Guinea Hens! Help me sex them PLEASE!

[UnicornLover92]

I have two Guinea hens and I have NO CLUE how to tell them apart… I can’t do it by call because as soon as I get close to the coop or pasture they are both doing warning calls and I don’t know who’s who. I can kind of tell who’s who when they are inside the coop not screaming at me, lol. Here are some photos of their heads at least I thought I’d try again and compare photos and I’m still more lost then ever lol. Thanks in advance for any and all help/advice. Also is it true that you should have at least a flock of 5 guineas for better odds of protection from other things?

 

[R2elk]

I have two Guinea hens and I have NO CLUE how to tell them apart… I can’t do it by call because as soon as I get close to the coop or pasture they are both doing warning calls and I don’t know who’s who. I can kind of tell who’s who when they are inside the coop not screaming at me, lol. Here are some photos of their heads at least I thought I’d try again and compare photos and I’m still more lost then ever lol. Thanks in advance for any and all help/advice. Also is it true that you should have at least a flock of 5 guineas for better odds of protection from other things?

Sorry, guineas can't be sexed from photos.

You can take one out of sight of the other one and wait for them to begin calling to each other.

I highly recommend that you separate the guineas from the chickens before the problems start.

Guineas are a flock bird and do best with large groups of other guineas. No chickens do not meet the flock requirements.

 

[BauerWFarm]

Sorry, guineas can't be sexed from photos.

You can take one out of sight of the other one and wait for them to begin calling to each other.

I highly recommend that you separate the guineas from the chickens before the problems start.

Guineas are a flock bird and do best with large groups of other guineas. No chickens do not meet the flock requirements.

Females have a two syllable call and the males are just one… it’s usually pretty obvious… also I read the females bump (I don’t remember what it’s called) leans more towards tha back supposedly I can’t necessarily say I’ve noticed this.

I grew up with guineas… they were already on the house and property my parents had bought so we just kept caring for them. At one point we had reached around 100 guineas, but they mostly lived on there own with our daily scratch throw outs… and it was away from the house, a barn and pasture land they stayed on and roamed…. Somehow, it’s been said to an increase of feral cats from people dropping off cats in our development that the keet numbers started dwindling… long story short, we haven’t had guineas on our property for over 20 years… my father tried restablishing a flock twice but raccoons would get to the keets… I came across keets for sale randomly and the nostalgic feelings kicked in and I bought 4 and then 6 more another time.. I forgot something VERY important…. In the past our guineas were never raised at the house…. And since I had just built housing for my new chickens they eventually shared the same yard….. BIG MISTAKE….. guineas get very territorial and as the matured they quickly turned on my hens and my rooster. One day I turned around and all I could see was chaos! My hens literally sounded like they were “screaming” running for their lives, my Rooster ran right into the coop as soon after they were all traumatized and wouldn’t leave the inside of their coop LOl . The only way to correct this is by establishing a new “home” point they identify with and it can take a while… as mentioned above they really need to be in numbers of tens…. I lost 4 during the raising process and was at a loss what to do…. Now that I have keets I’m hoping it will improve their odds. They do survive in large flocks, they are a social bird and just will not thrive without more of their kind. Also because of how they attack predators by circling around them and attacking back. Guineas have some of the sharpest beaks.

I hope this helps you some, I know it’s hard, believe me because I was hoping it would work out as well…. But be warned . And enjoy because they truly are fascinating birds

 

[UnicornLover92]

Females have a two syllable call and the males are just one… it’s usually pretty obvious… also I read the females bump (I don’t remember what it’s called) leans more towards tha back supposedly I can’t necessarily say I’ve noticed this.

