Guinea Fowl- thinking of getting some

[jodief100]

How do I take care of them? Do they need housing and nestboxes? What kind of supplimentary food do they need? Can they handle the hot, humid summers and cold snowy winters we have here?

Any help will be appreciated. I have raised chickens for 30 years but never any othe kind of bird.

 

[Mo's palominos]

I don't know a whole lot about them because we have only had ours a little over a year now.
Ours free range during the day and roost with the chickens at night. They eat the same things the chickens do, layer crumbles and scratch. They fly really well and if anything is out of the ordinary they do make LOTS oh racket!!
They are worth their weight in gold as far as eating bugs, even the bugs the chickens won't eat.
I would suggest getting them as youngsters. The ones we bought that were already adults are mean to the chickens at times. Overall I'm really happy with mine !!

 

[elevan]

I don't have them but I have a neighbor who does. She keeps hers with the turkeys at night. She has 1 large nest box that they or the turkeys can use if they want to...but it's my understanding that they don't lay consistently like chickens.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

We found that they're much more fragile as chicks than chickens are, but once they make it past a few weeks old they are very hardy. Ours handled the heat and humidity here in GA without a problem, as well as freezing temps in the winter. In fact, there is a feral flock in the neighborhood that's been going strong on it's own for several years. I don't know where they roost, but I saw them in the neighbor's field yesterday sunning themselves and enjoying the beautiful Spring weather.

 

[DonnaBelle]

We just got 9 about 6 weeks ago. They are fun birds, I like to hear them call. You either love em or hate em I hear. I turn mine loose in the am back in the barn at nightfall. They do seem to eat a lot of bugs. They are beautiful birds I think, they are naturally more wild than chickens, and don't lay consistant.

Go on BYC website, they have an info area for guineas, plus several posters on there have a lot of them, even raise them.

I PM'd a gal on there, she's from California, she was really helpful.

DonnaBelle

 

[Chirpy]

I agree that if you can get them as chicks that's the best idea. They are far less 'friendly' than chickens and would prefer to never be touched by human hands. Even when raised and handled daily they tend to not want to be picked up when they are older.

They are REALLY obnoxiously LOUD!! If you have close neighbors it can seriously be a problem.

We raised ours with our chicks so they learned to go into the coop every night to roost. However, when they were around 8 months old some of them preferred to stay outside and roost on the roof of the coop instead. If you have tall trees - they may love to roost in them too.

Did I mention that they are REALLY LOUD!!

They are great bug eaters.. they love ticks.

They are REALLY LOUD!

They are also notorious for not getting along with chickens when they reach maturity. You have a better chance of less problems in that area if you have a larger flock of Guineas so they can mess with each other instead of the chickens.

 

[PattySh]

We have 3 guineas in a coop with turkeys and chickens, they all get along. The guineas lay eggs on the floor under the chicken nest boxes. Mine aren't super noisy unless they sense danger or are startled. It is important to get the number of guineas you want from the same hatching or at least combine them as newly hatched. They do not take kindly to the addition of new guineas to the flock, generally they will kill them. I found that out the hard way.

 

[elevan]

Has anyone here eaten them?

I just watched an episode of Bizarre Food with Andrew Zimmern and he equated guinea fowl to be what chicken should taste like (very good)...meaty and moist with very little effort.

I'm just wondering if anyone can back that up?

It might be nice to have some to take care of bugs in the spring through fall and then butcher after the hard frost in the late fall...

 

[elevan]

Here's a great thread on BYC

 

[Royd Wood]

I've eaten them and trust me they are delicious.
Back in England we used them to warn other critters of preditors on foot or in the air. They were let loose and survived as a group for years and never left.
As mentioned above - they are VERY vocal