I bought 10 guineas three weeks ago and they were 3 days old and one that was 1 day old and they have all tripled in size. You can't even tell the 1 day old chick from the 3 day old ones. They have been a bit of a pain but this is my first batch and I have learned a lot from them.
My wife took me out of town for my birthday and we stopped by tractor supply. They had just gotten a batch of guineas in so we took 20 😁 The Lord timed that out for us because the place in town couldn't keep them in stock and to order was 3-5 months out.
If you want guineas faster, get an incubator and buy some eggs through the mail. 23 days in the oven and they're done. They are tough birds and in free range they will eat what they find. The meat is dark and rich, much better than chicken.
buy a larger flock than you need as well. if they are to get ticks then you are going to have a lot who will die while roaming the land. hawks, owls, so forth. even if you bring them in every night. your flock has to learn to protect itself as it roams. that takes a bit. it's not as much about breeding per say but understand the land. that is learnt generation from generation you can't breed that in per say. some breeds can be better at picking it up but when you take a flock of eggs. they only have super base level programming. For example, i got a flock of chickens from my friend and they didn't eat mushrooms. mine ate mushrooms tons of stuff from the compost they knew what to eat and what not to eat. same breed. I gave her the birds 2 years ago. just a bunch of eggs. but chicken, ducks, fowl. they all have a society that learns from each other.
Hatch them under hand tame free range gamey type hens and they will be hand tame, stayaround home/immediate property area eating thing you don't enjoy around but will unfortunately also follow you like creepy lil vultures moving as you move stopping as you stop ect.. roost in high coop (they need least four or five minimum, to eight feet high, six is decent), and greet you in morning and say good night at night. Incubator raised ones for some reason even freaked out stressing, dying, or running off, first chance and never really tame. Natural parent guinea hatched ones do lot better, but not too good, compared to gamey hatched. Bantam Americana/Easter eggers been best so far, as silkies got to floofy smothering choking stomping fragile things accidentally, and didn't keep them warm enough, and couldn't let them out on ground till fully feathered, where gamey bantam ran all over showing how to hustle even during soaked snow storm for rodents ect never needing feed.
We had several Guineas. I really loved them when they were small. However, when they became grown, they began picking on my smaller breed chickens. I ended up giving the Guineas to a friend for her farm. They seemed to do much better there.
I don't give medicated feed, but I don't worry about special/gamebird feed. I think if you let them free range forage they will get plenty of protein. looking to see how they taste. We used to have some when I was a kid but never ate them.
Got some guineas of my own. Love their original beauty and the overall unique addition to my homestead, wish they were more sociable. They absolutely hate human contact and will avoid it at all costs.
@@TheHunterPaige they are tick exterminator. I got 25 of them last year. Initially I lost some but now I have a stable flock of 16. I hope to hatch some this year.
I've heard that having a few Guineas around is good if you raise a lot of chickens as they are the best when it comes to predator detection, sounding the alarm and dealing with vermin.
Looks like an impressive flock! I live on a property shared with my land lord who has a number of free range chickens and guineas. The guineas seem to be very aggressive with each other (read disruptive), lay few eggs, and I have not seen them take an active role in reducing the bug population around here. I asked my land lord why he got the guineas and he did not really have an answer. What advantages are the guineas supposed to offer?
Not thrilled with ordering in the mail but finally I did to get my guinea. Hope to get them this week. We have a lot of ticks from deers and snakes around the house that need tending to.
Guineas should be on meatbird not chick starter.When I got mine I asked about feed for them and was told to put them on meatbird feed.They are like turkeys they need more protein than chickens.
i love to eat guineas and there eggs, foxes and owls love em too Glade you got em. There only 2 things bad about em. there noisy and love to take sand baths in your garden! Excellent watch dogs they are and there be no ticks, spiders, lizards, snakes, mice, insects, ect around your property .. i love em
onlybev1 Bug control and they are a member of the pheasant family. The meat is supposed to be next to turkey in protein content. Excellent foragers so the need little feed as compared to chickens.
