The Benefits of Guinea Fowl?

[SunnySkyFarm]

My Dad wants to get guinea fowl. I know they eat ticks, but is their any more benefits to guinea fowl? I am interested. They lay eggs, right? And another stupid question- Does a guinea hen require a guinea cock to be present in order to lay eggs? Thanks!

 

[Ohgrr]

They do lay eggs and a cock isn't necessary for eggs I have a friend that is going to get me some guinea eggs to incubate here soon. I am excited

 

[Sandshaven]

My Dad wants to get guinea fowl. I know they eat ticks, but is their any more benefits to guinea fowl? I am interested. They lay eggs, right? And another stupid question- Does a guinea hen require a guinea cock to be present in order to lay eggs? Thanks!

Yes, you can eat their eggs. You can actually eat the adult guineas and I am told they taste like pheasant. Thou I have never found a guinea I wanted to taste.. lol
You can use their feathers for jewlery, decorating, ect. They are very pretty.
They have wonderful poo for fertilizer.
They will help keep down weeds.
They are great alarm systems.
We use ours as therapy birds.. I love my guineas... But some do not..

 

[Luckyduck2]

I used to have 6 guinea fowl. But when they got to breeding age they started attacked all of the red/buff chickens but left the barred rocks alone. Evidently they don't like that color. If you have chickens that have buff/red coloring, I would recommend either not getting them or replacing the red or buff chickens with a breed of a different color before getting them. We ended up eating our guineas, I have heard that they taste like a combination of chicken and turkey.

 

[Sandshaven]

I used to have 6 guinea fowl. But when they got to breeding age they started attacked all of the red/buff chickens but left the barred rocks alone. Evidently they don't like that color. If you have chickens that have buff/red coloring, I would recommend either not getting them or replacing the red or buff chickens with a breed of a different color before getting them. We ended up eating our guineas, I have heard that they taste like a combination of chicken and turkey.

I would put you under the "don't like" category.. lol
I don't own chickens so I really can't comment or blame you. I would not be happy if they were attacking other pets.
I have buff dundottes (they are light colored) and none seem bothered by mine.. But they are all guineas.
I am sorry you didn't find the joy in them.. But did you find them tasty?

 

[Luckyduck2]

Not anything I like to do, it's just that selling them was the less preferable option. We did find the joy in them, we actually even liked the noise. (First couple of days after we bought them we were like "these things are ugly." But anyways they are beautiful and interesting-looking birds.) We were just having problems with them that we couldn't fix, and we would much rather get rid of 6 guineas than 20 red sex link chickens. And yes, we did find them tasty

so worth it if meat's one of the things you plan using them for!

 

[Sandshaven]

Maybe a different flock would act differently.... No guaranties thou

 

[Luckyduck2]

Well, maybe I'll try them again. I've read that guineas will not be aggressive to other species if you have enough of them, I guess that they kind of make their own little "society". How many guineas do you have?

 

[Sandshaven]

I have 28 adults and 5 keets kept this year so far

 

[Luckyduck2]

Wow, that's a lot of guineas! How load is it when they all start screeching?

Maybe I'll have to try some more guineas. I could definitely use them, I went out walking in a field today, and walked out with about five ticks on my leg. Creepy!