I have 5 guinea fowl. 3 girls and 2 boys. They never be quiet! the girls always make their "buckwheat" noise! It gets really annoying after an hour. Why do they do this? Is there any way to make them be quiet? Thanks.
Every guinea seems to be on a mission to make as much noise as possible during their lives. I love guineas, and I enjoy building coops, but spending a Saturday building a coop next to a pen of young guineas is torture. I think my ears are still ringing from that. I'm gonna need hearing protection before I go at this again, LOL.
-/Hello: One has to realize where these birds come from. they are native to the African grass lands. They are constanly on the lookout for things that will EAT them. Why the hens can "buck wheat" and the cocks can not is something I sure do not know. Here is a poem from an annonymous writer. The Sixth Day Bird The Creator, creating the beasts of the field, In a moment of whimsy could not help but yield To an urge, and what could be fitter? "I'll make Me one final whimsical critter!" He began with the torso, spheroidal, prolate, With legs short and stubby and toes six or eight. The head wears a helmet with a strawberry top And down-dangling wattles either straight or alop. Most birds are melodious, with a tune for each He endowed this one with a god-awful screech. They seldom walk--'tis a run or a trot, Snatching bugs left and right, one for each polka-dot. Their mentality makes them insatiably curious. They greet things strange with clamor furious He made 'em gregarious to run in a flock Then, wearily spent, He looked at his clock. The Sixth Day ebbed into night when He Grinned as he rested and called it a GUINEA! Just so you know maybe a higher power is still laughing about this one. guinea goonie
Nice poem! Thanks. When I let them out in the morning they all make a racket and fly/run up to the barn. It is very funny to watch cause my chickens try to catch up but can't.
From my experience with guineas, they scream when they are excited, angry/annoyed, frightened, see a predator or anything unusual, and just for being on the lookout.
As soon as my hens were old enough to buck-wheat, they did so as loud as they could and pretty much did it non stop. That was last fall and winter. This spring it continued until they had chosen their mates. After they chose their mates the buck-wheating pretty much stopped. On a rare occasion the screaming alarms do occur and most of the time it is for reasons only apparent to the guineas. Most days now the whole group of them are so quiet that you wouldn't even know they are around. The young ones that I hatched and kept this year keep very quiet as they are afraid to sound off for fear that the adults will hear them and get after them. None of the young ones were hatched or raised by the adults and the adults treat them as intruders.
I had to give up my two guineas because of the noise. It didn't bother us, but it did bother our one next door neighbor, and we want to be good neighbors. Broke my heart - I miss my guineas so very much.
I love my guineas. They are loud, I believe, for good reason. For example, if a red tail hawk comes around, they go absolutely wild, and my free roaming chickens will find cover. We live out in the country, so thank goodness no problems with neighbors. I had two pairs for the past year; one female got killed in May by a predator while setting on eggs, and the other female jumped on the nest and hatched the 18 keets. Pretty good teamwork.