Guinea Fowl, anyone?

[bridgette]

What can you tell me about Guinea Fowl? (as yard birds; not seeking info as to how they taste/how good their eggs taste).

 

I've heard about the pros --- eating insects, tick control, etc. but what do you know about the cons?

 

Anyone experienced them?

[Critterfixer]

I have two. We used to have eight. We have a nice chicken yard, but six of them decided it wasn't good enough and flew the coop. They were eaten by the neighbors dog. These two don't seem to feel like flying, mostly because I don't think they can stand to be apart and because they are just contrary enough to never feel like doing the same thing at the same time.

They are very noisy and better than the dogs for letting me know something isn't right. But they are VERY loud. Sounds just like a rusty gate continually creaking.

They do eat bugs and they don't dig up the place as much as the chickens do. But they won't eat squash bugs, more's the pity.

I like them. They are fun in a weird sort of way. The DH doesn't like them very much.

[dbmamaz]

i lived on a commune and we had some for the bugs. a LOT of people talked about getting a gun and shooting them - and it was a non-violent commune where guns were seriously frowned upon. but they were SO LOUD! just awful squawking noises. and totally not tame at all.

[bridgette]

you're making me rethink this.......

[Chelli]

They are dumb as rocks. That's my con.

[sweetgeo]

How much land do you have? We had 13 guineas, raised from 2 day-old keets, on 6 acres. We "trained" them to come home to the coop at night, but they roamed around during the day. Yes, they can be loud, but they weren't up by the house all that much. We loved them, and referred to them as (not-so) cheap entertainment. The biggest cons we found were that 1) they loved to sit on our porch railing at times during the day, so they pooped on the porch! 2) they would often get a wild hair and want to roost in the trees instead of their coop (thus decreasing their survival), and 3) they liked to dust bathe in the ground next to the house foundation, so I would have these wallow-pits to fill in. I HIGHLY recommend you get the book Gardening with Guineas. I dearly loved the goofy things, but we moved from rural PA to citified CA, so we gave them to friends with a farm.

[saraha]

Our neighbors have some, and they wander down here from time to time, luckily for them we don't have a dog.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Incredibly noisy birds, other than that, I like them.

[BrookValley.]

Yep, they are noisy, dumber than a box of rocks, and they look something like an orc from the LOTR movies...my husband is morally opposed, on all grounds. :laugh: We already have chickens, ducks, geese, and a peacock. After reading this thread though, I think guineas are *exactly* what I need to deter anyone from buying the house they just built right on my property line by my poultry barn...mwaaahaahaaahaaa (yes, that's an evil cackle right there).

 

Seriously though, they are really good for bugs and as watchdogs.

[cajunrose]

After reading this thread though, I think guineas are *exactly* what I need to deter anyone from buying the house they just built right on my property line by my poultry barn...mwaaahaahaaahaaa (yes, that's an evil cackle right there).

 

 

I about spit out my lunch when i read that!!! Yes, get a whole flock!

[redheadmom]

They can be really noisy and dumb as rocks. They get wild as they get older and roost in trees so they have a high mortality rate. They do create dusting spots which are usually in your flower beds and other places you don't want. They are awesome for bugs though.

[hillfarm]

They are loud, ear piercingly, screachingly, dramatically, annoyingly, just when you are on an important phone call, loud.

 

Compared to chickens, they leave giant poop piles in the most inconvenient and disgusting places.

 

They show you no love. Even if you have slogged out to the barn through sub 0 temperatures, boiling heat waves, flu, broken toes and all. They still act like they don't recognize you and think you are after them with knife and fork.

 

They will steal food from your chickens. Their own eggs aren't that special.

 

I am not a fan. :glare:

[laughing lioness]

What everyone else said. We got 5 this summer. We've had a grasshopper infestation for 2 years. It was like a plague. Those hoppers were eating everything in sight- including bushes. Enter guinnea fowl. Good-bye hoppers. $60 for 5 fowl was cheap compared to the insect poison I was putting on everything.

Thier poop can be annoying but it is nothing compared to geese (which we had years ago) Geese, (which are evidence of the fall), make any other bird look like saintly,

We are down to 3. They are loud but we have 10 acres and don't notice it much. They are also not very friendly- we are o.k. with that. They come around for food every a.m. They are a blast to watch. They do make dust fluff areas in the garden.

[bridgette]

thanks!

[Melinda S in TX]

Ditto everything everyone else said, especially loud and not too smart. Ours were very dedicated sitters, but we had to take the eggs away from them. They would sit on a nest, get covered in ants (since it was on the ground), and not move for anything.

 

The most annoying thing though, was their decision to take their long nailed toes up on my metal roof to roost. Think fingernails on blackboard, off and on, all night long.

[2squared]

All posted is true, but I loved having guineas. I much prefer them to chickens. My chickens are boring, but the guineas were always fun to watch and hear. We have seven acres, and their noises never bothered us. They don't hang out by the house. I find chicken poop to be nastier when compared to the guineas. The chickens do come near the house. They even sit on our picnic table. Chicken poop on a picnic table is beyond disgusting.

 

We had ticks when we moved onto our property. Two summers of guineas, and the ticks are rare now. Chickens don't spend much time out in the tall grass and grove, so they aren't very useful for tick removal.

[2squared]

 

If you read my blog, you'll see many guinea adventures. I wanted mine to roam like yours do but they wanted to live with the chickens in the pen. Where do yours sleep? Of course I I noticed you mentioned them in the past tense so maybe they are no longer! I have one left of the original six.

 

 

We've gone through two flocks of guineas in the past couple of years, and we did not replenish before this last winter. I expect we will get some more this spring.

 

We've gone through multiple flocks of chickens too. We obviously have hungry wild animals living nearby.

 

Our guineas sleep with the chickens, but all the birds free range during the day. The chickens stay closer to the building site than the guineas do/did. Our chickens come right up to the front door whereas the guineas would never get that close.

 

We had ten guineas hatch in our grove three summers ago. We had so much fun watching the guineas grow up, particularly since the male and female raise the chicks together. They were a self-contained flock until the day they died. Our chickens hatch eggs every spring, and that is fun too.

 

I personally prefer guineas over chickens, but the kids love gathering chicken eggs. I'm glad we have been able to experience both since they are very different birds.

[2squared]

That's amazing that they were able to hatch babies! I have read that they are usually terrible mothers.

 

We read the same thing, so we were utterly amazed. They hatched 10 chicks in our grove without us even knowing they had a nest. We thought the missing guineas had died, and I don't know how they managed to sit on a nest for that long without getting eaten. One day they waddled to the hen house with 10 babies following. Shocked us. The parents were incredible. They would have taken any of us out for getting within three feet of their babies. They were like that when the babies were teen-aged too. I dearly wish they had not died. I had hoped they would hatch more babies for us.