guineas

[yourbadd]

I recently bought 2 adult guineas and they are amazing!! We had to keep them locked up in the run for the first week so they know where home was but after that it's been smooth sailing. They are noisy but of us, that's good. We live in a fairly remote area with
our closest neighbor 1/2 mile away. They seem to be less destructive than chickens in terms of scratching and such. Our garden was already done for the year when we got them so we'll see how that do next year...I've heard they aren't a threat to garden plants like hens.

We are planing on getting more next spring. It's been a blast to watch them...they are very comical!!

 

[gourdhead]

i am enjoying these posts very much and want to thank all of you for your responses. jon

 

[Marianne]

Very timely post, too! I recently found out where I can get some keets. I have been wondering about them as well.

Hubs keeps looking at me with the raised eyebrow. He's had people tell him how noisy they are (not that he would be bothered much by that. Most of the time he doesn't have his hearing aids in when he's outside.)

 

[Dawn419]

They are definately very noisy, but their bug patrol positives outweigh the noisy negative for me.

They aren't the "brightest bulbs in the box" either, but it makes for some great entertainment. Our garden gate is a 16' cattle panel and I can't recall just how often I get to laugh at them when I have it wide open so that they can get into the garden, only to watch them pace along the outside of it trying to figure out how to get around it to get into the garden!

My biggest GRR about them is that I've lost 3 of them due to them "playing chicken" in the road...the semi's always win! But we kinda look at that as thinning out the stupidity.

Lost one to a pred, but that was my bad! Was IMing with a friend from TN and realized at 2 a.m., when they started sounding "the alarm", that I hadn't shut the coop door. So, I grab my head lamp, get half way to the coop and the batteries die just in time for one of the birds to come flying out of the door right at me! I just about messed myself! Tried to get that one back into the coop but it just wasn't having it, so I shut the door and hoped for the best. Found it two days later and something enjoyed a nice guinea dinner.

I'd like to get some more as I'm down to 3 males (out of the original 7 we only had one hen) but think I'll wait until I can get the coop moved further back on the property. 17 acres of woods and the idgits wanna play in the road...I just don't get it!

 

[Marianne]

BUT!! Sorry for your loss, too.

I definitely would have had something in my drawers. Maybe a lot of something.

 

[Emerald]

The neighbors about 6 houses away had them while I was growing up.. they wandered the whole small town here.. if you startled them, watch out! What a ruckus! lol I never minded.. when the woman got tired of them(they did roost back at home every night) she butchered them out and had several of us all over for a BBQ.. I gotta say.. very, very tasty! Like a very meaty tender pheasant. but no buckshot to pick out of your teeth. She also said that the eggs she used to find were bigger and quite good too. not that she got that many..
A couple years ago there was a big male peacock wandering our small, small town and all the neighbors would call me and tell me where it was each day.. All I could say was.. gee guys... just cuz I have chickens doesn't mean I would get a peacock! Found out it was from a farm about 8 miles away! how it got to our town no one knows or at least, ain't saying!

 

[Marianne]

A white peacock moved here several months ago. We did find out who the original owners were, but they said there was no way to catch him without hurting him, so I guess he's ours. I'm having some anxiety over what to do for this bird during the winter which can be pretty harsh. Right now he roosts in a big tree out front.

No guineas have moved here as yet...

 

[Lesa]

Oh, Marianne! How lucky is that?? I had a cockatiel fly onto my deck once. I was able to lure him into a cage- and he was a wonderful pet for many, many years...but, a peacock!!! I would think I had died and went to heaven!

 

[so lucky]

When my brother was about 16, he and a buddy were out cruising the gravel roads one night and came upon a peacock. They had never seen one before and couldn't identify it. They somehow managed to chase it down and catch it, then brought their amazing find home to show our whole family, about midnight, in the house! Imagine their chagrin and humiliation when Mom and Dad (not very patiently) let them know what they had "stolen." Of course they had to take it back and release it. I think there was a grounding involved, too. I'll have to remind him of that next time I see him. He'll be 65 next week.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I had 3 of them many years ago but didn't pay attention to them, except notice that they looked weird near the chickens. Then about 2 years ago, DH read up on their benefits and neither of us could believe it that we somehow had never stumbled upon knowledge of how we could get so much help in the garden, naturally + have a bird that taste better than chicken, which eventually needs almost no food and has a decent amt of eggs.
We started with 15 but due to freak accidents we are left with 6 of our originals, but we did reproduce quite a few. We expect our plucker to come in Tuesday, so I will be slaughtering all but the breeders, to decrease expenses and fill the freezer, at which time I will process drakes and goslings also.
Relating to other guinea matters: they are mean to the chickens, but so far I haven't had any fatalities. I would only need to put my foot down and finish their own private quarters and then I could keep the chickens cooped away from them and use the guinea for what I got them for. They do work in the garden because they fly much better than the chickens and they go to work by day.
I do find them stupid sometimes. They get caught on the wrong side of the fence, in my sister's yard and can't figure how to get in the coop and go back and forth until instinct tells them to go up and roost, then....'Oh look!!! There is our home!!!" Stupid. But I can deal with it cuz they are keeping the bug problem under control. I sometimes think that I can decrease my chickens to only what I need for home use eggs and increase my guineas and do better. Better garden, less feed, better and cheaper food.
You will want to coop them for the first laying season, except maybe a few hours in the mid afternoon, when u sure they finished laying. When they are in a habbit of laying like a chicken, you might be able to chance it to let them loose.
Best you read up on it. There is some good reading on the subject. In my experience, you can get all that the books claim from these birds. I know freak accidents can happen, but you gotta be fair and ask yourself, 'what could I have done to prevent this?"