I've never had any before but I want 2 of the same sex to
eat my Japanese Beetles.
I'm too scared to get more least they go into the woods and multiply.
Should I get males or females?
How do the sexes compare on noise and behavior?
Any info on Guineas in general appreciated.
This message was edited Apr 4, 2009 8:43 AM
Thanks for posting the query Rose. I've been thinking of getting guinea fowl also.
I can create a coop for them to stay in at night. We have coyotes in the neighborhood, within two miles. I also have a terrier mix [looks like Benji] that doesn't like anything in HIS yard so I'm a wee bit nervous about that. He's an inside dog but he goes out often during the day to tend to business.
I was thinking to buy keets rather than incubating eggs. I might have to drive 200 miles to pick up half a dozen. I certainly don't want to buy thirty of them which is the recommended minimum required for shipping purposes. I don't mind letting them procreate but I don't want a large flock in my yard.
Any information offered would be appreciated.
Gary
There were a lot of people on the forum with guinea experience. I think, if I remember correctly, you have to work with them to get them to roost in a coop at night--they are a bit less domesticated than chickens.
I hope someone answers you questions--I can't have guineas where I am now....but someday:0)
First, Happy Birthday!
I've never had them but I've read that they have to be kept in their coop area for awhile so they know that's where they live.
Here's are links from previous DG thread:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/962078/
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/613288/
Found this book, maybe your local library has a copy.
Gardening with Guineas -- A Step by Step Guide to Raising Guinea Fowl on a Small Scale" by Jeannette S. Ferguson
Here's another website:
http://web2.uconn.edu/poultry/poultrypages/guineafowlmanagement.html
Sandy thanks much for those links!
Q! If you clip their wings will it prevent them from
flying or roosting where you don't want them?
I don't have alot of experience with guineas myself. I think that the noise of the females is way more tolerable than that of the males. Unlike chickens, they do tend to runoff. When training them where home is, you might let some out while keeping others still cooped up, and only let them out in the evening so they can't venture too far before dark. They do like to make their nest in a clump of weeds away from the coupe. Lost a bunch of guineas last year with them running off to nest and coyotes and stuff finding them during their 28 day sitting period. Finally last year after I was down to five or six left of more than thirty, one made it and come home with 15 keets. All of the adults will protect the babies. Sometimes a male or two will even keep her company while she sets. My wife and I were trying to collect the babies last year before a freeze and put them into the hen house. All of the normally docile adults attacked us. We are down to six again. They are trying to sit again. I found a nest and built a fence around it, thinking that it would keep coyotes out but the guineas could fly in. They just walked around it two or three times and now they are somewhere else. There are twelve eggs in the nest. I might try to incubate. Not sure if they were sitting on it yet or if they were still collecting eggs. I found this thread looking for pointers on moving eggs and such. Don't guess I was much help, but thats my input anyway.
Mike
Your experience sounds like everything I have heard from others, Mike. It seems keeping guineas and keeping them alive and away from predators is more of an art than a science.
I haven't had guineas but I've lived next to them and they make a LOT of racket. If you've got nearby neighbors, or you want to be able to nap during the day, you might take that into consideration.
My neighbors got rid of theirs within a month.
That's my limited experience with 'em.
=0) Jay
Well, here's our experience with guineas. YMMV.
We got 8 keets last summer. They were really freaky. That may have been due to them being hatched and raised in a large enclosure in a barn with little human contact other than feeding. They were about 2-3 weeks old when we got them. Really cute and all, but as I said, freaky. They'd panic at the slightest movement, and pile up in a corner, screeching.
We moved them out to the coop after about a week and a half in the brooder. So they were then probably 4-5 weeks old. I closed in the end of the coop so they couldn't leave. They started flying over the barrier and I had to make it higher. I'd read about how you need to keep them in the coop 6 weeks to "imprint" them, but obviously that wasn't going to work, so after about another week and a half, we let them out. They stayed home. They didn't go roaming too far, although there were a couple incidents where something would freak them out and they'd go flying and end up on top of our house, and one time, on top of the neighbor's house and in the trees across the road.
They are not very bright, or at least ours weren't. Someone said it this way: "All the guineas in the world share the same brain." 'Nuff said. They fly over the fence of the poultry yard, and then run up and down trying to figure out how to get back in.
