I was checking out Ideal Hatchery website and they have Lavender Guineas, French Guineas, Pearl Guineas, Pied Guineas, and White Guineas. What's the difference?! (Plan on working on DH this weekend on getting some!!)heehee!
Sue ☺
Types of Guineas
Sue, I got mine from Ideal, and got the assorted. They are all guineas, so I figured what the hey, it doesn't matter what they are. It looks like I got 6 lavenders, 1 pied, and 2 french. Don't know for sure, but there it is. I am happy with the ones I got although I would have liked another pied, but didn't get it.
GG
I checked out their site and everything is sold out through june! But they are the only hatchery I've seen that doesn't require 20-30 minimum! So I'll probably go with them even though it'll be awhile. I think it'd be fun getting an assortment-I'm such a control freak sometimes it's hard just to let someone else pick what is coming! Gotta let go!
Sue
i just deleted all i typed! OK, get some color gentics info & a list of available colors from:
www.guineafarm.com
they sypply to most of the hastcheries...
here is my favoreite for guineas:
www.xtremegamebirds.com
located near Ideal. rated highly by the state of Texas, & by me!
whites & french are best for eating. white & pearl for showing/ kids project. but igf your whites breed with your colors you'll get pied...
i like buff dondette best!
tf
Wow, tf! I can't believe all the colors they come in! Thanks for the links-too many choices! This could take awhile!
sue :-)
Sue, I have been hatching out some jumbo pearls, and the adults from which the eggs were supplied are gorgeous. They came from MMH last year, and I believe they still have keets available.
sue, what did you decide? some friends and i decided to go in on a guinea order, we are going with some jumbos for eating and the asst fancy colors. 4 of those colors you can autosex! www.guineafarm.com is booked up through mid July, so hurry and get you rorder in, we can compare colors later!
tf
tf...what does guinea taste like?
Been thinking about getting some for a long time.
Please advise anybody on the pro's & con's of Guineas.
Thanks!
the only cons are they take more ocnsistent training to keep them safe from predators, and they make more noise...
i have only seen one tick in the last 18 months or so.... i think they are beautiful, and can';t descibe how htey taste, all dark meat except for the white guineas.
a con on the lavendar could be that they grow slower and don't get full size till three years...
another con could be they are prone to spraddle legs, so NEVER put them on newspaper... and keep a box of bandaids nearby for splints...
they are easily tamed if you start from hatching. they get along well with others if again, started from the beginning.
once they learn a certain building is their home, don't try to move them! theya re creatures of habit. get them a mirror in their shed since they like their reflection so well, or else they will end up on your porch admiring themselves in your windows, on your patio, or worse yet, the neighbors pickup [they like chrome!]
you certianly want to be sure your close neighbors don't object. and dont' get more than one or two per acre. if they don't find enough bugs on your property [ticks and grasshoppers beintg their favs] they will wander...
tf
:-( Hven't been able to order any as of yet-when I do I'm going to go thru guinea farms. Wish someone here would be interested in splitting an order! Too many "eww my shoes will get dirty!" people have moved in around this area!
One of our neighbors(I've known him as long as I can remember) passed away last weekend-been a sad week. Nicest man you could ever know-never saw him upset-always a smile for everyone.
Sue
aw, i bet he will be sorely missed... wish i could share with you, but can't drive that far LOL... you need to somehow preorder, as guinea farm is booked way ahead...
In the USA ... there are a "few types" of guinea fowl. Most have the standard sized Pearl Guinea Fowl. There are also Blue Crested Guinea Fowl (cost like $500 each). My neighbor shot several when he was vacationing/hunting in South Africa (where guineas originated). There have been persistent efforts by poultry breeders to increase the size and maintain fertility of the largest guineas (French Guineas). The French Guineas reproduce ONLY via artificial insemination. There are now large varieties of Guinea Fowl (a few pounds heavier than standard guineas at maturity); and every bit as large as the French Guinea strains but ARE capable of reproducing. The non-reproductive French strains will probably disappear before long. There are close to 20 specifically named-identified colors of standard guinea fowl. A specific individual colored guinea does not make it a different type. Guinea fowl interbreed and look upon themselves as guinea fowl no matter what color they are as lonog as they are of the same breed. Its not like a guinea will look at a different colored guinea and then choose to ostracize the different colored bird. I have 4 specific colors of guinea fowl in my little flock, Royal Purple, Pearl Gray, Pied & Blonde. I've talked to individuals who have identified 8 colors in their flocks with less than a dozen birds total in their flocks ... like a bouquet of flowers.
