The Great Guinnea Debate/Pros and cons.

[rooster0209]

bright orange collars would be a cool idea

 

[suebee]

Rooster, do you keep your chickens and guineas in the coop together at night? I have 14 silkie bantams and want a few guineas. My coop is 8'x8' but the silkies sleep on a shelf on the inside wall of the coop, not up on roosts. Wondering if I have room...

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Hubby said NO WAY to guineas. He said they are incredibly noisy and they will roost on everything--i.e. houses, new cars, etc and they poop like crazy. He said that when his family first moved up here someone had dumped about 50 guineas in their yard! He said they scratched up his parents' new truck, would roost on everything & pooped everywhere. Needless to say, we do not have guineas.

 

[Southerngirl]

Guineas are excellent tick eaters and they will kill snakes. After they kill one they all surround it and do a victory dance and start chattering. They free range and fend for themselves and are good " watchbirds" if something or someone comes in the yard. A truly hardy bird. Good luck !

 

[rooster0209]

Suebee--Rooster, do you keep your chickens and guineas in the coop together at night? I have 14 silkie bantams and want a few guineas. My coop is 8'x8' but the silkies sleep on a shelf on the inside wall of the coop, not up on roosts. Wondering if I have room...

I will be keeping them together. Right now the chicks are 4wks old. They are seperated by chicken wire and arent allowed to free range yet. The guineas have seen the chicks and are not interested in them at all. I have a 2x4 across the coop for the guineas to roost on. Mount a 2x4 to the shelf and across to the wall. They dont need alot of room, the board I have mounted is about 4' off the ground.​

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
I wouldn't house guineas with silkies myself. They are spectacular tick eaters, that's for sure! And if you have more of them than I did, they seem to do better (I had 4). Mine were housed with my chickens for months before the poop hit the fan.

 

[rooster0209]

my guineas leave the coop before i get up at 6:30am and I think now they are roosting in the trees (lack of poop under the roost). Usually they head back to the coop at dusk.

Others around here who have guineas & chickens share a coop say they dont have problems because they all free range. So, I am hoping that is the case with mine.

I guess all situations and areas are the different. I dont have neighbors for miles, surrounded by crop land and dont have much for predators.

 

[suebee]

I'm just reading the pro's and con's here before I make a decision.
Sometimes on the weekends I don't let my chickens out til 10am but all my silkies get along. Of course with guineas I'd be scared to leave them that long. Guess I could set the alarm.

As far as the neighbors...I don't care. I don't like them.
The neighbor on my right has ugly old yard birds that come over here and tear up dh's garden and pick on my silkies. I've told him to lock them up but one hatched babies so the other 3 thugs are barred from their pen by overprotective mama hen. They sleep in the trees and are over here first thing in the morning. They need to build another coop or get rid of them. They have no respect for us, so I don't care if the guineas are loud. The LOUDER the BETTER, I say.

 

[WisconsinChick]

Quote:
Im pretty shure 'stupidest' isn't a word.

 

[suebee]

Rooster, I already have several 8 ft long 2x4 roosts mounted about 6 feet up!