What are guineas good for?

[Talisman]

One good thing about them is when they are in your garden they don't scratch around like chickens do,and you gotta love their funky looking faces. The sound they make is music to my ears but I only have 2 at a time

My brother thinks I smoke some of those strange cigarettes

 

[perchie.girl]

Lol love all the replies.... still have a visual of a child being carried out to the underbrush..... little voices saying "" gimme a left left left right left.....""
And the power booost to the jogger.

I got my guineas basically because my land is Two miles from the Mexican Border and one and a half miles from paved highway. Walking burglar alarms is so true. And we have ticks the kind that go dormant on the back side of a leaf and can hibernate there over five years before a host walks by. (actually I believe all ticks can do this) As well as snakes and micies...... But my favorite part is the Comic relief.... they act stupid because they dont think the way we do.... Mine are still peeping but they are beginning to get their red on their faces.... Every once and a while I hear Peep Peeep Buck Wheattt.... and they look around to see who said that....

The eggs are more yolk than white and you have to use the back of a knife to get them started to crack.... and they are about the size of a large bantam egg. Because of the smaller white in proportion I would say they would be better for Pound cake than Angel food cake.... But all other uses Fried, boiled, scrambled, would be the same.

The meat is supposed to be like Pheasant but i wont be sampling that till I get a stable breeding flock. Probably never at the rate I am going....

WRT noise.... LOL... I hat eleven that were almost grown (before the predators got them) and when they went off in alarm.... you couldnt hold a conversation till they were done. I have almost twenty acres so I am the only one to deal with....

 

[HappyPlace]

The eggs are more yolk than white and you have to use the back of a knife to get them started to crack.... and they are about the size of a large bantam egg. Because of the smaller white in proportion I would say they would be better for Pound cake than Angel food cake.... But all other uses Fried, boiled, scrambled, would be the same.

That's really good to know. Thank you.

I had originally decided that I would have chickens for eggs, ducks for pets (always wanted a duck), and a few guineas for bug control and, yes, as an alarm, but recently I was waivering on the guineas. I was kind of hoping that asking this question would further convince me to not get guineas, but you all have actually enforced my reasoning behind getting them.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
That's really good to know. Thank you.

I had originally decided that I would have chickens for eggs, ducks for pets (always wanted a duck), and a few guineas for bug control and, yes, as an alarm, but recently I was waivering on the guineas. I was kind of hoping that asking this question would further convince me to not get guineas, but you all have actually enforced my reasoning behind getting them.

OOoh duck eggs are the best in cakes. Id do guinea eggs in quiche..... Yummy. I havent had a guinea egg yet my youngsters wont be mature enough for a couple of weeks and that will be the time when most poultry cut back on laying.... So may have to wait till February....

Glad you didn't give up.

 

[mlwillhaus]

I had Guineas , left to me by a neighbor , man what an alarm system they are ... they hollered their fool heads off every time they seen me and they do not like pit fires either , took them awhile to get use to me but once I sprinkled cat food in the grass for them I was their best friend...if they didn't hear the patio door opening( which they usually did) all it took was a "who's hungry " call from me and they came running from all corners of the farm...They are a lot more personable then a chicken... or so it seemed when i was talking to them.....lol...so fun...

 

[MinxFox]

I don't have guineas, but recently I was trying to convince my uncle to get some. He lives on a beautiful piece of land with lots of beautiful hills and woods, but when I went walking to the creek I got covered in ticks. The worst part was it wasn't just the big ticks but also the hard to see tiny ones.

When I told him he needed guineas to control the ticks he laughed and didn't really seem to believe me, but after reading all of the comments saying they do get rid of ticks, he might want to consider them! He sprays around the house for them, but I still found some in the "safe zone". He has a little koi and goldfish pond that he often sits by to watch the fish, but I really think he would love watching a bunch of silly birds run around his backyard. I don't know if he could put up with the noise though.

 

[kzane23]

Guineas will keeps snakes away too.

 

[the foot]

I love my guineas. They are not too intelligent, but brains is not the strong point of poultry anyway. They always look up, never down, hence they can be kept in a fence that has holes down at the bottom. They are the best at eating bugs, chasing snakes, and warning of dangerous critters. Last month a red fox showed up in broad daylight to drag one of my hens away. The guineas alerted me to the situation with that noise they make when things go to s--t (turn bad).

I started out with 12 but eight got killed through their own bad decisions (fly out of the pen and get et by a coon, or stick their head out through the fence wire and get their head pulled off by a possum),

But believe me, their eggs are great and they are worth their weight in gold as an exterminator.

 

[Chicken Review]

Guineas are outstanding bug and small rodent control! They are also a great watch dog animal! Unknown to many people they have wonderful tasting meat. Many people who have eaten them like them better than chicken. You can also eat their eggs! Other than the sometimes excessive noise, they are great to have in with your chickens. There is a pretty good article on them here, http://goo.gl/pnuqZD