I have ten guineas. They are about 16 weeks old now, and they all look pretty much the same. I noticed that my white and light grey guineas are smaller in stature than the darker ones, but other than that - nothing.
I read somewhere that only females can make the buckwheat sound, and only males can make the warning sounds. I don't think that is true, for I hear both sounds from the same birds.
Thanks for any help!
Beth
Beth, After a while the roos can be spotted (climbing on top). That makes identifying them kinda easy. Hens lay eggs .... a no brainer as well. Walking around not having sex or not laying eggs can make it difficult to determine off hand which is what sex ..... the males are a bit belligerent or aggressive toward other roos and the hens. If you have a means of catching them ..... you can band them with colored metal leg bands .... blue for boys and pink for girls. Once they're banded ...... its a snap. I have just 2 roos ... I know my blonde roo because he's way different than the rest. So I see 1 roo and 7 others .... 6 of which are hens. I can usually see the other roo because he's kinda bossy. That means I can rather quickly identify my guineas by sex. I usually just don't think about what they are sex wise .... not that I don't think about sex .... that happens .... even at my advanced age. LOL Kelly
Sry I'm off topic, but what fencing is that beth_donovan. That looks like a good kind type for me to use.
Eric
I used hardware cloth (got it at home depot) for the sides of the run and chicken wire for the roof. It's a totally makeshift thing, when my guineas were little, they could have just wiggled thru the chicken wire, so I bought the hardware wire. Used my heavy duty staple gun (the kind that uses an air compressor) to attach the wire to the wood. It's holding up quite well to our Kansas winds and weather!
You will find out soon enough. Boys are one syllable chi chi chi and the girls have a definite two syllable buck-wheat orwhat some of swear sounds like but-crack but-crack. Heres the best for guineas chatboard site http://www.guineafowl.com/board/index.php
LoraK, My 6 girls all are easily recognized using the buck-wheat identification method. They're not always out calling so I tend to look for the 1 belligerent Pearl roo and everyone else is quickly identified. My wife and daughter just HATE their sounds and kinda just hate my guineas. I get hints every few days like ... "why don't we have guinea on the rotisserie tonight?"
Of course a guinea isn't going to making sounds all day long, I hatched, hand raised and even now in the cold and snow interact with them. I would never leave mine out to die or get eaten by something so being a caring guinea/poultry owner I know who is who. I figured Beth is a caring guinea owner and would soon learn who is who, it takes time thats all.
Beth, That hardware cloth is about as high quality as you can get for an enclosure. Very nice indeed. Kelly
Thanks, Kelly - it seems to be quite sturdy, since it's been finished, we have not lost any birds!
beth, the girls can make both sounds, the boys only chi-chi, no puh-peeps.
you will find that the white and lavendar grow slower. the lavendar reach full size at three years of age. don't know much about the white except they are best for eating.
we love our guineas. we have pearl, lavendar, and my favorite, coral-blue.
the site above is the best info on guineas, i have loved it!
oh, also later you will find the females have a flatter back than the males, makes for easier breeding.
later
tf
beth_donovan what size is your pen and do you let your guineas roam? just curious as mine is similiar and i have been having to keep mine penned alot lately bcause the neighbors dog killed one of my girls not too long ago
Hi, TamaraFaye,
It's interesting, the biggest of my guineas is a very very dark, almost black one. They are a hoot. They love to range through the yard and the barn yard and are almost going into the pasture, but not quite. They get up on the roof of our big Morton building and they scold any interloper, be it a cat or a person.
I didn't realize that they can keep growing until they are 3! Wow. Mine are semi-tame. they follow me around in the yard, but if I turn they all turn around and run away.
Hi, fieldsems,
Gosh, my pen is probably 36 feet long and about 14 feet wide - it's built against the barn so I only had to build three sides. My guineas and chickens all stay in the pen during the night - the guineas roost in the chicken coop with the chickens. In the morning, I go out and check on them and feed them and make sure they have clean water. Then I usually go for a long walk with my two dogs and at about 9:00 am or so, I open the door to the pen and let the birds come and go, and my dogs are too pooped to bother them, or they just stay inside. They have the run of the farm all day long, and they normally go back into the pen around 4:00 pm or so (in the winter, anyway!) I close the pen and lock the door and they are fine.
We lost a total of 9 guineas to predators when they were much smaller. The first time, a racoon, we think, killed 5 very young guineas at night. It was before I had completed the pen and they were in the coop, locked up, or so I thought!
Since then, 2 completely disappeared at night (pretty sure it was the great horned owl, so I put a roof of chicken wire on the pen, and two were killed by my puppy - he thought it was fun to chase them, and I turned my back.
My puppy now knows he cannot go near the birds without getting into some big trouble. But I am still very careful with him. The guineas are big enough now that they can fly up into a tree if a cat or dog comes too close. I let them out when they were a bit too young, I believe.
Wow, Beth, sounds like you have them on a great schedule! They will do well for you I am sure. Losing guineas is hard. Always seems like it is my favorite ;-( The last two we lost to a dog; before that one was nesting and never came home [DH favorite], and before that my husband accidentally ran one over, big OOPS, my favorite blue one.
Mine come running at me, even when I am driving, and i had to teach them to move by accelerating and honking, or else they would do like my spoiled chickens and just stand in the way. I have found that unexpected visitors just don't slow down enough. One day we will have one of those Cuinea Crossing or Chicken Crossing signs LOL
Just wait till you get out the lawn mower, they will follow you everywhere while you stir up the bugs!
tf
