See some Guinea hens

Was out riding and see some guinea hens.I love guinea hens.

They sure let you know if something is around. LOL

I hatched about eighty head this last summer. Couldn't find anyone who wanted any. So I'm still feeding at least sixty five, eating me out of house and home! To bad your not in Ks yet, Bruce. I'd fix you up! They're kinda like sheep, walking around looking for a place to die. Those will prolly get hit by a car, and BOP are terrible hard on them if let loose! But......I like them too!

BOP....birds of prey?

They are good eating! Better than pheasant.

Yes, birds of prey. Yes they are good eating, I've ate a couple that an owl had knocked out of a tree and ate the head off. Don't like to butcher fowl when it's cold out though.

Noisy turd birds...

Yep and I love having them around.

Good tick eaters

Yep for sure

I've never owned any

Friend of mine had some. Said they were the best alarm there was if you had visitors wanted or unwanted.

We had 5 show up on the farm. No idea where wher came from. They would just wonder through from time to time. They dissapeared one at a time.

Started out with 20 this fall. Am down to 7 as of a few min. ago. Had a bit of a problem with a dog and BOP. Dog doesn't like guinea any more.

Our neighbors came over one summer all the time

Me too! I had about 40 at one time. I wish I could find some keets again but no one around here has any.

Order some this spring from a feed mill, or ag. Store

I order them online also

nope, we had no less ticks when we had 15 guineas than when all those loud, pesty, poop machines, were finally gone.

I'd rather spread cheap tick/flea granules every spring than have to hear those things ever again.

Lol.....the sweet sound of music

Lol^^^

I need about 600 pounds of guineas and can't find any that are affordable. I pay $2.50 a pound live weight.

Keith

I gave one friend of mine 36, day old guinea keets and another one 48, day old guinea keets. Both friends let the flocks out for the first time when the keets were pretty good sized. Both flocks walked off and were never seen again.

Keith

I keep some guineas in my barns, with my other birds, just to warn me and especially the dogs, if a predator or thief shows up.

Keith

Interesting

Let a snake come around.....lol they will gang up and kill it.

Guard birds

Ya mean like this

Yep......lol

We had about 20 at our last farm, that constant sound makes me irritated and anxious.
I was working on the roof and watched them all hassle a snake which they chased it in through my front door.

They were just trying to figure out how to eat the big worm.

We were having an outdoor fish fry at my son's place and one of his friends told him those guineas need oiled, they had a bad squeak.

Exactly! I can be working outside and when the birds start squawking I know there is something going on. They were the best watch dogs I ever had.

This! I've Always fancied guinea's. I now even live in the ideal place for them. But, for all the hard research I've ever done? It seems that they just have to be hatched where they're to live. Otherwise? They go on walk about, never to be seen again.

I actually once spent a week on a pheasant farm. On the first day I was thrilled to see about five guinea's in the laying pens compound. But, the regular boy there said; " Oh. Those things? The boss let them go. But, they just jump the fox fence and disappear. "

Know what? By the end of even just my Week they'd become a distant memory I even personally saw about three of them flutter over the six foot fence.

Hatch some out.

In truth, Bruce? That train's left the station I've no experience of hatching anything but a doomed plot. And I'm a bit long in the tooth to start mustering the wherewithal now.

They can fly very well. Problem is that predators pick them off easily in the wild and they will drag the poults through everything when born. Chances of survival is slim. They're not protective of their young.

Easy get a simple cheap styrofoam incubator set it at 100.5 degrees and roll the eggs once a day.Keep some water in the bottom.Simple as that.

You have to keep them in a coop, if your gonna have any. I've tried to get them established for years, and they always want to roost in the trees. I've lost them to everything, including my dog, that's why I said they're just looking for a place to die! If you get keets, pen them and grow them up before you turn them out, then every evening, get them in. Momma got some kinda worm and bug treat, and they love them. She just shakes the bag and they come running. Feed and water in the pen, and they go in like chickens! I've had mine since about Aug when they hatched, and they haven't been out of the pen yet. After the hawks migrate, I'll start letting them out. They are really a handsome bird, every feather in place and well groomed.......with a cone head! It's the hens that souund like a squeaky wheel! Eggs eat real well too!

Yeah. And with the (Heavily protected) pine marten levels locally? Be a bit like setting up a hog roast on skid row, and walking away, trusting all will be well.

Bruce; We both know that's a bit like saying, 'Want a horse? Just give it grass to eat.' And I have a horse!

They are very popular here in France. You can buy them right alongside chickens in the store. I like them but don't often buy them.

Saw lots of wild ones in Kenya and Sengal. They are supposed to be a hoot to hunt. Kind of like sage grouse hunting. I think I'd get tired of having them around the house though.

Pete

Pete, you gotta be hard of hearing like me, then you don't get upset by the noise!

Lol...I am hard of hearing.

I'm considering a few this spring.

Wonder how My Redbone would handle it

Oh, and hope you don't have any shiny wheel rims or bumpers on your vehicles. Guineas love to look at themselves and fight, & scratch at the reflections and can near flake the chrome off 'em!

I kept mine in the coop for a month or so and that was the only place I fed them. After that I would open the coop door in the morning and they would all come running out. By evening they were all back in the coop and waiting to be fed. They were super easy to care for.

Nice coop 160user!!!

Thanks. It makes a great lure shed now.

My small young bird oy coop is also my Winter paint booth. 1 heater in a couple hours gets it up to 60°

I've had guineas 20-25 times and never had them to come back to a coop or pen, bought grown birds, hatched eggs, had keets given to me. Kept in coops for days or weeks, the first time free they were gone.
But, I have known others that got grown birds or keets and they did stay around. I've seen them get about a 1/4 mile from home and still make it back by dark, never have figured out why they stay or go.

