guineas

[Marianne]

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!

The timing was crazy! Just two days before that I had wished that we had one, but paying $200+ for one just wasn't going to happen. Then boom, suddenly he was here. Good thing I wasn't wishing for an elephant or something like that.

You can see a couple pics of him on my blog at http://2atthefarm.blogspot.com/ , just scroll down to 'sunflowers and tomatoes' (Sept 5th entry - You think I can figure out how to post the link for just that one page today???? sigh, brain cloud).

So sorry for the thread hijack. Back to noisy, tick eating birds.

 

[Team Chaos]

This is our first year w/ guineas. They were to be a Father's day gift to my papa, sadly he did not get to see them, but we've had a lot of laughs and imagine he would have too- my sister and daughter held the keets a lot from day one and that seems to have made them quite social little birds. When they were old enough to be out of the brooder, I moved them to a raised coop toward the back of the barnyard and we kept them locked in that run for several months until we were sure they knew where "home" was. For a while, they were good little birds- out in the morning, back to roost in their coop at nite but over the last month or so, they have made it known that they do not like being isolated from the rest of the barnyard fam. For a while they were roosting in a big tree above the rooster run, but now (with snow and ice and nights below 30 degrees) they are willing to negotiate and they coop up w/ the hens in the camper.
They are loud and curious about everything- they love my sister most and will call and pace under her window if it gets to be evening and they haven't seen her. She's got a snack cart she loads up and pulls around the barn yard to treat the critters and the guineas love to roost on the cart and wait for her, then run alongside it and chatter away while everyone gets their snacks.
As for usefulness, they can spot a hawk before my roosters do and boy, do they sound the alarm! We haven't seen the tick population drop yet, but I think that's because my dogs range farther in the woods than the guineas do. When a strange car pulls in the driveway, they has another call that lets us know that it's not one of our own. It'll be interesting to know if they guinea birds follow all the strange deer hunters up in the woods this season... talk about blowing their cover!

 

[Dawn419]

Relating to other guinea matters: they are mean to the chickens, but so far I haven't had any fatalities.

Rhoda,

I have just the opposite situation and our banty chickens are the ones who pick on the guineas. It must be that "dynamite comes in small packages" mentality!


Team Chaos,

Sorry to hear of your loss!

I wouldn't be suprised if your do find the deer hunters as mine always seem to find me when I'm on the back woods of our land and immediately start raising a ruckus when they come up on me.


Marianne,

That's cool about the peacock! We'd love to have a few eventually!

 

[trunkman]

They are very noisy, I have one that just doesn't shut up. I've yet to see any benefit from having them, maybe I will see this coming summer unless I'm driven over the edge from the noise and send em packing!:/

 

[terrilhb]

Oh my. I so love my guinea's. Yup they are loud and not very smart about somethings. But they are awesome. I hatched mine and when they were old enough we put them in with our chickens. But then they began to stink. They do stink bad. No matter how often and much I clean up after them. But anyway they live with 4 RIR hens and 2 naked neck chickens. Let me tell you my youngest RIR hen chases them all over and thumps them whenever she gets the chance. We have 1 rooster and he is as small as them. He runs the yard. They are also great guard birds. I say get some and love them.

 

[the funny farm6]

We have always kept them with the chickens and have had no problems. They would alert us when the owl or a hawk was around.

As was said before... they are NOT the brightest bulbs in the box. If you get some I suggest you get keets but make sure you put marbles in the water- they will drown themselves! And they are loud- but mostly if they think there is a danger.

And they taste wonderfull!

 

[Cindlady2]

I got 5 keets and 5 chicks from the same breeder at the same time. I raised them together and made a small "flight cage" for them. All ten were together for about 3 months until they were old enough to join the flock. When I let them out to mingle and free range they always came to roost with their chicken friends. They now are in the big coop with the other 35 chickens (including 7 roosters... yep, 5 got to go!) I only had 1 get "lost" at the neighbors for the night but came home as soon as it was light! Often they beat the chickens into the coop for the night!
I haven't eaten any yet but plan on raising some more for that. Our yard is fenced (1 1/2 acre) so the dogs stay in the yard, they have not had 1 tick! The cat that wonders to the neighbor's had 11 this year! 3 dogs in fence = 0 ticks.... 1 cat that goes next door = 11! I had garden issues this year so hard to say how well they do there but will see next year. I do wish they were a bit quieter but I guess you get used to it.

 

[the funny farm6]

Funny- this got me thinking... a friend of ours hatches chicks to sell. And he also hatches guineas. His that are kept in a coop, and when I had mine free range, there is a difference in how loud they are. His alert/cackle loudly at a leaf blowing across his yard, mine mostly alerted when something was off, strange dog in the field out back, large bird flying overhead, me accidently startliing them in the barn...

 

[TrixR4kids]

We have 7 guineas and, yes, they are LOUD! My neighbor loves them. Whenever he comes over, the guineas all sound their alarm and my neighbor just thinks thats the funniest thing.

I originally got them for tick control, so now we have no ticks. However, they also ate up ALL the other bugs/grasshoppers/everything! So my poor chickens have nothing to eat. I even thought about BUYING some grasshoppers.

They do pick on the chickens sometimes. But my itty bitty Serama rooster chases them (hes a FAST little bugger). Im trying to get the guineas to roost outside now since they seem to take over the coop in the mornings before I let everyone out.

We had a stray dog on our property a couple of weeks ago, and the guineas had the poor scared dog cornered inside one of the hay bale feeders. They were all sounding their LOUD alarm like they were screaming at the dog. By the time I ran outside the dog saw me and ran for the woods with all the guineas hot on his tail. I never saw that dog again.

 

[Team Chaos]

I have to tell you- guineas can't be as dumb as they can act sometimes. Our guineas were really making quite a racket just before coop up time for the last few nites, today they did it in the middle of the day and were running up in the woods in a single file line. I followed them and they were in pursuit of a stray cat! I think they've been hollering at this striped fellow for the past few days- yet they don't make a sound at "our" cat... I am impressed that they are learning which animals belong on the farm and which ones are intruders, they recognize cars and people too.