Guinea fowl are a unique looking, as well extremely helpful, addition to your homestead menagerie.
What are the benefits?
Well, first of all, guineas are one of the best ways to control ticks. Chickens are good for this too, but guineas are tick eating machines. With Lyme disease and other tick borne illnesses on the rise it is a good idea to try to keep your farm or homestead as tick free as possible. Guineas will help you do this while avoiding all the nasty chemical alternatives. If rats or snakes are a problem where you live this bird can help, as they will kill and sometimes eat them. In addition they make a loud sort of screeching sound which will serve as a type of alarm, and while they are not a livestock guardian animal, they can startle predators and alert livestock (and you) with these noises. They get along well with most other livestock animals, including chickens. They are also good at reducing pests in your garden without all the scratching chickens do. Watch out when you have small seedlings though as guineas do eat some vegetable matter and they might confuse them with weed sprouts. They also have eggs. The eggs are a little smaller and richer than chicken eggs.
Is There A Downside?
Honestly, we have had guinea fowl for years and I struggled to come up with a downside. The noise they make is really the only negative. I don’t mind it, but some people find it intolerable, so they may not be the best choice for a homestead with close neighbors.
5 week old guinea keets. These guys are almost ready for a little freedom!
How Do I Take Care Of Them?
Get guineas when they are young so you can acclimate them to their home. They will need to be kept in a brooder for at least the first four weeks of their life, longer if the temperatures outside are not warm. These birds originate from Africa and they like it hot! We have found that as day old chicks they are a bit more fragile than chickens, they need to be protected from drafts even if for a very short time. If you are picking up guinea keets make sure the brooder is all set up for them to go straight in to, as they will not tolerate being kept at cooler temperatures than they require for even a short time. They need to be kept at 95 degrees for the first week of their lives, and then you can reduce the temperature 5 degrees a week after that until they are ready to go outside. They, of course need fresh food and water daily at this time, we make sure to check it morning and evening so they are never without it. Also, they chill very easily, so when refilling their water use warm (not hot) water because if the water you give them is to cold it can be detrimental. We like to get them at about 4 weeks old in late summer because even though day old guineas are super adorable, they are labor intensive. We then keep them cooped for about a month in a chicken tractor because we want them to know our farm is their home. We move the tractor to fresh grass every day so they are always on clean grass and have plenty to eat, we also fill a poultry feeder every day to supplement them at this time. After a month, we start letting them out during the day and putting them back in the coop at night. At first we let out about 2 or 3. (If you are going to keep guinea hens we recommend you keep at least 6. They are flock animals and have a greater chance of survival and are less stressed when kept in larger numbers.)We do not let them all out at once because we want them to hear the calling of the rest of their flock so they know where to come back to. We will feed them a bit of grain every night when they come back home so they associate their return with food. This will help establish a routine of coming home every night. We let a couple more out everyday, until eventually they are all getting let out in the morning and put up at night. You can just let yours be free, but they have a tendency to wander so make sure you have fencing or they will roam into a neighboring property. They are also vulnerable to predators so they will live longer if you coop them at night. Another benefit of giving them a home is they will pay you with eggs, they will still lay eggs if you let them roam all the time, but you may have trouble finding them. We prefer to start our flock in the late summer so that they are full grown and at their highest level of pest control the following spring, rather than starting them in late spring and waiting all summer for them to get the bugs under control.
Good luck with your guinea fowl! They are fun to look at and they definitely pull their weight around the homestead. Now that we know what great assets they are and how fun they are to observe, we would not want to be without them!
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