Introduction to Keeping Guinea Fowl

thank you, very useful. I only have one guinea, but she gets along well with my hens, and hopefully I can get her some friends.

Loved the article and the comments. Thank you this answered a lot of questions for me. Now my Guinea fowl are old enough to try and figure out male and female. At least my four big ones.

Interesting intro to guinea fowl. I am interested in a bird that will eat my FireAnts!

They look amazing, and sound fun, but I'm happy to have read this article. If they need to live free here in this forested area, they will be prey to the cougar, coyotes and raccoons, at the least. Thanks for sharing your experience with them.

I am guinea-less right now but have kept them for about 7 years, off and on. They completely desecrate an ant colony in seconds. I've seen them eat the wood bees that bore into wood and damage buildings. They really love Japanese beetles! And don't harm my garden. The eggs are just amazing to eat, small but better than chicken eggs. I used to keep ring neck pheasant also, so I did a taste test with my family. Cooked 1 bird each, pheasant and guinea exactly the same way. All of us preferred guinea fowl. They are a fantastic multi purpose bird, but I'd recommend you don't keep in town. They are pretty loud and some days chatter nonstop. There is usually a reason when they are.

I'm researching Guinea fowl. This article is a very good "pro" article. Thank you.

I love guineas, they always alert the other birds when something is nearby, I love how this explains myths about guineas and how they aren't true.

Very informative!

I really enjoyed this article and I especially liked your statements about guineas not being stupid or bad mothers/parents. As you said, if they kept in ways that are not natural to them, then yes, bad things can happen. They also have a flock intelligence that is very important to them, and when people randomly grab members of the flock to sell or butcher, it really affects the flock's cohesion and they lose important knowledge. Thanks for your refreshingly appreciative view of these birds-- they are an excellent farm partner for us and keep insect pressure down.

Best article ever...

I have seen some of the behaviors you describe... Unfortunately I didnt have a flock large enough or mature enough to have any nest making behaviors.

deb

I'm getting 6 Guinea keets next week and this is very good information to have, thank you!

I'm hoping to get some guinea fowl soon, and these are some encouraging words!

Loved the articles, but was waiting for information for raising them and it never came. But it did tell me tons about their personality and that i'll need to warn my neighbors that i have screeching alarm systems now

I don't raise guinea fowl, but this was very informative!

Thank you for a snipet into the life of keeping guineas. It is something we are thinking about (for tick control) and love reading all about these strange little birds.

I really enjoyed this informative and engaging article! It had a captivating, humorous lead (chickens with polka dots, lol!), a wealth of interesting information throughout, and an upbeat, challenging conclusion.

The article was well-written and well-balanced, with the author presenting even the birds' somewhat less desirable characteristics humorously in the most favorable possible way. (Yes, the birds are noisy, both day and night, and therefore best suited to people with no near neighbors, but once you learn to identify their alarm calls from their "just-keeping-tabs-on-each-other" and other assorted gronks, honks and alerts, they'll make a great intruder alert system!)

I loved learning how smart, curious and independent these critters are, and how loyal and devoted to family. They are, to me, a curious mix of beauty and ugliness (no offense, I speak of myself in the same terms!), and of grace and awkwardness.

I had some once, long ago and far away. I was not impressed with them then, but my ignorance of them was truly abysmal. Perhaps now that I understand them better, as a result of this article, I might try again. They deserve more respect than I was able to give them back then. Also, I have more trees, more ticks and fewer neighbors now so they might be a lot happier this time around.

I enjoyed your article very much. It was very well done. Thank you.

I love guineas and get annoyed that they always get such a bad rap. It is nice to see something positive for a change! I always found mine to be great attentive parents...even the males! Plus, they do an awesome job for bug control and I think their feathers are beautiful!
Good article....thanks for sharing!

Loved it. Thank you for all the information!

Wow, this was so much fun yo read!
I started breeding guinea fowls last year and now have 8 of them for my own (7 boys and 1 girl...)
It all sounded so familiairwell done!

A lot of informatipon about how to keep Guineas the correct way. I've heart a lot of negative tales about them, like being dumb, bad mothers, aggressive - this article explains how to avoid those misbehaviors