The Great Guinnea Debate/Pros and cons.

[ninny]

can you train them to stay in the yard?

 

[mandtroof]

I am really considering getting some guineas. We have 20 areas of land for them to roam. My concern would be winter, housing them, and our 11 chickens, one being a bantam. What do you guys think?

 

[higgytown]

Guineas are not stupid, and they're a lot more independent than chickens. They will "alert" on any predator quite loudly, but otherwise their noise level is fine. They will gang up on snakes & kill them. If the snake is too big to kill, they'll harass it & alert you. They eat tons of bugs & I've watched them stand around an ant hill & eat ants as they come out.

 

[mandtroof]

Guineas are not stupid, and they're a lot more independent than chickens. They will "alert" on any predator quite loudly, but otherwise their noise level is fine. They will gang up on snakes & kill them. If the snake is too big to kill, they'll harass it & alert you. They eat tons of bugs & I've watched them stand around an ant hill & eat ants as they come out.

That is so neat!

 

[KAZROB]

I loveeeeeeee Guineas and only got my first three by chance, but since that time I am completely sold! They are not noisy, they are calm, have mixed in beautifully with my ducks, chicken, roosters, cats etc and generally only have something to say if as mentioned there is something that they are alerting you about. Mine are quiet and happily wander around, I have two older. I have 9 in total now as I had seven keets which were hatched by one of my chickens they are now at the point of lay and they get a little noisy when they see me coming, as they are excited to think that I have grated cheese for them and lettuce, but all in all they are lovely! As far as alerting you, if you hear them carrying on it is in your best interest to go check it out, one day mine were going absolutely mad and I thought mmmmmmm what's going on and so I went out to see what all the noise was about and we had made a big pile of wood etc ready for a burn off and they were running in and out and making a NOISE, I thought I wonder if it is a snake so I got a long stick and poked it on the pile where they were protesting, then all of a sudden my cat came running out! LOL they were not happy that the cat was in the wood pile, how dare he! Anyway, once the issue was resolved and the cat was out of the pile, they went back to being calm and quite just wandering around lol..... We also got a new blue trailer and we parked it in the paddock with the other trailers, well for the first day that we put it there, they carried on , protested and protested, so we thought OK we get the msg you don't like the new trailer, we moved it to an area in the paddock in which they don't really go and they were happy with that LOL, the trailer has since been accepted as something that shares the paddock space and the guineas are ok with it now and so we can park it where we want and they are fine with it LOL...they are very smart and know when something is new or different!

I'M A HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE GUINEA FAN!

 

[Jerimnz]

I am about to incubate some guinnae eggs so was very interested in this thread. We live on 100 plus acres and have tons of grass hoppers. My chickens do ok by catching them but do not free range very far. They like to stay around the coop. We don't have much problems with snakes but I've seen them. I always worry about chicken snakes since grabbing one under a chicken when I was a kid. Not a good experience. I'm ok with the noise, the coop is far enough away and the neighbors and my rooster already make plenty of noise. Not too many neighbors either. Cannot wait to get the eggs tomorrow and start the hatching process.

 

[GuineaFowling]

It all depends on how you raise them. My guineas are the smartest of my flock, smarter than my chickens. I know a lot of people have said they are stupid but they aren't. They do have a tendency to run to whatever they think is dangerous but that is simply because they are curious or want to attack it. They always alert me when their is a hawk flying over or a dog that wanders into the yard. They practically saved my sister from a oppossum. The oppossum came out during the day and went towards my sister, the guineas where across the yard and came running to attack it. They are very hardy and forage a lot. They depend mainly on foraging rather than eating what you provide so a lot of food gets saved. (for my fat chickens). They love seeds and do not damage my garden or lawn. The guineas will eat the weeds and trim the grass and eat all the bugs. They free range during the day and come into the coop to roost at night. Guineas like sleeping in high places so you will need a high roost or else they will roost on the rafters or in a tree. I trained my guineas to roost in the coop on a 6 foot roost. They are noisy. Not a pet for close neighbors. I love my guineas and enjoy watching their antics. They come when called and know their individual names. I will call them by their names and whenever I say one particular guineas name, it will stop foraging and glance my way before continuing. If I call them they come running and love fruits, seeds, and veggies. They also love homemade wheat bread. My guineas have always gone broody and raised young. They lay small, beautiful , almost tear drop shaped eggs. The shells are soo thick and healthy that I have to bang them hard against a bowl in order to crack em open. The chicken eggs are weak shelled compared to the guineas. They will eat almost any pest. Be it bugs, insects, lizards. They even go after small snakes and mice.
Most of the time they will run from a dog if the dog chases them but if they are raised around dogs and do not see them as predators then you will have a problem. They love to come sit on my porch and look at their reflections through the window and preen. I would say the only problem is them always running towards the danger if they think they can kill it. Most of the times they think they can overpower almost anything except for hawkes and larger animals. They are super amusing though.

 

[GuineaFowling]

can you train them to stay in the yard?

I trained mine to stay in their own little paddock. They are not allowed to go out of it. Of course in the begin when they were younger they did go out but that was the starting process of the training. In order to get them to stay in one particular area you need to make sure they haven't been to any other part of your property. If they have then they think its okay to wander and would try and get out because they want to be somewhere more familiar.

 

[paxinospullets]

First Timer. Got 5 brand new keets yesterday. 2 are a light blue with tan stripes. One "chipmunk" colored. One white. One mostly brown with a white face. They are SO adorable! I think they're even cuter than my chicken peeps were. Looking forward to watching them grow up.

 

[KAZROB]

You will have fun watching them grow, they grow FAST! They are smart and adorable....Mine loveeeeeeeeeeee grated cheese and when they were around 8 weeks I gave them cheese and lettuce and they loveeee rice and milk. Just remember to feed them a higher protein starter feed, it needs to be around 26-28%. Enjoy