They are LOUD. All of them. Males and females are equally LOUD and have equally obnoxious LOUD calls.
The males can be pretty aggressive with males of other species. They would chase down our roosters, hang onto the tail to slow the rooster down, and then all the rest of the guineas would pile on and pull feathers, etc. Then they started chasing my pullets and pulling their feathers out too. They were like a little street gang.
We sold three - a trio. Then there were five.
We ate one male, then there were four. One male left and three females. They were still LOUD, and the male was still raising heck with the roosters and pullets. So we ate him, and then there were three females left.
They are still LOUD. ALL THE TIME. Today they went on and on and on and on, for at least an hour. When I looked out the window, the three of them were just standing next to the coop in a little group, necks stretched up, screaming to the heavens. Maybe they liked the sound of their calls bouncing off the coop wall. Who knows?
They aren't a year old yet. I'd been told they'll settle down after they reach a year of age, and only alert when there's something really out of the ordinary. I'm not sure I can wait that long.
I don't recommend guineas unless you have significant acreage, and you live pretty much in the middle of it. Like, 10 acres at least. We have 12 but we live at one end of it. Your neighbors will NOT like you anymore if they are close by and have to listen to your guineas. If your neighbors are at least a quarter mile away, then you might be OK. Half a mile would probably be better.
And if you yourself like peace and quiet, and can't stand annoying, repetitive, non-stop, LOUD noise, I don't recommend guineas.
Karen
I'm re-thinking my desire for guinea fowl. I knew they could be noisy when someone pulled in the drive but I didn't realize they were loud during the night also. We've got about five acres for them to roam. Nearest neighbor is 200 yards NW of us. Dominant wind direction is from the SE.
Oh well, back to studying beneficial nematodes and milky spore.
Gary
good watch dogs, really noisy, very mean to chickens. They run around in bully groups and pull feathers. Just not good with other poultry. They are a great alarm for hawks.
My friends have guinea hens. She had them in pairs. She recently lost one and the other pined for a long time. She enjoys them though. They do wander but roost in her barn. They can be loud but her girls are not as bad as the males I believe.
Do turkeys eat Jap. beetles? I know they're good for grasshopper control... that's what I used them for. And they're not as hard on plantings as chickens.
And they're quiet. =0)
I so enjoy learning from your posting. Gary, Milkyspore has proven most effective for me. I've but a total 3/4 acre includes our residential space to garden with, so the cost of the expensive milkyspore is affordable -- for now.
Have you thought about songbirds as your gardening buddies? I've put up a small feeder in the backyard. Several birdhouses in various sites in the garden, last year I knew Cardinals made nest close by. But this year, I discovered Pheobes, Thrush, Carolina wrens are nestings right here in the garden. And these feather-friends they're avid grubs/insects hunters!
Kim
Cute pic Lily_love. Nice use of a gord. :D
Thanks. :-)
Songbirds so not appear to eat the Jap Beetles.
I have watched on many occasion when the beetles are here and could offer up quite a feast but no songbirds seem to eat them.
They might taste bad like Asian Lady Beetles.
Would be nice to know if Turkeys ate them.
I have to wear earplugs at night because of my exhusband's D**** guineas. He moved out but they wouldn't go with him. I actually find them amusing and I think they keep the bug population down but they aren't very smart and they are really loud.
Lisa
~sigh~
I guess I'll ditch that idea.
Dont give up. Like I said my friend loves hers. You have geese and such. I think they can be noisey too. Its all in what YOU like! ;)
We had guineas with our hens for awhile. A friend had recommended them for insect control, particularly for ticks which are a problem around here. However, they got into our garden and seemed to prefer the bean and zucchini buds to bugs; I got no fruit as long as they were around. They are also noisy - "GeGANK geGANK geGANK!" Our poultry yard is on the other side of our garage across the driveway, so it wasn't as bad as the Fowler's toads in the pond right under our windows, but still they did make a racket.
