Ginny is a Pearl Guinea. When grown, pearl guinea will be dark grey with white spots or bars. The babies are keets. They look like chicks when they're young, but smaller beaks and longer necks. On top of Ginny is a White Laced Red Cornish chick. There isn't much difference in the heads of these two, but Ginny's beak is shorter and pointier. Guineas hate being alone! When Ginny is grown, she or he will weigh between 3 and 5 pounds, which is about what this chick will weigh, too.
Guineas love eating ticks, hornets, wasps, bees, and weed seeds. They are known for their attitude and noise. Some farmers like to keep some around to scare off predators, such as foxes, hawks, rats, and snakes. They are called "watchdogs" because they're always alert and they are territorial. They know who does and who does not belong, so they call out at any strangers approaching. Their eggs are dark and spotted. They lay 60-100 eggs from March to August. Females hide their nests and will share them with other females until there are a large number of eggs to sit on. The eggs take longer to hatch than chicken eggs, but not by much. It takes 26-28 days for guinea eggs, and 20-22 days for chickens. It's hard to tell the males and females apart by how they look. The males usually have bigger wattles, but this isn't a reliable way of telling them apart. You can tell them apart by their sounds! Males have a one-syllable call and females have a two-syllable call. The females' calls will sound more like "Pot-rack" or "Buck-wheat". They can swim, if necessary, and are fast runners. But, unlike chickens, they don't scratch the ground. This means that they can roam through gardens, picking out all the bugs and weed seeds without harming any of the plants. They don't like being penned up and they prefer to roam, but at least you won't have to worry about your garden being damaged by them. Right now, we only have the one. But, we hope to get more one day. We would have to be careful about male guineas being penned up with our chickens. The male guineas might prevent the roosters from eating or accessing water. The females don't usually do this, but the males do as a way of protecting their ladies. They originated in Africa where food and water isn't as available as it is on a farm, so this is just an instinct that hasn't been bred out of them yet.
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Just two brothers
Nanners & Mashers are brothers who just want to share their birds with the world. Archives
April 2016
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