 pen’s vicinity. However, this would only explain snakes in the pen–not the hundreds (possibly thousands) of snakes he saw while trekking through the wilderness with the turkeys. It would not explain deer, or hawks, or any of the other interactions with and sightings of local elusive wildlife either.
Rebecca, read your comment on the Turkey/Snake comment…. You are the bomb! I love that you actually understand what is actually happening. You have to care enough and pay attention enough to figure out what is actually going on with these unique birds. Ex- I hear all the team how guineas are so dumb because they chase cars, when they are actually make guineas who threaten anything who moves quickly around their guinea ladies. Thank you for sharing your knowledge;)
What he noticed is that when he was with the birds, they saw a lot more snakes.
Because the birds found them. They did not attract them.
Got me 4 as well. I love them. I love their look although they are not very pretty to look at. I love their sounds. We don’t have chickens and that is probably a good thing, we do have horses, mini donkey and cats and dogs, so far no problems here. I had some before and they were the best watch dogs…and like I said I love to hear them, esp. the females.
They have only been out during the day for the last 3 days and we do have to help them in their pen at dusk….hoping they will learn to do this on their own.
if you have horses, guineas are great! we have 40+ guinea, and 4 horses in about 10 acres pasture. we used to have to drag the pasture to break up the manure piles… not any more. The guineas wait for a day or so until the poop is full of bug larvae, then they spread out the pile, eat the bugs (far fewer flies) and no more unsightly piles of poo.
we used to have a BAD tick problem, not so any more. no more picking through manes and tails looking for ticks, same for the dogs.
the first year is the worst for the noise, then they quiet down a lot! our turkeys are far more noisy.
and the second generation raised with an adult seem much smarter about getting back home over fences and escaping predators. definitely a monkey see, monkey do kind of thing going on there.
They do not tolerate change well, but they will show you anything that changes around the farm if you watch them.
Thank you so, so much for your article! I have a dozen free range chickens who are wonderful – friendly and great egg layers. I got them to eat the bugs and keep my aviary spaces clean for my parrots. They are working out great. I recently stepped into a fire ant nest and got eaten alive!! A friend suggested I get guinea hens to eat the ants. With my feet on fire, I was willing to try anything. I was roaming the internet for a place to purchase some hens. Then, just in time, I read your article. I love my chickens and have a peaceful kingdom here. I don’t want to upset the balance. I’ll figure out another way to get rid of the fire ants. You saved us all!!!!
so….. chickens won’t eat fire ants??? just wondering if anybody has an answer to this….
Mine wouldn’t touch fire ants…
The answer to fire ants, Button Quail eat every bug that crawls or flies. They are great and they have a funny noise they make now and then that isn’t loud or annoying.
I have heard that molasses is a fire ant’s enemy.
The female guineas are peaceful,it’s the males you have to worry about. I have 9 right now,down from anout 18 or so. Yes the males cornered my female turkey and would have tore her to shreds if i hadnt come alone. They are great to have atound,just know the males from the females,and get rid of all but what you’ll need.
We planted peppermint around the areas worst infested with fire ants at our home. I planted it around the outside of our chicken coop. We no longer have chickens since our son wanted a dog, but we also do not have a lot of fire ants on our property.
Cover the ant piles with dried molasses. Non toxic. You may need to reapply once.
We had one guinea. Don’t know the type, he was good size,grey and white speckle. He was raised from a keep with our chickens and roo and he did great. Never had fire ants once he roamed and we have not had scorpions. He got into an argument once with our roo but it was over when we put him in the coop. He was a little noisy if he got separated from the other two or if he felt like it but it was worth it for the fire ant free 2 acres we have. He was just recently killed by a dog. Had him for 3 years.
Kill fire ants by pouring boiling water on their nest, it is fast, non toxic, effective and very satisfying.
4 Guineas 3 male 1 female, raised from keets.BULLIES! OK..with the rooster and chicken that were present at time I got them, but the new Chicken..they beat hell out of. They did push both hens out of nesting boxes..
I love my guineas sooooo much! They are the most amazing parents I’ve ever seen in the bird world. And after much study I’ve decided they are NOT dumb, just overly aggressive for their size. In fact, all the ones I have lost were because one guinea took a (metaphorical) bullet to save another guinea or one of my chickens! And they do tend to think they can take on cars…
Above and beyond this though, it took only 6 guineas to get rid of my tick problem. I haven’t had an animal with a tick on them since I got the guineas. And their eggs taste GREAT!
I like their eggs too…and they lay a lot of eggs
I have 1 guinea now I had 2 but one of them got killed by a raccoon protecting my prized silkie hen named Avatar. Since then the one guinea I have left ( I call him guinea) seems very lonely and wants a friend. I am looking for a guinea hen if anybody has one they want to get rid of.
How do you teach them to roam ours hang at house look at them selfs in window will not leave house area
If you feed them to much they have no reason to roam. Just give them a little grain so they don’t get to full. We feed ours some grain,but we feed all the birds together so they all get along well
We have raised guinea fowl for two years, as well as our neighbor. 8 – 10 birds each per year. She lost most of hers early on due to free ranging. I kept mine in the coop until four months. Then they free range and roost on the coop and cedar trees. We are down to four birds total. We are pretty sure it is the work of coyotes. We actually saw one this morning after hearing the typical “something just got me ” squawk of a doomed guinea. But this is happening BEFORE DAWN! It was about an hour before the sun came up. We love the birds, with all their antics, but are distraught with losing so many almost every night! Don’t know what to do! They don’t do captivity well (I tried that last year) but this is heartbreaking. Are they stupid enough to roost on the ground???
Coyotes are extremely intelligent, opportunistic, shrewd, and nocturnal. To protect your birds, only feed them a little grain at night…but put the feed inside their coop or outdoor pen ( make sure it’s very secure, and covered, as they do fly. Also, inside the pen, be sure to give them something higher than 4′ to roost on at night. You can use netting or a tarp, to try and form a tent over a tall roost, like a 2×4 pole, with “branches” other smaller boards for roosting. Be sure the bottom of the fencing is staked into the ground, you can use thick sticks or garden spikes for this, to keep coyotes from digging in to them. Also, these birds are monogamous, just like we are and will grieve and mourn the loss of their mates. If you are using them for tick, bug and snake control, let them, roam in the day. Also, another note, they should be penned until at least 2 to 4 months of age. Only let one or two out at a time, to free roam…they will first stay close to the pen and the other fowl, each day or so, let out a few more, only putting them up at night, and only feeding a little, to lure them into their pen or coop…this should help keep them safer. Coyotes are a difficult and dangerous predator to deal with. If one finds it easy to grab your livestock at night, or early morning, then they will keep coming back until they kill everything you have. It’s easy food for them. You may look into ordering wolf urine from online. Use it around your property…..and the coyotes will get the idea. You can google “how to deter coyotes” or “how to order natural wolf urine” there is a site online that actually sells all types of