How tall are guinea fowl

Guinea fowl have been observed to fight off the most fearsome hawks and other birds of prey to keep their keets safe. Overall, these are quite active and energetic birds — much more so than their close cousin, the domestic chicken. In fact, guinea fowl are so good at guard duty that some owners keep them specifically for this purpose! Guinea fowl are also pest control experts. These birds love to eat bugs, including grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, flies, mosquitos, worms, caterpillars, ticks, wasps and other bothersome insects that plague people and livestock.

Some farmers now even use guinea fowl in lieu of pesticides to control barnyard pests. Anyone who keeps guinea fowl needs to know these are extremely social birds and should always be kept in groups. However, a flock of guinea fowl can be difficult for the uninitiated to manage. Guinea fowl are also very vocal. Their general noise and piercing calls can be irritating to some. If you value keeping a cordial relationship with your neighbors, it can be worth checking first before choosing to keep guinea fowl.

This is especially true in an urban setting. They will also actively hunt snakes as a way to protect their keets from predation. Some keepers have even noted that guinea fowl appear to have special calls to alert others about what type of predator is approaching. One potential workaround to lessen the noise level is to hatch and raise your own keets.

This way, you can help shape their behavior as adults. This is a sound that is unique to the hens of the species. Since guinea fowl adults can be hard to sex, knowing which calls are specific to hens can be a helpful way to tell the adult hens apart from the males! Guinea fowl can walk, run, and fly. In the wild, they usually roost rest and sleep in trees at night. As many as 2, of these birds may be seen roosting together in a single large tree.

On farms, they are often seen perched high up outside or inside barns. In certain species, however, a male may mate with more than one female. A male may also hump his back when he has an unfriendly meeting with another male. The female usually lays a clutch of 12 to 15 small dark eggs in a nest scratched into the ground, which may be hidden among a clump of weeds or some other cover. Some clutches may contain as many as 30 eggs. Both parents take care of the keets. Raising Keets For the first few weeks of their lives, keets need to stay warm and dry, or else they may die.

When they are a few weeks old, however, they become very hardy birds. The young birds are then usually moved into a safe nursery area, where they are introduced to the older birds of the flock while protected behind a wire divider.

After a few weeks in the nursery, they are released into the main flock. Lifespan The average lifespan of a guinea fowl is approximately 10 to 15 years. The whole flock attacked me. They grab you with their beak and twist. They can, and did, draw blood. I left the keet to its own devices. He did fine. We purchased 13 chickens but 3 weeks later we now think we have a Guinea. Can we raise just one along with the chickens?

I made the mistake of letting our guineas share vegetable scraps with our chickens. I knew it was a possibility that they would go after those same items in our garden but was lucky until last year. They decimated my tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers. Hello Bobbi,, Oops! I made that mistake with my first batch of guineas 18 years ago.

Kept them with the chickens which worked fine the first year but when guineas came into their own second year I had to add a separate apartment for them. Guineas RULE! They did not fly in! Good luck! Oh yes, and read the book, Gardening with Guineas by Jeannette S. Was my Guinea Bible in I was able to tame and train my birdies to sit on my shoulder and come to the call of SEED. Best wishes and Blessings. I would really like to get some guineas and let them roam my big yard, but have a very territorial larger dog.

Have had other guineas around or fly over and the dog has yet to catch one, or one of my cats but will send them up a tree. Dog learned to get along with cats in the house but outside he is ruler of the yard and am afraid he would hurt them or give them stress… Anyone think it might be OK?

Not necessarily territorial but excitable for sure. Also have a couple of dogs. One is a Golden. At first the dogs were excited about the birds and chased them up into trees. After a week or two the dogs seemed bored with the birds. They co-mingle just fine now.

Very helpful!! We are not typically the farm or bird type but we live on 10 acres, with a riverfront and a pond. Any bug or animal that lives well with moist ground and water we get. We only have one near neighbor who also has chickens and a dog and we have a dog ourselves. If anyone has advise, much appreciated!

