I have heard nothing but positive. Were supposed to get a few from someone but they can not catch. So I orderd a mixed group of 30 from McMurrary. Looking forward to some bug control as well as snakes.

I love them, but they are just so LOUD! I enjoy nothing more than to sit out on my park bench and enjoy watching my birds, but the guineas' noise was such that it ruined my enjoyment many, many times. I can stand a fair amount of noise, and I love to hear a rooster's crow, which I don't consider noise at all. I have peafowl, and they are loud too, but not nearly as constant and ear piercing as the guineas, IMO. If you let them free range, they're more difficult to round up or train to roost back inside come nightfall, like chickens, in my experience, and they'll tend to hide nests as good as any ground nesting wild bird, becoming great targets for predators when they start to set.

There is a gentleman in Iowa, Ralph Winter, who has thousands on his farm. I don't know how he does it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Guinea farm

We have 6 guineas (down from 30). We had to get rid of the first batch as they roamed too far. We have 6 acres next to a subdivision and they would roam the neighbors' yards. We have thousands of acres of sugar cane on the other side, separated from us by a 25ft wide drainage ditch and a 30 ft wide tree line, but the guineas don't go there. One neighbor in particular did not appreciate guinea droppings around his swimming pool and roosting on his roof (then flying over his wife's head in the morning). They are pretty loud and steady, but we do not mind it. They are great for bugs - we have no ticks and few snakes. We also have few honeybees and I will not try a hive, as the guineas would treat it like a buffet. They are fun to watch as they run and fly. You also know when an owl or hawk is nearby. They hide their eggs and when you find the nest and collect the eggs, they find a new spot to lay. They are not good setters and the eggs need to go in the incubator, but at $5 each, they are worth the effort. They are mean to roosters and will chase them around the yard. Since we went down to 6 guineas, they seem to stay in our yard. Perhaps my neighbor with the BB gun helps that situation. When moving adult guineas, they must be kept locked up for at least six weeks, or they will fly away. They also are difficult to train to go in the coop. Ours roost in the oak tree in the chicken pen. That's what I came up with, hope it helps.

The easiest way to get Guineas to stay around is to raise them from babies.

I tried twice with adults, and no matter how long I kept them penned up,, they eventually walked away.

Last year I hatched out 6 with some chicks. I kept them together, and eventually put them in with the older chickens. They do fly out of the fenced in area, but stay within sight of the barn,, and usually fly back into the pen at night and roost in the coop with the other chickens.

Once in a while I'll see a Guinea chase a chicken, when the chicken has something in its beak that the guinea wants. otherwise they leave them alone.

Last winter, I had a few nights when one Guinea would get left behind, and stayed out all night. They managed to survive and I would catch them and put them back in the coop the next day.

M

I have 13 guineas and I just love them. I have had guineas for years. They can be noisy, but are great at alerting me to hawks, foxes, etc. I hatched out 10 eggs I ordered last spring in an incubator. I would hatch out my own eggs, but I have a battle with the magpies to see who can get to the eggs first. Unfortunately, the magpies have been winning. My guineas always come home to roost in the barn at night. As babies, I enclose them in a pen built of straw bales in the barn until they are ready to roam. I also train them with white proso millet. They love this stuff, it is like chocolate to them, I suppose. When I take a small amount and shake it in the scoop and call to them they all come running. I lose one or two guineas every year to the fox. He sometimes corners them outside and they forget they can fly. Not the brightest of birds, but I still love them, and really enjoy watching them run - like footballs on legs! They do a good job on eating grasshoppers when we have a bad year.

We love them!!

The Good: Guineas love to eat ticks & other pests. We literally went from picking up 10 ticks in a few mins to not even seeing that many ticks a year! I sell both eggs & keets, so they can pay for themselves in the right area.

The Bad: Guineas like to roam. Here they cross the road to go into the neighbors corn field after harvest to pick up leftovers. It's not such a big deal out on a quiet country road, but I still hate them being in the road.

Guineas are quieter as they get older & if they are kept in a coop at night. Guineas in trees are noisy. When I first got my young guineas, they were LOUD, but now I hardly notice the noise. It's not bad at all.

Start with keets... have a minimum of 5 acres because they do roam. Be prepared to train them to go into the coop (chickens are easy compared to guineas). My young guineas tend to learn from the older guineas to go into the coop, so it does get easier. As other mentioned, eggs can be hard to find, but there are tricks to help find the nests.

Guineas are a lot of fun to watch too

forgot to mention... I raise a few chicks with my keets every year. Right now I have about 50 guineas and 15 chickens that live in the same coop. They all get along just fine & if anything the chickens are top dog. I have never seen a guinea bully a chicken. So its weird to me that others have problems with guineas & chickens getting along!

We LOVE our guineas. We have 10, down from 15 chicks. One sick chick died, then we lost 4 to the wild last summer but haven't lost any since. Even 'Gimpy' manages to hang with the crowd.