White
Pearl Gray
Royal Purple
Blonde
Lavendar
Coral Blue
Buff Dundotte
Buff
Porcelain
Opaline
Slate
Brown
Powder Blue
Chocolate
Violet
Bronze
Sky Blue
Pewter
Light Lavendar
Pied .... can be any combination of color with white but are usually Pearl Gray or Royal Purple and splotches of white .... parents or grandparents were white and something else.
There are a few other exotic guinea fowl breeds (basically they're not domesticated). I've seen the Blue Crested Guineas at zoos and another variety that I've forgotten.
I am nuts about guineas as they can co-exist on next to nothing where I live unless you have other poultry ... then they hog most of the feed. Guineas with no other poultry can exist on my land for free provided they are fed in the months of December, January & February. A flock of 10 guineas would eat less than $75 a year in feed were it not for my other poultry. Amazing isn't it? Kelly
Great I will be ordering some Keets. Hubby can just be surprised and get over it. He hates ticks worse so that is the reasoning I am going to use. Question, with my other chicks (when I get them) or their own coop. Can be tricky but i think i can manage it. I have 45 acres they can roam on but I wont let them go that far till they are a bit older. The GP dogs would liable to have a good snack. I was thinking of getting 10 to 15 of them?????
Sandy, I ordered 10 keets from Ideal and they were sent with 10 roos to keep them warm. I chose to get an assortment as I didn't want any specific coloring. I lost 1, but the others are doing very well. I got what looks like 2 french, 1 pied, and perhaps the others are pearl or lavender. They are a soft gray. The pied is soft gray and white.
Right now they are confined to the expansion to the henhouse. I am keeping them there for at least 6 more weeks or maybe 2 months to imprint them with that being their home so they will come home to roost with the others when we let them loose.
The roosters I have look like they might be Buff Orpington. One of them is already getting a little belligerent to us, so he might be the first one to go into the pot in the fall.
GG
Granny--don't dis my BOs:0)!
The exquisite vulturine guinea (Acryllium vulturinum) is suppose to be larger and calmer than the helmeted guinea. They do well in captivity and become quite tame. I want one.
Catscan, you have to remember, I had a BO that made it a habit to attack me whenever I went up to the coop. I hit him with a stick and blinded him and he still did it until he tried it on my DH and the next day he went into the freezer. Most of them might be nice and calm, but some of them are very aggressive and therefore they are freezer bait!!
GG
I know Granny--I'm just teasing. I haven't been attacked by any of my birds--yet. But my BOs have really been up-close-and-personal birds. All of them, both roos and pullets have come up and tugged on my pants, climbed on my lap and basically just followed me around and wanted to be involved in everything I do. I can see how, once their hormones kick in, the roos could become very aggressive since they really aren't afraid of humans at all.
The only thing I can figure out about Tawny was that he was the non-dominant rooster in the pen. But, now with Bruno, he is the middle one and Clyde who is the bottom runger, they are not the least bit aggressive. Rocky is still the top roo in the coop. Come to think of it, Tawny didn't get aggressive until he became an adult. But then, I don't handle my chickens too much, and have found out that the BAs are very docile. Even the hens don't peck at you when you gather eggs. We do have one or two who are feather picking tho. I caught one today at it, and if I catch her again, she might be going in the pot for chicken and dumplings.