As far as going into the henhouse at night, yes, they finally learned, but not before we spent weeks corralling them and stuffing them through the little door in the evening. Eventually they started to get the idea, and we would stand outside waiting for the last one to sally in so we could shut them up. All of them would be safely ensconced inside when a random thought would flicker through one pea-sized brain and it would decide that it had something urgent to do out in the yard. All of the others would follow suit and we'd have to wait all over again until it occurred to them, "Hmmmm - dark. Should be inside. Hmmmmm." I used to stand there doubled over with laughter. They finally did figure out the routine, but still, I have never seen anything so witless yet mobile in my life. We ended up giving them to our friend who recommended them to us, where they got picked off by foxes and eagles since she doesn't lock hers up at night.
You can probably tell that I don't recommend them. They taste good, though.
"Witless yet mobile" - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! That great! That's perfect!
One of ours last night was outside yet after everyone else was in the coop. First, she was on the outside of the fence, geGANK-ing away. Then I herded her through the gate (which had been open the whole time). Then I had to herd the ducks in who wanted to stay out and play because it was pouring rain. While I was doing that the guinea went out through the gate again and around to the same place she was when I first saw her, and started ge-GANK-ing again. (That's a great description of the sound, btw, much more realistic than "buckwheat".
I finally had to get my husband to come out and help me. We got her back in and all the ducks and then closed the gate. But she still wouldn't go into the coop, partly I think because the rooster was peering out the door, probably saying "Idiot, get in here!" My husband had to go in, get the rooster to move and then I had to gently herd her over until she decided she really could go through the chicken door.
All this in pouring rain. Fun! The ducks weren't helping of course, but they just wanted to go have fun in all the new mini-ponds that were forming in the yard.
Somehow it's consoling to know it's not just the hand of man that can create an animal so stupid it will drown itself in the rain (production turkeys), forget to mother its young (sheep) or eat itself dead (horses).
Apparently Mother Nature's not so swift herself if she came up with Guinea fowl.
=0)
I know, sometimes I think that raising poultry isn't all that it's cracked up to be! They can be just plain stupid! And yet we have a responsibility towards them that keeps us out in the pouring rain or biting cold. At least it's funny to contemplate AFTER the fact!
My labradoodle is sometimes very helpful with herding chickens or geese. I don't know how aware she is of what she's doing, but she will stand there and be a barrier so they don't go in the wrong direction, or sometimes even drive them toward me so I can catch them. Of course, then there was the time that a chicken got out and she chased it all across my freshly planted garden....!
After reading all these posts and pretty much relating to every one. I actually think that the birds have us all "trained". My guineas don't go in the chicken coop the chickens pick on them.
The Wyandottes I have now would pick on anything, but back when we had guineas there wasn't a problem with that. The Wyandottes are due for the stewpot soon, anyway, and I'll never get any more of those!
I planned on getting guineas this summer, but alas, it may have to wait until next spring. Hearing that they may irritate my neighbors has sealed the deal on me definately getting them! : ) I plan on keeping mine confined to a penned-in coop complete with cover. I have this old camper I plan on converting into a guinea house. I'm eager to get them, and will probably do the McMurray 30. Don't really want 30, but McMurray has the best color selections.
Cool! I am sure you will be able to sell the others you dont want. Believe it or not some people like them. I think they are awesome looking regaurdless of the noise. hehehe
so ..if I had 3 males do you think they would be loud? I know someone who's neighbor breeds them and I was going to get 3 males that have grown up together. In everyones experience do you think that they would be very loud?
I simply have to ask this. How do you know if they are male or female? I have a book on guineas and it doesn't even say how you can tell them apart. Last week I was laying in bad ( it was still dark outside) and I thought I heard thunder but it was 5 peacocks running across the roof.
Lisa
The males are noisier, Lisa. I think they're the ones that go "geGANK geGANK!"
Here's a link to the sounds they make: http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/sounds/
(but beware, it crashed my Firefox when I tried to play the sounds)
My females definitely "geGANK!" (all day long and sometimes in the middle of the night). The males make more of a loud chittering sound.
The males have larger wattles, and a larger "knob" (or whatever it's called) on top of their heads. They also make quick darting movements at the females. It's probably easier to tell them apart if you have a mixed group, vs. just males or just females to look at.
Oh, I definately have mixed group 30+ of them. So I guess the bottom line is that they are both noisy they just make different sounds. Do the males have anything to do with the hatchlings? There always seems to be 3 adults with the babies and both my sons have been "attacked" by them. The birds are screaming right now. Thanks for the link of the sounds they make.
Lisa
