even wake up until at least 9am. Turned out he was hearing red-tailed hawks. Just for his complaining I picked up 2 more roosters.

 

[thomasboyle]

I had guineas for a couple of years, and other than being very loud all the time, my biggest problem is they would mercilessly pick on some of my chickens. I would have to rescue a hen from being chased and attacked by 3-4 guineas on a frequent basis. They did not do all that good of a job as a watchdog, I lost 50% of my guineas to predators, and only a handful of chickens and ducks. I think because they roam more, they got into predator trouble more. But they did a great job at reducing ticks.

 

[skylavaulter]

My guineas aren't aggressive.  Some of them don't even leave the property. They REALLY decimated my tick population and pretty much feed themselves except when there's snow on the ground.  My friend tells me they're delicious, though I haven't eaten one yet.  They do tend to get eaten by predators when they're young and small, but you can order keets year-round for not much.  Keep them cooped/penned for 4-6 weeks so they learn where they live.  They alert the other birds to ground and aerial predators, and even scared off a bobcat or two.

Some angry old idiot up the road kept complaining that the guineas were loud and woke him up at dawn every morning.  My guineas don't even wake up until at least 9am.  Turned out he was hearing red-tailed hawks.  Just for his complaining I picked up 2 more roosters. 

Haha love it

 

[PalmRoyal]

I am not sure if this adds to the post or not, but my friends used to have guineas. I believe they had 8-10 of them at any given time. However, one day they had gotten home and they guineas were killing their barn cat. They are not sure why, but all they could figure is that the cat had gotten in a fight and had some blood on it and the guineas went after the cat. They had seen their guineas hunt in packs almost when searching for bugs and then they had gotten there the guineas were killing the cat in a herd, so I'm not sure if flock numbers had anything to do with this or not.
My only complain with guineas is that they are loud. Very loud. Other than that, O particularly like them. They are very fun to have around.