It seems that the BAs are pickers. We didn't have that problem with the other breeds we had. But we do with them. That is one of the reasons I want to change flocks. Of course, these will be culled in the spring anyway, so if I keep a couple of the roos I got, that will change them anyway.
GG
we have nine guinea fowl left from 30 we got 18 months ago... in three colors.
would love to have blonde!
L2G2, with 45 acres, you really ought to consider starting with 30.
btw, as of last night i had three new little keets in the incubator! looks like pearls... one egg that shade left, then the rest are different colors.
Kelly, i am getting 120 keets in August! 30 Jumbos the rest assorted. already planting yummies in their future pen. half will go to a friend, and i will sell some of the other half.
tf
Ok 30 OMG I can now hear hubby. My only problem is the free range. I have mean hawks and owls that will pick them off 1 by 1. And I DO NOT want them in my flower beds. They will probably have their own coop. Because the chickens will not be free range but they will have a nice big covered outside area they can go out in. And to me there is no reason to have keets if they are not free range.
luvs2garden2000, I read of folks having problems with hawks. Guineas are fairly large fowl. We have hawks & owls etc. overhead here 24/7 .... no kidding. none of us here have detected a missing guinea, chicken or duck due to a "bird of prey". I'd be surprised if a large French sized Guinea .... 8 lbs or so could be carried off by a hawk. The smaller guineas can be targeted most anywhere ... even here ... but they're only small for a few months.
We have 15 guinea eggs incubating under a Game Fowl hen and another 16 guinea eggs incubating under a Guinea hen. They're all due to hatch next week. If we get a 65% hatch rate .... we'll have 20 more guinea keets. If we get a 50% survival rate .... we'll have 10 more guineas in the flock. We're fairly optimistic about having a 10-20 guinea keets running around here this time next week. We can hardly wait.
I'm going to post a photo of my really handsome looking Blonde guinea roo. Frit @ guineafowl.com indicated my roo is a Blonde. I expect to have a few more Blonde guineas running around next week too. Kelly
looking forward tot hat pic, Kelly!
L2G2, i fyou have tons of predators, YOU NEED MORE GUINEAS. like K said, not as liekly to pick off guineas in the day, bnut they will warn the chickens.
they can house together. just have a separate run where the guineas got out, then fly to the top landing of the yard fence, 6 foot hight, then go out. you can triant hem to go out and in that way.
see www.guineafowl.com
tf
TamaraFaye, Here he is in all his royal whatever....LOL He's a bit mean toward some of the chickens .... like most guinea roos. I like that he's a different color. He sure stands out in the crowd. He's perched on the chicken shed screen door.
This chicken shed is built like a bomb shelter. I used triple heavy gauge corrugated metal siding/roofing material. The metal corrugated sheets are held in place by 1/4 inch hex-head lag screws that are 2 inches long ... each with a washer. We crank tightened the lag screws with a ratchet into the posts or the 2X4's attached to the posts. I'd estimate we put 8 of the quite heavy duty lag screws through each piece of metal siding ... mounted on OSB or1/2 inch plywood that is nailed to the frame .... 4 inch posts that are 8 feet long with a few 2X4's for added strength between the posts. We have 8 posts. We buried each post 2-3 feet in the ground. I honestly know it would hold up against 125 MPH winds. I should get a photo of it. It is indestructable. The shed is 8ft X 8ft and 5 ft on the short side and 6 ft on the tall side. I have just the area around the doorway to finish covering with the corrugated metal siding. Cutting the corrugated metal siding with metal nippers is difficult and kinda dangerous.
