The sight of multiple guineas wandering through a field is scenic enough to convince me to try keeping guineas again.
My first experience with guinea fowl did not go well — in fact, it went so badly I once swore I would never, ever keep guinea fowl again. And yet here I am, contemplating purchasing a dozen birds.
Crazy, right?
My story with guineas is this: my husband and I purchased six full-grown guineas from a neighbouring farm about 15 years ago, and right from the get-go we ran into problems. Our six birds refused to socialize with the rest of our flock, and almost seemed to look down their noses at our pathetic domesticated chickens.
Our guineas refused to eat our wholesome, organic chicken feed, or sleep in the chicken coop, preferring instead to roost on the roof directly beneath our bedroom window. They also could — and did — fly, making any kind of effective husbandry nearly impossible.
I also have to admit I wasn’t expecting the noise that guinea fowl make, and if you’ve never heard a guinea cock or hen call, let me describe it as being the most repetitive and annoying sound you could possibly imagine, a sound that while innocuous at first, can quickly become like nails on a chalkboard.
Some proponents of the species swear guineas can serve as efficient guard dogs, and after hearing them first-hand I’m a believer. There is no way anyone could sleep through the cacophony of mayhem our birds made at the slightest disturbance to the natural order of things on the farm, most often at some ungodly hour like 5 a.m.
Truthfully, when our guineas flew off into the great unknown less than a year after we brought them home, I didn’t spend too much time looking for them.
So why am I considering keeping this breed again? I guess I’m just a sucker for birds, period. After visiting a friend’s farm who has guineas, I was charmed by the picturesque way they wandered about the farm, and I convinced myself that my memories of guineas, including the daily 5 a.m. wake-up call, were exaggerated.
After a few pointed comments from my family about enjoying their sleep, I decided to call on an expert to fill me in (a.k.a. support my decision) on why owning guinea fowl is a good idea. I contacted Guinea Fowl International, and spoke with the President, Cindy Gibson, who as I guessed, is fully invested in guinea fowl, and had quite a bit to say about why they would be a welcome addition to any farm.
While Gibson was happy to extoll their virtues as a whole, she was quick to confirm that what has guineas surging in popularity recently is their role as pest control on organic farms. According to Gibson, guineas can be let loose in a garden to eat insects as they forage, reducing feed costs, but they won’t scratch and destroy crops the way chickens will, adding that guineas are “way more interested in bugs than plants.” Add in their ability to decimate the local tick population and you have a winner in many people’s book.
“Guineas will help keep snakes down, and will get rid of all kinds of garden pests, like ticks, slugs, grasshoppers and some beetles.” Gibson said, “We really promote them as organic pest control.”
Gibson explained that many of the negative experiences people have with guineas (like mine) can be attributed to husbandry practices, and most importantly, treating guineas as you would poultry. (Guilty!) Further research on my part revealed that I did pretty much everything wrong when it came to keeping guinea fowl.
Guineas need a dry environment, and while they can cohabitate with poultry, require higher roosts and more space than chickens (roughly three to four square feet per bird). Most farmers using guineas as pest control allow them to free-range during the day and lock them into their shelter at night, reducing or eliminating feed costs. Gibson also stressed that male/female ratios should be approximately 50/50 for optimal guinea well-being, as that would reflect the ratios found in their natural environment.
Despite the enthusiasm Gibson clearly had for the breed, I still wasn’t sold. Did I really want to be letting birds out every morning and locking them in at night?
Then I made a trip out to visit Eastern Ontario farmers, Mary Ellen and Doug Kennedy, who have been keeping guineas for 30 years. As soon as I arrived at the Kennedys’ farm, I noticed their guineas were pretty quiet, and when their seven birds came barreling out of the barn that morning, eager for fresh air and sunshine, they barely made a peep.
Guineas are popular birds these days: Mary Ellen said she receives at least one to two emails a day from people looking for guineas, although she said she can rarely be of assistance unless her guineas have hatched a clutch of eggs recently. When guinea numbers soar above the Kennedys’ ideal number of six or seven birds, the excess is sold or given away, or sometimes even eaten.
“The meat tastes excellent,” Mary Ellen said, “It’s tastes like a cross between a Cornish hen and a pheasant.”
The Kennedys keep guineas purely for their aesthetic appeal, and watching her birds wandering in the field, gracefully foraging for insects, I can see why. It was now clear my initial experience with guineas was a negative one because of my own mistakes, and not because of the breed itself. I was sold! The only questions now were where to put my guinea coop on our property . . . and how to convince my family this was a good idea.
About the breed
Guinea fowl originated on the Guinea Coast of West Africa, and today are highly prized by hunters as game birds. There are three domesticated varieties of guinea fowl in the United States: Pearl, White and Lavender. The Pearl is the variety most commonly raised in Canada, and features grey feathers, dotted (or pearled) with white.
Did you know?
- Baby guineas are called keets.
- Guineas left out overnight will often roost in trees to keep away from predators.
- Guineas need more protein than chickens and can benefit from gamebird feed.
- If kept alongside poultry, male guineas have been known to bully roosters, keeping them from eating and drinking.
- Guineas will lay approximately 30 eggs in a single nest before setting the eggs.
- Guineas are difficult to sex before a year old, although they can be distinguished by their calls before that time. A hen can make both a one-syllable or-two-syllable call, while a cock produces only one-syllable calls.
Looking for guineas?
If you’re looking for guinea fowl you may run into difficulties, depending on your region and how many contacts you have in the bird world. The best source of information on breeders is Guinea Fowl International (GFI)—their website includes a list of breeders in a number of countries, including Canada. GFI also provides information on how to care for guineas, classified ads and other useful information.
Visit their website at www.guineas.com for more info.
- Amy Hogue