Tuesday, July 21, 2009

guinea's and guests

Since I have 32 Pearl Guinea's in the brooder, I've been doing some research.



Guineas originated in Africa and are excellent foragers. They grow and thrive on grasshoppers, ticks, snakes, insects and weed seeds. Guineas are also great watchdogs as they call out at the approach of any strangers.

Great for insect & rodent control
Entertaining!
Easy to raise
Ornamental Feathers
Delicious eggs (they make some of the best cakes!)
Meat is a delicacy (similar in taste to pheasant)
Excellent foragers – they need almost no supplemental feed during the summer time.
Extremely hardy - despite the fact that they are native to Africa, guinea fowl are able to take northern temperatures almost like penquins!
They are the “watch dogs of the barnyard” (alerting other livestock to danger)
Guineas don't act like chickens. They are much more active than chickens and not as easily tamed. They seem to retain some of their wild behavior and will remind you of this whenever they get spooked.

I didn't take these photo's, dug 'em up from the internet, I've never had guinea's before.



I did take the photo's below. CoCo and Gabbi playing.

Franklin


We had two animal-loving boys, Drew and Liam, come visit us.

They are nephews of a gal, Kathy, that buys eggs from us. I think the boys enjoyed themselves. This is Kathy's webpage, look at her beautiful artwork, says she may paint our goats sometime. http://kathy.reece.googlepages.com/

9 comments:

Christy said...

I really like our guineas. They are so spastic. But when they are scared, they run to me which is cool.

Jennifer said...

You are going to have guineas? I am so jealous! I love them, but haven't talked the husband into them yet.

Alison said...

I'm really looking forward to your guinea adventures! Do they mingle with the chickens, or pretty much keep to themselves, I wonder.

thecrazysheeplady said...

Hmmm - maybe I need a couple guineas too. Would they go in the coop at night with the adventure chickens?

Gizmo said...

I am NOT a fan of guineas. I'd rather have a Muscovy duck to take care of the ticks.
Gabbi is getting so big. :)
I thought of you this past weekend...we had Broccoli/Ham Quiche - using some of my Feta. It was DELICIOUS!!

Mary Humphrey said...

Have you priced goat paintings? Unreal. I hope your friend paints one for you someday.

Heidi said...

Your gonna either love the guineas or hate them!! there is no in between with them! My granny has them and I had a couple for a while. They can be VERY NOISY!! but we NEVER NEVER NEVER had wood ticks in the yard when we had them.... They are so weird looking arnt they! enjoy them!

Boozy Tooth said...

Franklin always makes me giggle. Such a solemn name for a turkey. But he works it, you know? He owns it. He rocks it. He's like the patriarchal grandpa of the turkey world. Somber. Stoic. Stately. Yet satisfyingly silly.

I have a crush on him, actually.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Boys and goats. Too cute!

I wanted to get guineas early on, but my neighbors asked that I didn't, due to their noisy nature and they way that the tend to roam and act sort of nutty.

They sure are pretty, though!

Looks like I'll have to enjoy yours from afar, ok?

~Lisa