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Just when I think everything is chugging along like a “sort of” well oiled machine something comes along and seemingly derails everything. This time the “something” was our Guinea Fowl. In the past you have heard me say all sorts of good things about them: they have a good profit margin, they are great foragers, they do a good job of tick control, and they are generally a hardy bird. From time to time though you have probably heard me talk about how they wander too far, that they won’t roost where I want them to, and they can sometimes be a general annoyance. All of the negatives have come to a head in the fact the Guinea Fowl won’t stay on my farm and roost where I want them to roost, so they will no longer be a part of our farm. It has been a tough week getting to that point, but now we have most of them caught up and in a wagon with feed and water until they go to the processor (we also already have them marketed).
All of that has led to me rethinking my support of beginning farmers like myself raising Guinea Fowl. I’m not saying that it won’t work in other cases, that there weren’t things that I could have done differently, or that I don’t have ideas that I would have liked to try. What I am saying though is for me they didn’t work out and because of that I can’t recommend them to other farmers. All of that being said, if you are having success raising your Guinea Fowl, keeping them on your farm, and getting them to roost in the spot you want I would love to here your thoughts and share them with others! Comment below …
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Hi Ethan. Love love love the show. After discovering you last December I have gone back and listened to every episode. However for the past 3 weeks the show hasn’t been showing up on my pod catcher app and I’ve had to listen through your website. It’s not as convenient.
My experience with guineas was pretty close to what you described. I hatched some from eggs that someone gave me and kept them in a chicken house with large attached runs.
I only had about 25-30 adult guineas, but they would explode and bounce off the walls every time I went into their pen. I finally gave them away to someone that wanted to let them run loose “to control the ticks”. I ended up hatching even more eggs for their new owners because the guineas kept disappearing and their guinea population climbed to about 70-80.
Eventually their neighbors started complaining about all those noisy guineas hanging out around their houses, and since there was no way to catch all of them without using a shotgun, they just had to put up with the neighbor’s complaints until the coyotes, dogs, and cats took care of the guinea problem.
If I was ever planning on raising guineas to sell, I think I’d raise them in the same way that something like pheasants are raised in an extra large flight pen type of setup. You have to almost think of a guineas as being almost like a wild bird (pheasant, quail, chukar) instead of being like an extra-noisy funny-looking chicken.