If you look in the distance of this photo you can see the dry foothills ... covered by cheat grass, rocks and tiny little cactus. In the foreground you can see the wheat across the highway and the apple orchards further up. This photo shows precisely what irrigation projects do for Eastern Washington state. No one would live here in this valley were it not for the irrigation water. Kelly in Moxee
This message was edited Jun 27, 2008 8:59 PM
like the guinea, love th countryside! gonna check and see if my asst includes blonde. hopefully at least buff or buff dondette...
that view reminds me of the foothills of N Cal...
ours is a fortress as well. when DH built it [well helped finish it!], he was "just a feind from church helping out", and when he was done he said, now all it needs is a security camera, armed guards, and razor wire!" well, he IS d-husband now, and it has all but the sharp wire... but still waiting on the ventilation systme. that 102 degrees today could have donw us all in!
tf
TamaraFaye, You're right. The foothills of NorCal as you drive on 1-5 looking west from around Williams or or Red Bluff or even as far south as Winters looking west toward the foothills between the Napa Valley ... Lake Berryessa area. I know the whole west. This area gets 10 inches of precipitation but has all the irrigation water we could ever hope for. I prefer this are to anywhere in OR or CA ... but we'll keep that to ourselves. In 2000 we looked at homes along the Russian River from Santa Rosa to Willits. We ended up choosing Carson City, NV. Kelly in Moxee
My mom had 6 2 years ago and one by one just vanished. Not a site of feather or of dead birds to be found any where. We were having a problem with stray dogs at that time but would have thought we would have seen some kind of struggle. Last year after the goats destroyed my chicken pen I let the 5 hens and 1 rooster free range. They refused to go back into the coop and I couldn't keep the goats out. One day I found the rooster at my back door dead, not a mark on him. The the hens just started vanishing one by one. I just don't know. We no longer have the goats and as far as I can tell we dont have a problem with strays anymore. DH did teach me how to use the 22 rifle. Maybe this time around I can be successful with them. Especially with the keets, as they can be expensive. Gotta get the chicks first then will go into the keets maybe sometime in july.
Thanks
Tia
Kelly, moving to Nevada? CC is nice though... i remember Willits, East of Fort Bragg, surrounded by mountains. if i could afford to live anywhere, i would come close to there, simply to be so close to so many sights! natural ones, of course... is it still nice and remote there, or have they populated it?
Tia, you won't be able to get keets before August, they are booked up... get your chicks going first. then you will have the brooder for the keets, but it will need 1/4 inch hardware cloth floor, they are so tiny! so build it right for hte chicks, then it will work for keets too...
once the chicks are started, you can plan on keeping the keets in the brooder in the henhouse.... for six weeks. once you start letting them out of the brooder, they can become acquainted with the chicks. then teach them, with treats, to go into the side pen. once they can fly they will find their own way out. at that point lock them back in the brooder, letting one out and then back in at night, adding one every other day, till they all go out together and come in together. if you have trouble getting them in, then they need locked in again for 1-2 weeks.... eventually you will have well trained guineas! if they come in every night they will be safe from ost predators. it was liekly an owl that was taking them at night.... and took your chickens later. they don't leave a trace...
btw, 6 is too few. you need enough that they stay together and protect one another.... i had 4 once, actually started with six, then down to two,,, then they left to join another flock. down to nine now, have three keets that hatched on my birthday... the others needed help getting out and i was gone ;-(
tf
Awwwwwwwww that is sad they didnt make it. I will put my order in sometime is july for august then. In august or september I might be able to get them here locally. thanks for the advise I will remember that.
wish you could come pick up the three that hatched. they are all pearl. i try to get multi colored becasue my EVIL neighbor has pearl/pied and that way I can keep them separate...
Yea that would be great lol. I can understand wanting to keep them seperate. Im no where near ready just yet for that challenge tho.
yeah, i know...
TamaraFaye, We moved to Carson City from Salt Lake City, UT .... 8 years ago. Now .... almost 6 years ago we moved here to Moxee, WA. If you've ever drank beer ... it was flavored by the hops surrounding our little farm. Moxee has about 15k acres of hops in production ... 50 acres right next door to the west of my place. Our place was all hops for the 10 years prior to our moving here. Yakima County produces 70% of the nation hops crop. Kelly
Ok I think I have decided I am going with guineafarm and going to order 50 of the fancy assorted. Will put my order in next week.
Post pics when you get them!
Oh I will, you will be sick of all my pics when I get mine. It wont be until August tho.