Grown birds are a crap shoot! But like I said above, keep young birds in the coop till grown, and they come in like chickens. That is home to them then.

My father had a lot of different birds. A bunch of turkeys, Peacock, Guineas, Pheasants and chickens.

There came a point after a couple of years my dad wanted to rid of the Guineas. Too noisy all the time.

So we boxed them up and delivered them to the state land with some scratch and corn. About a week later they showed up at another persons house about a mile away.

My dad never let on to the woman that they were his.

Guineas are roamers . . . "the grass is always greener on the other side" theory.

Hahaha that's gold, they sound like the windmill on my Dad's farm

If you raise guineas with chickens, it's easier to get them to go into the coop and to stick around.

Keith

Have always had them togather.Might be why I never had any such problems.

I think I'll pass this year

Lol....I need some

You dont "own" guineas.

I used to have some. My shorthair knows he is supposed to leave the domestic birds alone. He has learned to ignore the chickens and ducks, but those guineas were just too much for him.

Dang

ive got a dozen we got as keets and raised in a brooder then put outside with the chickens now they act like chickens at least with the whole they go in on their own at night but dang are they noisy and don't be surprised when you find them on the top of the yard light pole. I couldn't believe they could get that high up lol. good alarms as well.

Originated from Africa so they can survive.

Like Keith said. Raise the guineas with chicks. Start as young as possible. And more chicks than guineas. Hatch together or purchase keets and chicks at the same time and raise together. They will coop up same as chickens and are less likely to leave. If you live near a main road they will become road kill. They are dumb. And predators can be hard on them because they do roam more than chickens. I'm alright with that as long as they get the guineas first. Cannonfauder. When they start to disappear it also lets me know that a predator is around before it gets to my other poultry. I'm down to 3 so I need to restock this spring.

Eggs are good. Great alarms. Great for insect and rodent control. Also snakes. This I don't like because here all we have is garter snakes and small racers, which are also great for insects and rodents. Mine also seem to handle the winters as well as my chickens. I also seem to eat weed seeds better than chickens. Also I just plain like to watch them. They are comical.

If you get them I would recommend keeping more females than males. Can keep the ratio close but less males.They are more peaceful.

A friend of mine designed feed bowls, with a space under them for mice to hide. When he retired from raising birds, I got his bowls. Before we had a rat issue and started using poison, in pens with those bowls, we would get the guineas and chickens attention, lift the bowls up and let the guineas and chickens eat the mice. It worked well and it was fun to watch the guineas scramble and fight for the mice.

Keith

Going to order some royal purple guinea hen keets.

I like the royal purples. I have about 40 of them. I had a lot of colors in guineas, but last year I hatched almost entirely purples, because of the dominance of the genetics. I've been crossing the colored guineas on the larger French guineas and doing back crosses, to get more interesting colors with better sizes. The biggest French guineas I've butchered and plucked weighed a little over 6.8 pounds dressed.

Keith

Those are some big guinea hens

Guineas are like a car alarm with a short in the wires... you can't pick when they sound or shut them off.

Dad had some raised with chickens and they stuck around like the chickens. They roamed a little farther than the chickens but we had a big place.

Lol......either you love them or you hate them.

Keith, tell me more about those seven pound guineas!

They are called French guineas. I suspect they are the French hens in the 12 Days of Christmas song. The French supposedly eat more guineas per capita then chickens. Live weight of some of the females will go close to 9 pounds in their second year. Guineas that are a few years old lay as well as younger ones, unlike chickens, probably because guineas lay much fewer eggs per year. They have a nice yellow fat and taste pretty similar to ringneck pheasant.

I bought my French guineas as eggs off of Craigslist, that I hatched. When first crossed to the regular sized pearl and colored guineas, that mostly weigh under 3 pounds live weight you get guineas that will average around 5 pounds. I have not been able to get the colored guineas up to French guinea weight yet. I did not control the breeding enough.

Some of the hatcheries call them Jumbo French Guineas. Most hatcheries call them French guineas to differentiate them from the smaller guineas. Ridgeway hatchery, in LaRue, Ohio carries them. I bought a bunch for pet food manufacture last year. They average 4 pounds at just 3 months. By 6 months, they will be over 7 pounds.

http://www.ridgwayhatchery.com/gamebirds.htm

Keith

I was going to get some a few years ago but they seemed very expensive

Around $4 each for Guinea keets(young ones)

Can the french fly like the ordinary guineas? I am interested in getting some of these.

Lee, the French guineas don't fly as well as the smaller guineas. They are a lot heavier bodied, especially on the breast.

Keith

Almost all hatcheries sell extra chicks and keets much cheaper than their regular prices. They call the extra hatchlings over hatch. If you call them on their hatching date, after they shipped, you can typically get chicken chicks as low as a nickel a piece and guinea keets as low as a quarter each. Over hatch is basically trash for a hatchery. The more you buy the cheaper the price you get, especially if you can pick up.

Keiith

But you have to get the color guineas or breed of chickens that they send you.

No marten around my house.

Bruce you can usually buy anything extra hatcheries have available you want. You just call the hatchery, or go there if they are close and ask what they have available and offer a price. The more you take the better price you'll get. Most hatcheries would rather get something for their excess than pay someone to haul it away.

I buy around 10,000 chicks to sell as frozen feeder chicks for reptiles and birds of prey a year, plus a few hundred layers and other species to sell live as chicks, or to grow out and sell. I also buy older cull breeders, especially quail to resale.

Keith