Guinea Fowl; First Critters on the Farm!

(The solid ones are pearls and the ones with white are pied.)

We have a little problem with ticks and Japanese beetles here on the farm. Guinea fowl are a perfect natural way to control these two common pests. The cooler weather of fall will take care of both of them but they will certainly reappear come spring and I want to be ready. I'm not going to get my new chickens until next month but I decided to go ahead and get a dozen guinea fowl.

(Here's what the pied will look like.)

My mom and my older sister who were visiting, and I all went down to Gregory Poultry in Stuart, Virginia, a few days ago. We met Jay Gregory who retired after thirty-one years in law enforcement and is now raising a number of different breeds of chickens and guinea fowl. He showed us around his pens and we visited a bit. His interest in his birds was obvious. He really has some nice ones! If I hadn't already decided on Buckeye chickens I would have bought some of his Cinnamon Queens, which if I remember correctly, are a cross between a Silver Wyandotte hen and a Buff Orpington rooster. They were beautiful. Jay said they started laying eggs at fourteen weeks, which is pretty amazing.

(This is a pearl guinea.)

Hard as it was, I kept my focus and bought six pearl guinea and six pied guinea babies, which are called keets. Half were two weeks old and half were five weeks old. We brought them home in a temporary cage and then headed to town to find a big box. A couple of hours later, recliner box turned into a brooder, we settled down to enjoy our evening. I've never had keets before but I can now say that they are much stinkier than chicks!

Luckily, it's warm enough that as soon as I get their portion of the coop ready, they can go out in it. Their smell is a good incentive to get that project completed! After a month or two in the coop, they'll be ready to go out and explore the world. It is my intention to free-range the guineas. I hope they'll come in to the coop at night but they are wilder than chickens and may not. If they totally free-range, meaning they are always loose, they will be much more susceptible to predation. Jay hatches a lot of guineas so periodic trips to Stuart to re-populate my flock will probably be in order!

The left behind pug was not cutting it as livestock so I'm happy to finally have some sort of animal on the farm!

Have you ever had guineas? Do you have any tips for me?