what to do with one lonely guinea bird male
Once we'd gotten the basics of our family farm established—you know, a couple of cows, some piglets, a coopful of laying hens and some meat birds—my wife and I looked around Goldfinch Subcontract and asked ourselves a dangerous question: "What now?"
At commencement, nosotros idea we might desire some sheep. But the den of coyotes nosotros heard wailing every night from just across the single-lane route, in the woods of our weekend warrior neighbor, put us off that idea. (A helpful county agent seconded this, proverb, "You lot'd pretty much just be feeding the coyotes upwardly hither.")
And so, we became pretty set on getting goats. Only another neighbour raised a bunch of the ruminants, and we decided we just didn't need to listen to more than incessant bleating than we already did.
And then, i day information technology hit the states: guineas!
On this farm, it's all about the orchard and flock of pheasants.
Odd Birds
A bit of madness drives a decision to enhance guineas.
They're some strange-awaiting birds if you're accustomed to the conventional good looks of chickens, and they tin can exist skittish to the signal of offense. Plus, they are prone to raising a serious ruckus.
However, we had some sense behind our madness.
For starters, our first yr at Goldfinch Farm had been disquietingly "tick-y," and we had pulled blood-sucking ectoparasites from our flesh past the handfuls. (Somewhat like this by summer, if yous were paying attention to the arachnid population in June and July.)
Heading into our second summer, we decided to be proactive and add a flock of guineas, known for their voracious appetites for the little bugs, to the big flock of gratuitous-ranging layer hens (and a few roosters) that roamed our 12 acres.
2d, we'd planned a giant garden behind the farmhouse and were looking to continue leaf- and veggie-
chewing bugs off our plants without suffering the peck-marks that chickens will inflict upon sun-ripened Beefsteaks. We'd heard guinea fowl love to roam between crop rows, picking offending cucumber beetles and cabbage white caterpillars from green leaves, all while keeping growing food intact.
3rd, they're fiercely territorial and can protect a chiliad from trespassers, and, fourth, guineas provide tasty, lean and protein-heavy meat (eggs, as well)—non that we ever got the chance to reap any of these potential benefits.
Mistakes Were Made
Everything went fine at offset. (We knew how to raise chicks from our adventures in chickens).
Our 25 birds received the right feed, and we watched them abound from fuzzy brown chicks (technically termed "keets") to big and gangly creatures. In time, they moved to a dedicated pen built on an exterior wall of the cattle befouled. The birds increased in size while producing a chorus of honks all day long.
Then, i day, we decided to let them out.
Hither's the affair: You lot can't only allow guineas out of their pen like you would chickens. We did this totally wrong.
The group of birds rushed out of the coop and into the pasture. They pecked around in the grass, gorging themselves on bugs.
It was a wonderful sight that lasted about five minutes—at which point the flock tore toward the woods that border our farm, dove into the underbrush and disappeared below the copse. We heard their honking communications for an hour or and so, each audio slightly quieter than the previous ane.
Then, they were gone. "They'll be back tonight," one of us said unsurely.
Gone Guineas
They did not come up back. Well, four of them did, which we counted a pocket-size victory. But this quartet of republic of guinea hens w asn't fated for our farm, either.
Non a unmarried one of them re-entered their coop (or allowed us to catch them to take them back). One did roost with the chickens that first night (not ideal, but we allowed information technology), while the other three perched atop the garden fence.
The next morning, two saturday on the fence. The side by side night, all remaining three perched on the garden argue. Again, two were there in the morning. And and so on, until our farm was officially guinea-less.
That's what not to exercise with guineas, should you lot want to actually have some on your farm. Here, gathered from information sources I should take consulted much earlier, are the things you should practise.
Follow this advice if you programme to add livestock to your poultry subcontract.
An Unusual Bird
Offset, what exactly is a republic of guinea? Despite sometimes being called guinea chickens (also guinea hens and guinea fowl), these birds are hardly the same animal. With their partridge-similar bodies and bald heads, they more resemble turkeys. But they aren't them either.
They're merely guineas, and with an ancient lineage traceable to Africa, that's what they've been for a long time.
There are technically four kinds of guineas (including an eerie, vulture-looking breed), merely the well-nigh popular for domestication is the helmeted republic of guinea, which has nighttime legs, a black-and-white-speckled body, and a white, featherless caput with vivid-ruby wattles.
The birds were brought to other countries eventually, including Egypt, where they were highly prized. In contempo years, guineas have grown in popularity in the U.S. and U.Chiliad. for the benefits they bring to farms, primary among them their appetite for bugs (ticks in particular).
