If you have a well-concealed nest of eggs you might wake up to find mama guinea with her newly hatched brood ready to join the rest of the flock. Guinea hens nest on the ground, and they usually do it under cover somewhere. Until the day your guinea fowl flock all of sudden grows exponentially. You might wait a few days for them to come home and then assume that they were nabbed by a fox or neighborhood dog and move on with your life. Either that or you will notice some of your guinea hens are all of a sudden missing. So if you have survived the first few months with guinea fowl and you make it to laying season, you will begin to notice small speckled eggs in your nest boxes (Yes, you can eat them). Related Reading: 6 Things Your Chicken Coop Must Have! They might go into their coop or they might find the tallest tree imaginable and fly and jump their way to the tiny top branches. They might come home and night, they might not. They will cross roads, bother your neighbors, terrorize the horses down the street- all while screaming and squawking. Once they are comfortable with being outdoors they will start pushing the limits. Guineas can fly pretty well and jump pretty high which means fencing isn’t really going to do much. I am here to warn you, even if you do that, they might still have trouble coming home at night. If you’ve done your research about raising guinea fowl you will know that you should raise them in their final home, or keep them locked in their new home for quite a few weeks before allowing them outdoors so that they know where home is. They are free range birds and they take it to the extreme. I’ll tell you now that they won’t eat many ticks in a covered run. I recently shared my thoughts on free range chickens, but I assume if you want to purchase guinea fowl it is mostly for their tick-eating tendencies. Make your homestead dreams come true! The Homestead Goal Planner will help you prioritize your life and your homestead goals so that you can make steady progress toward creating the homestead you’ve always dreamed of! Half the time we let the guineas roost in the trees just to give the chickens a break. They were afraid to go into the coop at night once the guineas were in there. 6 months later- half our chickens were missing their tail and back feathers. When we added the young birds- both guinea and chicken- to our mature flock the usual fight for top bird began. Our guinea fowl were raised from keets with chicks. And if you thought this was a tough process to watch with chickens, you will be amazed with guineas- these guys are mean! The guinea fowl figured out their own pecking order eventually but be prepared for a longer adjustment if you have other birds as well. When you have new additions there will always be a period adjustment while they figure out the new order. It is actually sort of fascinating to watch, but when one guinea gets separated from the flock? You’d better cover your ears until they find each other again!Īll birds have a pecking order. They also have a habit of moving as one solitary unit. But they will also alert you to the fact that a door just slammed, the wind blew, or a car drove by a mile down the road. Guineas will alert you to strange dogs, people and cars coming on to your property. I don’t know how many times I read that guinea fowl make great alarm systems. Guineas are LOUD!!! No cute little clucking noises from these guys, it’s full out screaming and screeching. (Again, this is from my personal experience! Really- read the comments- lots of great information there!) Though they will still dust bathe and peck at your garden veggies if given the chance.īut in the interest of full disclosure you really should know the things that they do that aren’t so glamorous about guinea fowl. (Read all about that on Do Guineas Eat Snakes?) Guinea fowl can eat ticks and even snakes, sometimes. Please see my disclosure page for more information about cookies collected and our privacy policy. If you make a purchase using one of these links, I may earn a commission.
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