Thinking about guineas for grasshopper control

[Smoky73]

I am considering getting some guinea keets next year and raising them up to let loose on our property for bug control. The grasshoppers totally decimated my garden this year and want to avoid this in the future. We only have an acre, and the land behind us is farmland (currently soybeans I think) and then we have some neighbors as we are just outside town limits. At one time, we had geese that shared space with the goats, and that was my intention this time with guineas. I was planning on raising them up in a coop till they are old enough, then letting them into the yard with the goats. We have an old auto waterer for the goats that we used to use the underneath to feed the geese and this was our plan for feeding. we have a big bowl of water out for our adopted stray dog..thought that might work for them. Goats have two nice goat houses I thought the guineas could live in and we could feed them out of the goat pen. We never have anything come into the goat area, its welded wire fence 2"x4" on the perimeter fence and cattle panel up by our house. I have never seen a coyote nearby, maybe a passing fox, but nothing gets into the goat yard. How likely would it be to get the guineas to live int he goat yard. I figure if we do lose them to predators though I doubt its likely, that we just would not try it again.
Any advice?

 

[froggie71]

I don't know how guineas will do with goats, but I have 10 guineas along with 20 ducks, 4 geese and about 40 chickens. I have a gazillions grasshoppers. The guineas don't seem to be helping with that problem and I only have 1.5 acres.

 

[jcatblum]

I agree with froggie, we have close to 100 birds & grasshoppers multiple faster than they eat them. With the drought this yr the hoppers ate the leaves off all my 3-5 yr old fruit trees & moved on to eating the bark! Not sure if I will have any of my 15 trees next yr! Grasshoppers are so bad here they pelt you as you walk outside. I am sure I have a few bruises from those hoppers!

The funny part is I still see the chickens chase each other over the grasshoppers! The birds can't realize if they just looked down they would see a dozen more waiting to be gobbled up.

 

[racuda]

Quote:
My goats and Guineas coexist just fine. I water my Guineas with rubber buckets so it's easy to dump the ice out in the winter.

I doubt they would live in your goat house unless you have no trees. They might roost on top of it. A few of mine roost in a coop, but the majority roost about 35 feet up in a big oak tree. A goat house however would be a wonderful place for a Guinea to nest.

They might stay within your fence. A 2 foot high chicken wire fence keeps my Guineas and the chickens out of my garden. If one does fly over the fence they will panic trying to figure out how to get back in.

 

[Smoky73]

we only have one or two trees around our house, nothing around the chicken coop or goat yards. I want them to get into my garden, and its just a chicken wire fence around it, but also has a gate I could leave open. Thanks for the advice. Next year is a while away so I have plenty of time to think about it.

 

[froggie71]

You can train guineas. ours used to roost in the duck house until breeding season and the male guinea would attack our drake. They then got their own house. The youngest ones were raised with chickens and roost every night with the chickens. We have our yard fenced with 2 x4 weld wire fencing. They almost never go over the fence accept accidently if they get frightened. Then they can't figure out how to get back over it

They also rarely go into the tress. Maybe our guineas are dumber than most