I would like to get more guinea fowl, however, our last surviving Guinea was a white male. He was very aggressive bully with our chickens. Would that be far enough away to keep the guineas separate from the chickens?

We let the guineas roam, but generally keep the chickens in their large coop. My husband brought home 6 Keets today…one is blind! Ive never had them before, will it adapt? Should i seperate it? We got 10 keets at a day old and have had them for about a year. We have our first nest of about 25 eggs so far.

They roam free all day and go in the barn at night to be shut in. Our best advise for the babies is to use the rubber mat that is intended for a non slip furniture that you can buy at the dollar store. This gives the chicks a nice grip to prevent leg problems. Added bonus is it is cheap and easy to clean and reuse. I acquired one guinea , not sure where it came from but has come to hang out with one of my hens and ducks.

I decided I would like to keep her but she tore the feathers of my oldest hen who I have had to separate while her feathers grow back. Now I do not know if I should put them together the guinea seems extremely aggressive towards her when they are near and I am scared to let my hen free range with her. I know someone that already has guineas can I take her to a group of them, will she fit in with them? Thank you for this great article, we live on about 9 acres and we definitely want to get some Guineas.

I have my guineas on 10 acres of land. They pretty much hang around my property. However they were well trained. Raised them from keets and kept them in the coop for 8 months before releasing them in the spring after the snow melted.

The coop is always open and they come in every night. I would love to get Guineas, we had them when I was a child and now that I have children of my own, I am more than ready to start a small flock.

My main concern is that while we have 40 acres, there is a farm directly across the road from us, what is the likelihood that they will become farm hens across the road?

We had 5 guineas last year who lived happily with our turkeys. Their shelter included three perches same level and a tin roof no walls surrounded by electric netting. The guineas would often fly out of the netting and back in or we would have to turn off the netting and let them in , in time we would lose then one by one either something got them or they found a happier place. Come thanksgiving we had one left. And after we butchered the turkeys we placed the guinea in the barn, were she remained for a few days before she decided to become a chicken and since early December has lived happily with our chickens, laying in the box and making it in to the coop before the electric door goes down each night.

This year we bought 7 keets. They currently are a few weeks old and live in the barn. We are needing to get them on grass so they can work their magic and eat the ticks, but we are trying to figure out what type of shelter to build them.

Please note we will not be shutting the door every night or trying to herd them in My plan is to build a shelter Surround by an electric fence so they can be safe yet still fly over the net to explore farther.

But what type of shelter that will be protected from the elements And again am not shutting a door each night. Or do I just put them in the with hens and hope they fly out of their fencing to eat bugs and return before the door closes each night?

And what if last years guinea hen do I keep her with the chickens or introduce her to the new flock and let her live like the guinea she was born to be? Hello, i have a male and female guinea for about 3 years. This year she laid eggs in hen house on floor so i let her sit.

She had 17 eggs and started sitting. She had They are all kept together in my hen house with fenced in small pen. The male takes care of the keets as much or more than hen does. He even lets them get under him for protection as does female. I have let them out for 15 mins.

He scratches the leaves and the keets gather around him. After while i herd them back in. Was wondering how old the hens are before they start laying eggs? This is a update. Had 3 keets left, big enough to fly some. One was sickly and died. Other2 were ok. Father guinea started chasing the 2 when they were close. I think he bullied them in pen and free range in backyard.

They kept to themselves and wasnt eager to come out of house. But have seen them roost all together at night. The last 2 i found dead week apart in their house. But the male guinea was such a good father when they were babies but not when they started getting their feathers.

Dont know what went wrong with keets but will clean out house real good and try again next year. Male will run up to my cats if they arent watching for him. I seen him jump on my big tom cat when he had his back turned. Thought about getting rid of him but had the male and female 4 years. Please advise. I have one adult hen. She lost her little flock over a couple of months to stray dogs and predators.