I grew up with guineas… they were already on the house and property my parents had bought so we just kept caring for them. At one point we had reached around 100 guineas, but they mostly lived on there own with our daily scratch throw outs… and it was away from the house, a barn and pasture land they stayed on and roamed…. Somehow, it’s been said to an increase of feral cats from people dropping off cats in our development that the keet numbers started dwindling… long story short, we haven’t had guineas on our property for over 20 years… my father tried restablishing a flock twice but raccoons would get to the keets… I came across keets for sale randomly and the nostalgic feelings kicked in and I bought 4 and then 6 more another time.. I forgot something VERY important…. In the past our guineas were never raised at the house…. And since I had just built housing for my new chickens they eventually shared the same yard….. BIG MISTAKE….. guineas get very territorial and as the matured they quickly turned on my hens and my rooster. One day I turned around and all I could see was chaos! My hens literally sounded like they were “screaming” running for their lives, my Rooster ran right into the coop as soon after they were all traumatized and wouldn’t leave the inside of their coop LOl . The only way to correct this is by establishing a new “home” point they identify with and it can take a while… as mentioned above they really need to be in numbers of tens…. I lost 4 during the raising process and was at a loss what to do…. Now that I have keets I’m hoping it will improve their odds. They do survive in large flocks, they are a social bird and just will not thrive without more of their kind. Also because of how they attack predators by circling around them and attacking back. Guineas have some of the sharpest beaks.

I hope this helps you some, I know it’s hard, believe me because I was hoping it would work out as well…. But be warned . And enjoy because they truly are fascinating birds

Thank you I’ll be sure to let my husband know he needs to build another home for them next to the chicken coop or I’ll completely move them across the yard into what is suppose to be the chicken coop but was getting turned into a goose house but it can be a Guinea house lol.

 

[BauerWFarm]

Thank you I’ll be sure to let my husband know he needs to build another home for them next to the chicken coop or I’ll completely move them across the yard into what is suppose to be the chicken coop but was getting turned into a goose house but it can be a Guinea house lol.

They should be already calling but it’s hard to say since they haven’t been separated yet…. And im guessing at ages…. How old are they? My birds at they age were so happy and their sounds were very soft and playful…. Then a raccoon or coons came and killed two…. I was devastated…. Seriously I was so upset…. That enclosure soon became just a temporary outdoor day pen for them….

Everyone says you can’t train a guinea… I die laughing because it wasn’t intentional but I ended up having two semi trained young guineas… they were so scared to be out at night that I would take a pet crate/taxi to the gate of the pen they both would hop in one after the other…. Everynight!!! I would let them sleep in the crate in the garage. It was the craziest thing. Then I was the only one they would interact with….calmly…. Anyone new would get the high, loud alarm reaction. They would peck my legs, my bum of i was squatting, chirping all the way… following me everywhere…. . And obviously it was really cute by this point I had two pearls, 2 lavender and 2 white breasted…. Only two females left!! The two killed were females and I lost two lavender as chicks… 4 males and two females are NOT ideal. However, this is when the rehoming them to the opposite side of our property began… so far I have 11 keets hatched and waiting on the incubator.

I wish you the best of luck!! I’m kinda thinking you have at least one female… from the images.

 

[UnicornLover92]

They should be already calling but it’s hard to say since they haven’t been separated yet…. And im guessing at ages…. How old are they? My birds at they age were so happy and their sounds were very soft and playful…. Then a raccoon or coons came and killed two…. I was devastated…. Seriously I was so upset…. That enclosure soon became just a temporary outdoor day pen for them….

Everyone says you can’t train a guinea… I die laughing because it wasn’t intentional but I ended up having two semi trained young guineas… they were so scared to be out at night that I would take a pet crate/taxi to the gate of the pen they both would hop in one after the other…. Everynight!!! I would let them sleep in the crate in the garage. It was the craziest thing. Then I was the only one they would interact with….calmly…. Anyone new would get the high, loud alarm reaction. They would peck my legs, my bum of i was squatting, chirping all the way… following me everywhere…. . And obviously it was really cute by this point I had two pearls, 2 lavender and 2 white breasted…. Only two females left!! The two killed were females and I lost two lavender as chicks… 4 males and two females are NOT ideal. However, this is when the rehoming them to the opposite side of our property began… so far I have 11 keets hatched and waiting on the incubator.

I wish you the best of luck!! I’m kinda thinking you have at least one female… from the images.

From what I’ve researched it definitely looks like I might of gotten lucky and gotten a male and female hopefully so that would be great! I usually only hear their warning call when the wind direction changes to quickly for them lol. I mean they call to each other and the other chickens but I’m never sure who it is making the calls, they both definitely sound different from each other sometimes. I got them back on 03/26 and tractor supply claims they were a couple days old, so they are going on 4 months now if I had to guess. Well at least at the end of this month they’ll be 4 months old. I’m currently in Fl, live in Co once i get back I’ll be getting some chicks and guineas if they have them in stock