should i get some guinea fowl?

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by makehumusnotwar, May 23, 2005.

  1. makehumusnotwar

    makehumusnotwar Junior Member

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    does anyone have any experience with guinea fowl?
    a friend has offered me some - i've never even seen one - and all i've really been able to find out is they're pretty darn good at making noise.
    apparently they won't destroy vegie gardens like our 'beloved' brush turkeys - but what else do they have to offer? are they good at cleaning up?

    thanks
     
  2. Chook Nut

    Chook Nut Junior Member

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    They are meant to be very good for cleaning up ticks.... my last boss had a flock of around 30 that they used to run with their sheep for that very reason.

    They are also known as the poor man's pheasant and are meant to make pretty good eating!... and yes, they can get reasonably noisy.

    Cheers... Dave
     
  3. makehumusnotwar

    makehumusnotwar Junior Member

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    thanks dave for your reply. i haven't had any problems with ticks in 12 months myself, and don't have any other animals to protect at the moment. also, i have no use for the meat or eggs; so far things aren't lookin good for the gfowl. especially if the only product/service they produce is noise....
     
  4. nobis77

    nobis77 Junior Member

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    I had four for a period of about 3 years. Good at making noise is the understatement of the decade. About once every two weeks I'd be so bug-eyed from listening to their constant and I mean constant berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk berkrawk that I'd take to chasing them with a club, and finally with a shotgun. When the smoke cleared and they were gone it was sorta like a terrible toothache had been switched off.

    Our tick population increased while they were here. They managed to squawk through our garden everyday and take one delectable peck from each and every one of our tomatoes. They loved to dive bomb the chickens in their pen (gueineas fly like turkeys and land like gooney birds, it's their one entertaining feature). We got ours - like you when some friend offered us theirs, "their good at eating ticks, you know!" We fell for it. Do yourself a big favour or you'll never hear real songbirds in peace again.
     
  5. Peter Warne

    Peter Warne Junior Member

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    We tried guinea fowl over a period of about 8 months, and wouldn't try again. We got got them mainly to manage ticks - can't say if they made any difference to that problem, but they brought a handful of other ones.

    First, since we got them young and put them with the chooks, they latched onto a chook for a surrogate mum. They were phenomenally noisy, or rather the one female among the eight was, she had a call sounding like 'comeback, comeback', which she would repeat rapid fire for 20 - 30 minutes at a go, on and off right through the day. She would see us inside the house, plant herself outside the window and settle down to some serious racket making. The guys would just explode in uproar whenever anything of interest happened, then shut up after about 5 mins.

    When they grew up the guys showed themselves to be disgusting bullies, they appointed one of their number to be the in-house victim, and would chase him round and round the house and yard until he was nearly dead from exhaustion.

    The numbers gradually went down - foxes, we ate a couple, etc. in the end we had only two left, Meany (the worst bully of the lot) and Whitey (white chested, and the career victim). Meany went on bullying Whitey and getting in among the chooks to bully them a bit, then we got sick of him and he went into the cooking pot. Whitey was so lonely and forlorn that we let him go back in among the chooks. A mistake, after a couple of days of being extra nice, the hidden bully came out in him and he started beating up the chooks. He finally ended up in the cook pot too. The positive side was that my wife had the time to perfect her cooking of them, French provincial style - they provide an excellent rather gamy meat, but we don't intend getting involved with them ever again.
     
  6. makehumusnotwar

    makehumusnotwar Junior Member

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    THANKS nobis and pete for your help.

    so,..............what are their bad points then?



    :shock:



    hmmmm.....it's a hard one - but i think i'll say "no thanks" to the birds.
     
  7. lillypilly

    lillypilly Junior Member

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    other then the noise our poor dogs got fleas.............. :cry:
     
  8. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    I heard of a woman who got five guinea chicks as a "gift" ( you can't trust people like that). They instantly adopted her as their mom. Forever after, the moment they saw any motion within the house, they would hurry to the plate glass door and line up, staring in and screeching. It drove her nearly crazy -- she couldn't get away from them. She finally gave them away to someone with a large piece of land. And said "never again!" with a shudder.

    Get some nice chickens instead.

    Sue
     
  9. nobis77

    nobis77 Junior Member

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    I guess they weren't alll bad. I got some great exercise chasing them around. Some great belly laughs when I caught up to them and they lauched into flight. Ah how the majestic mini vultures would take flight... flapping through the air.... hitting the top of a tree.... tumbling end over end from branch to branch forty feet to the ground... where he'd look confused for a second and then take to chasing himself around the trunk and squawking. Memories...
     

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