I got more keets. They are now 6 weeks old. She the adult has been around them for two weeks. Separated by fencing for safety.

I have tried twice to allow them together. She is being very aggressive with them. So they continue to be separated. So, is this normal? What should I do to fix this? A nearby neighbor just moved leaving hens behind. Adjacent to our homes is a very large parcel of DEC protected land and the hens seem to like to wander there.

We are wondering if we could get them to come over by us if we create an alternate shelter for them we get plenty of cold and wet weather so I am concerned.

They also tend to walk in front of moving cars. How do we get them to move in? Be careful. I would check the legalities, but you can bait them over with mealworms. Put the worms in the same spot where you want the chickens to come so they know to keep coming back there. I started with 6 birds a year ago, one flew the coop, down to 5.

One hen sitying on about 30 eggs right now. They were a little challenging to coop train, but finally got it. They coop with my chickens and a peacock. I really do love having them. I would keep him separate if he ends doing this and you are not wanting it. My guinea just laid a clutch of 13 eggs in my neighbors field, its about to be cut in 10 days. Can I move the nest to my barn? Will she follow or abandon the eggs?

Will the eggs hatch in an incubator? There is no way to know exactly what she will do. Many hens will follow and be determined to sit back on it. If the barn is unheated, it is best if you do not insulate the shelter or space where the guineas are kept. Insulation tends to keep moisture in more than it keeps cold out, and allowing moisture to accumulate in a poultry house can lead to respiratory problems among birds.

If you want to keep your guineas from wandering in a specific area, you must keep them in covered pens. Guineas are able to fly at a very early age, and they become strong fliers able to fly to ft. Guineas are also very good runners and prefer to move on foot, including when escaping from predators.

Under most conditions, you should not confine male guineas with chickens if there are roosters in the same flock. When male guineas are housed with roosters full-time, the guineas will chase the roosters, keeping them from food and water. If your flock is allowed to range freely during the day and is locked up only at night, it is safe to keep guineas and roosters in the same barn.

It is also safe to house them together in a short-term emergency such as a blizzard or other bad weather. If you are keeping guineas for egg production for hatching or human consumption , you should provide nest boxes.

Nest boxes designed for chickens are usually acceptable. To reduce the likelihood of hens laying eggs in hidden nests outside, keep guinea hens confined to a hen house until noon each day so that they will lay eggs inside.

If you are raising guinea fowl to control ticks and insects, you are better off purchasing adult guineas because they are easier to care for than young guineas and do well on their own. It takes guineas a while to get settled into a new home.

It is best to keep them confined for a week or two to let them become accustomed to their new home. If you let them out right away, they could run away.

The guineas should be confined in a pen where they can see the area where they will be living. After an initial couple of weeks, let one guinea out. Guineas hate to be alone, so the single guinea will not go far and will learn its way around the area. After a few days, let a second guinea out to run with the first. If they stay near the pen, it is usually safe to let the rest out. Keets are guinea fowl offspring that are younger than 12 weeks old.

If you wish to start with day-old keets, you can purchase them from a local breeder or feed mill. If local facilities do not have any keets, you can purchase the birds online with delivery through the U.

Postal Service. Newly hatched birds, including keets, can survive for 48 hours on the nutrients they take in when they absorb the yolk during hatching. This allows a window in which birds can survive shipment without supplemental nutrition.

Adult guineas forage for themselves and are able to meet most of their nutrition requirements on their own. They consume a variety of insects and arachnids mosquitoes, ticks, beetles, and so on , weed seeds, slugs, worms, and caterpillars. Guineas need to consume some greens in order to maintain good digestion, and so they eat grass, dandelions, weeds, and other vegetation.

Because the birds are consuming vegetation, it is important to make sure grit is available for the birds, and the birds also benefit from having oyster shell available.

Provide clean water at all times.