French Guinea poultry can sometimes get a bad tap . It ’s true , they ’re loud and flighty birds . But if you understand their quirks before add together them to your farm , they can bestow you many worthwhile benefits .
If you are expecting a chicken - alike bird that ’s quiet and hang around the cage , you ’ll be disappointed in guineas . But if you ’re looking for a hard working , high - energy razzing ( and you do n’t mind some noise ) , they are staring for your homestead . Kirsten Lie - Nielsen
What Are Guinea Fowl?
Of the fauna you’re able to keep as livestock or deary on your homestead , guineas are one of the close to still being uncivilized .
dago fowl uprise in Africa ; colonist brought them to America as a low - maintenance meat source . Modern , domesticate guinea poultry amount in a wide variety of color patterns but always boast the bald head .
Most have noticeable , rigid wattle and a little dome at the top of their heads .
Guineas are very high muscularity and have a report as being ill - tempered and bad parent . While you should be aware that they can bully pocket-size chicken , guineas ’ plucky attitudes are part of what they bring to a homestead . If raised with a flock of chickens , they generally get along .
In my personal experience they ’ve been attentive parents , so some of their reputation may be hyperbole . Afraid of very little and happy to champion their soil , guinea fowl will fence in and kill snakes and have even been said to attack and chase off stinker and hawk .
Learn what you should ( and should n’t ) do to keep guineas from range away .
Kirsten Lie-Nielsen
Country Birds
The chief purpose of guineas on many farms , including ours , is as ticking control . Their bottomless appetites for small-scale bugs mean they will swan far and wide consume ticks .
This can make them knockout to keep on the urban farm . But they ’re arrant for more acreage , where they can keep the tick population at bay .
The other understanding that dago are n’t suited to an urban farm is their phonation . Guineas will make harsh calls if they see anything at all strange , or if they become separated from each other .
Males make a loud , undivided - syllable scream , while females do a two - whole tone call that sounds like “ buck - straw , buck - wheat ” .
These call are super loud and in an urban environment , and they would probably put out your neighbor . But on a magnanimous farm they blend in with the remainder of the noise of the country and can even be quite risible .
Guineas also lie small , tasty egg that are a mo of a delicacy if you may grapple to give chase down their nests . Their sum is valued as more gamey than chickens ’ , and for both heart and egg they are very economical birds to keep .
Kirsten Lie-Nielsen
They consume very little grain during the summer when they ’re free ranging . Kirsten Lie - Nielsen
Keeping Guineas
Guineas can be heavy to house because they wish to rest high and often do n’t come back to the chicken coop until after dark .
We started by keeping our brooder of ginzo in the chicken coop , so they knew that this was their home plate . It has function , and even though they often come to bed tardily , they always come back to the cage .
The majuscule downside of Numida meleagris domestic fowl I ’ve see is that their wandering and perhaps a want of smarts means they ’re easy pickings for a spate of predatory animal .
We ’ve suffered almost no exit of Gallus gallus or duck who stay closely to the barn and our livestock guardian dog . But over three years we ’ve go from 30 guinea fowl fowl to 11 .
A reality of hold open guineas will be restoring their numbers every few geezerhood . But we are happy to do it because , in a land with a terribleLyme diseaseproblem , we have almost no check on our farm .
