Wow, that has not been my experience *at all*, and I've had Guineas (in with my chickens) for about 8 years now. Oh sure, the first week or two they all take to squawking & raising a warning-ruckus for a few minutes at anything new that moves on the property until they get used to it's being there as being normal - they don't after that. And yeh, you might hear that on rarer & rarer occasion over as the first succession of season changes bring about new things moving until they know those things are normal too. That's their job - predator warning, and they do a darn good job of it too. If it wasn't there yesterday but is there today, they'll let you know. But after it's being there for just a tomorrow or two, they figure it must be OK and will cease letting you know.
When you first get Guineas, you're supposed to keep them contained for at least 6 weeks in the place that they're going to be calling home. In other words, if you're expecting them to come back into a pen or coop at night, then you must keep them locked up in that for their first 6 weeks with you.
And yes, they do tend to roam. Because from their perspective, they don't recognize the same boundries that you do. Admittedly, I had that same problem (everyone does), for a very short while - until I recognized that it was the females that tended to wander, exploring for good nice- high-weedy places and such to lay a clutch of eggs to hatch. And that the males simply followed the females to wherever that may be. And yes, it was frustrating, until the frustration led me to trying something - keeping all the females contained in their pen while the males free-ranged. Worked like a charm and I've never had a problem since doing that..........the boys tend to hang around a closer area to where the girls are and no longer wander off the property. The few females have gotten so used to the routine that they just automatically go in their pen before the rest are released. And the males free-ranging are enough to keep their "second job" here done - the property being free of ticks, flies, mosquitoes, and even all those insect's unhatched eggs/larvae. LOL, and even mice on occasion.
As far as their "attracting bigger animals that like to feed on them".......LOL, I'm taking it that patience didn't win out and you didn't keep yours very long - long enough to observe the Guineas' preditor-warning squawkings be enough to change even a hawk's mind about "lunching on some chickens" (or whatever) and simply decide to find some easier (and perhaps quieter, LOL!!) hunting ground instead. I never laughed so hard in my life when I heard my Guineas squawking (something that's become SO unusual to ever hear around here that it gets your attention now - just like it's supposed to <G>), looked out the door and saw a large hawk sitting on a pasture-fencepost top between my viewsight & the shelter that the coop is in, the hawk tipping it's head back 'n forth in an almost humourous quizzical contemplation that you could nearly hear it thinking - "what the heck is all this noise? Should I even bother trying for one of those chickens that are scooting into the coop behind that frontline of those NOISY other birds, or not?".........and fly away, deciding that all this ruckus just wasn't worth the hunt. LOL, course I'd grabbed my gun by then to scare it off, but none of that was necessary.
Or watch the Guineas out grazing with the chickens when a not-small stray cat (very obviously more bent on fieldmice) come meandering over to what the Guineas must've determined "OK, that's close enough" and have 3 of them cut out of the flock to chase the cat off to a 'more proper' boundryline. Cat must've come around often enough that the Guineas never uttered a sound with it's being there........they seemed to just simply 'guard a perimeter' of it's getting what they thought was too close to the chickens, just in case.
I wouldn't be without Guineas, to tell the truth.
Kate in WI :-)
<< Posted by: "LUCKEDRA@AOL.COM" LUCKEDRA@AOL.COM luckedra
Date: Sat Dec 10, 2011 9:43 am ((PST))
Rhonda,
You think chickens poop alot, wait till you get guineas. They will all
scream day or night the second anything moves on the property - very noisy
birds. And poop, well, enough said. They like to roam the property and do not
care one bit to go back into a pen at night. To me, they attract bigger
animals that like to feed on them which out weighs the benefit of them. You
really don't eat them. So I really don't find a purpose for them. At least
that has been my experience.
Ginger >>
Date: Sat Dec 10, 2011 9:43 am ((PST))
Rhonda,
You think chickens poop alot, wait till you get guineas. They will all
scream day or night the second anything moves on the property - very noisy
birds. And poop, well, enough said. They like to roam the property and do not
care one bit to go back into a pen at night. To me, they attract bigger
animals that like to feed on them which out weighs the benefit of them. You
really don't eat them. So I really don't find a purpose for them. At least
that has been my experience.
Ginger >>
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