From cgriffin@facts.ksu.edu Mon Oct 11 21:48:42 1999
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 20:01:45 -0500
From: Charlie Griffin <cgriffin@facts.ksu.edu>
To: sanet-mg@amani.ces.ncsu.edu
Subject: Re: Guinea fowl?

Kendra, there have been some lengthier discussions in the past, 
which you might find by searching the sanet archive.  I have them, 
and I think they've been a great addition.  They are hardy and self-
reliant.  They have substantially reduced the ticks and 
grasshoppers around the farmyard area.  They are not hard at all 
on the garden, except for dustbaths in the loose soil when 
seedlings are just coming up.  They do a lot better with predators 
than chickens, altho they can still be picked off by bobcats and 
owls occasionally.  They aren't very good at hatching and raising 
their clutches, so I prefer to gather the eggs and hatch them under 
hens or in an incubator. When raised by hens, they learn to come 
in to the hen house to roost, at least during colder weather, and 
often to lay their eggs in the nestboxes. Ours fly in and out of the 
chicken yard as they wish.  If you didn't want them to do that, you 
can always trim their wing feathers.  And they taste good to eat, 
somewhat more like a pheasant or other wilder game bird 
compared to chickens.  We eat their eggs just as we do chicken 
eggs.  They're the same, except guinea eggs have a very hard 
thick shell. 

Drawbacks....some people don't like their noise.  Ours haven't 
bothered us much.  Your farmyard layout will determine a lot of 
that. They may roam too far, being at greater risk of predation.  Our 
toms have occasionally started picking on specific roosters badly, 
but chickens may do that too.  The keets (chicks) seem pretty 
fragile when they are little.  

So, yes ours mix well with other poultry and they're worth a lot 
during springs when the ticks are bad, like this year was, and 
summers then the grasshoppers are bad, like this one.  I can't 
speak to how they handle wet climates.

Let me know if you have more specific questions and I'll try to help 
if I can.

Charlie Griffin
Manhattan, KS

> Does anyone on this list raise guinea fowl? I've been hearing more and
> more about them as good additions to small homesteads, and am wondering if
> anyone here has any first-hand experience they'd like to share. I'm
> interested in a diversified farm (it's a ways off yet, but learning is
> nonstop!). Specifically, do guinea fowl mix well with other poultry, or do
> they outcompete chickens, geese and turkeys? How do they do in cold, wet
> climates?
> 
> Kendra Wise

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