What is a guinea good for?

[quiltymare]

I know little to nothing about guineas except what I've seen and HEARD at my friend's place that has about 20 of them. They are darned noisey. Really really noisey! Goofy, hysterically funny at times, and can be a murderous mob. I watched as one of his full grown Tom Turkeys was attacked by them. We rushed in to save the poor Turkey but it was amazing now tough those guineas were!

 

[ozark hen]

I only have two grown guineas, one male and one female. I had them before I bought my five grown chickens. I put them all in together and kept them inside for two weeks together. My female guinea has started laying her eggs in the deep straw on the floor under the hen's nesting boxes. My DH says we can eat their eggs, too. They all roost together now after a day of free ranging. I have a little black hen who will spend a lot of her day with them. In the afternoon, you can see the chickens and the guineas resting together under a large rose bush. I really wanted to get more guineas but don't want to upset the apple cart so to speak. They have a good relationship going on here and I don't want to mess it up.
They are tick lovers and other unwanted insects. Robin pretty much said it all. Yesterday the guineas were in the fields and did not realize we had company. When our company was leaving and we were all standing in the driveway the guineas came home. They circled us like indians and started yelling their alarm calls...a little belatedly. It was pretty funny as they were trying to alert us of strangers on the property. Two are not so bad at all when it comes to their "noise". I wouldn't trade these two for anything.