They'll attack and chase abroad whatever intruder, including stray dogs and humans (the latter of which tin, absolutely, become problematic). And the only things they desire out of gardens are the bugs.
They're also very fast (manner as well speedy to take hold of), can soar great distances and go wherever they please—including the chicken coop, neighboring properties and the woods. And they have to exist trained, which is the part my family and I failed to do, like, at all.
Raising Guineas
You can society republic of guinea keets from many of the aforementioned hatcheries that transport out chicken chicks, and they arrive in the same way: in a box, early at the post office for you to choice up.
The chicks go into a 95-caste brooder, and yous'll drop the temperature v degrees every 3 days or so. If you've raised chickens from chicks, you'll know the signs of discomfort—clustering under the lamp if information technology's too common cold, avoiding the lamp and laying downwards if it's besides hot.
Guineas are game birds, though, and demand much more than protein than baby chicks. And then kickoff them out on a 28 pct game-bird/turkey ration (they prefer crumbles), which is inverse to an 18 percent feed when they're grown.
Avoid giving them cold h2o—anything cooler than lukewarm can cause a life-threatening chill—and go on their bedding clean and dry out. You tin can move them to a pen once they're fully feathered, but don't let them out yet. They demand to stay in there for two to four weeks.
Grooming Fourth dimension
Equally mentioned before, if you want to continue your guineas, you have to train them. They might be a domesticated breed, but in that location's a lot of wild remaining in these birds.
Left to their own devices, they'll take to the woods, roost in trees and, in time, go picked off by owls overnight. Handling them from an early on historic period can help with their eventual skittishness, but it won't stop information technology. Guineas are just kind of … crazy.
It should be noted that what we did—keeping the birds locked up for weeks, so letting them out during the late afternoon—is the normally prescribed method for grooming guineas.
It's also mutual for groups to take off into the woods and never come dorsum similar ours did. So maybe information technology'south time to stop recommending this method for grooming guineas.
To properly train guineas to render to their coop afterward a long day of eating ticks, chasing postal workers and cleaning upwards the garden, you lot take to start past thinking like a republic of guinea.
Guineas are, for lack of a meliorate term, pack animals. Like chickens, it's uncommon for one of them to take off and explore on their own.
(I mean, we all know that weird hen who hangs out by herself in the woodshed. Yous could take a republic of guinea like that. But that's an exception, non the rule.)
The Correct Way
So, rather than letting them all out at in one case to potentially escape the farm as a group, just allow ane out: Wrangle a guinea, take it outside (being conscientious to not let others escape) and let information technology explore the subcontract.
This alone guinea won't go far on its own (it might even hang out right beside the coop), just that'southward OK. This is nearly introducing your birds to the experience of being free of the coop.
When evening comes and the chickens head abode to roost (assuming you also have chickens; if not, this is around dusk), put the solo republic of guinea back into the coop. The side by side 24-hour interval, let a different one out.
Keep these one-bird expeditions up until each of the guineas has experienced a day exterior of the coop and returned to roost for the nighttime, at which point yous're set to let the grouping out for a late-afternoon gamble.
They should render dwelling to roost at nighttime; again, these birds are nowhere near equally domesticated every bit chickens, so one or some may decide to have to a tree when nighttime falls.
Only you did what y'all could.
Yarduineas are a strange but pretty cool and definitely beneficial addition to any farmstead. Yes, it takes a flake of work to train them, and you'll need to suit to their incessant noise-making. But, in the end, they're fascinating creatures to accept effectually—especially when summer turns tick-y.
Sidebar: A Guinea Symphony
Guineas make noises that are distinct from the sounds their distant avian relatives and mutual barnyard residents, the chickens, are prone to make. There's no "cock-a-doodle-practise" or even guttural murmuring to these birds.
Once you bring guineas to you farm, you'll hear a constant chattering equally they motion in a group across the thou. These sounds are determined past their sex.
Females: Guinea hens make a two-syllable sound that people compare to the words "buckwheat" or "come back." To me it sounds similar a rusty door swinging dorsum and forth. But the point is, it's a two-part audio.
Males: Roosters tin can merely make a 1-syllable sound, which the hens are as well capable of. It'south a "kik-kik-kik" audio, and they will do it pretty much nonstop.
Guineas are loud birds. There's just no getting around that.
If y'all similar hearing animals making ceaseless noises on a lazy summer day or think you could get used to information technology, guineas could be for you lot. If you similar a tranquillity, bucolic farm that quivers under the influence of a gentle breeze … well, I hear quail are nice.
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Source: https://www.hobbyfarms.com/getting-guineas-train-them-right/
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