They are just such a hoot to watch. Silly birds, exceptionally not bright, as someone pointed out. If one finds it's way into the former chicken pen, even with the gate open, it will walk up and down the fence squawking all day if it's mates are on the other side. They only fly when absolutely necessary.

Ours were raised from keets and we trained them to come home at night by always calling when we give their food from the time they were babies, so they associate the sound with food. We also have them trained to come to a whistle, just because it's a riot to watch the guinea parade come rustling out of the woods in at a run when we blow the whistle. (ok- simple amusements out here in farm land! LOL)

They can be very loud, but it doesn't bother us. You don't want to be in the coop with them all in there, tho', I'm sure it's rock concert decibels! They stay at night in the perches of the coop with the three red chickens (all chickens came later) and the big, fat, non-flying white chickens stay on the ground (not underneath them!) in the same coop.

The chickens return 'home' to roost during the day, but we've never found the guineas eggs. That may change when we fence them in to one 1/2 acre. We, too, are concerned about the neighbors flower beds and peace of mind.

I'm sending a great link, below, if you decide to get them you should check it out-- and not just because she's posted my guinea movie ; ) If you go about to the bottom of the page where the list of links are, you'll see "The Brooder" link, and to the right of it- "movie". That's mine! Enjoy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Raising Guinea Fowl

I personally do not have any but some of our pasture neighbors have. You do not have to see them to know they are around. They do forage around eating and whatever it is they do!
One pasture's neighbor started with about 15 several years ago and he is down to 2 now. They free range all day and I think all night. He had one white? one that was amongst the first to be missing from the wildlife! Guess the one's as pictured above have more camoflage(sp?).
The other pasture's neighbor - I haven't a clue how many she has but I hear them a lot more than I see them.

Roxann

we ended up with 3 guinis, 2 males and 1 female. we had to turn 1 of the males out, they were harasing the feamale. he decided to live with the ducks.
my grandson describes guinis as army helmets with a headlight.
as for the noise, I love to sit out where all my birds are and listen. I find it very relaxing.

Thanks so much for all the input, I find these birds so interesting. I appreciate you all taking the time to tell me about your experiences.

guineagarden, I loved your movie! so cute!

The thing I find so interesting is how varied these birds seem to be person to person. I think one lesson I'm walking away with is the advantages of starting w/keets instead of adults.

-Sheila

We have one guinea hen, Speckles. She is a VERY LOUD bird at dusk when settling into the roosting tree. Specks will also sit on the shed roof and screech VERY LOUDLY at anyone in the back yard. You can reach up and knock her off the roof, she will just fly back up and continue screeching. She is fun to watch since she runs around a lot more than the chickens and other than making her evening noise is a hoot to have around. For some reason, she likes to run laps on our roof, which being made of tin is rather a noisy operation. Guinea hen is really tasty, too, although my DH won't let me put guinea hen on the menu so we will continue to have noisy evenings and noisy guinea races on the tin roof.

How guineas do with chickens may have something to do with what kind of chicken a person raises. I know that another factor is the season. We had guineas for about 5 years. I noticed that every fall and winter I LOVED my guineas and every spring and summer I thought about getting rid of them. They turned aggressive, truly persecuting my roosters. We raise Kraienkoppes, which look sort of like game fowl. Yet they don't have much fight in them at all. I've heard screaming in the yard and looked out to find as many as four guineas on one rooster. Finally, last fall, I decided to eat the last of our guineas.

Still, I wouldn't discourage folk from having them. I even like their screeching! Guineas are very entertaining and great "watch dogs." They just didn't work out in our current setting.

Here's a fun one to tell on guineas. When we lived in NJ we noticed that guineas REALLY don't like snow, and this, in spite of being incredibly tough birds. When we would have snow they would peek out of the coop in the morning and screech like crazy. But they were loath to go out. One time, one of our guineas flew up into a tree just as a snow storm came roaring in. She sat up there through a major storm of snow and ice, for three days! She looked miserable. But she wouldn't come down, and I couldn't reach her. Finally I had a brain storm. I went out with a snow shovel and cleared a "run way" of bare earth. Within the hour she decided to land on the "run way" and then quickly walked into the coop for a bite to eat. Guineas really don't seem to trust snow! My theory is that she either didn't want to land in that cold stuff, or more likely, that she couldn't judge her altitude when flying over it.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I absolutely love guineas! When we first got them, very few people in our area knew much about them. They are great at removing ticks and mosquitos, two big problems here. They are a bit noisy, but we are in the middle of 30 wooded acres, so neither we nor our neighbors notice much of the raucus. My only negative would be that they like to roost on our vehicles, especially because they are rather high off the ground on a conversion van and full size pickup. I haven't quite figured out what to do about that. Guess we will have to build some cover that will encourage them to roost on that instead of the vehicles.

I've been raising guineas for a few years. A good website to go to is www.guineafowl.com. It's got a lot of info, and they have a good book "gardening with guineas" that I bought before I got any keats.

If you hate the noise, just keep mostly (or all) cocks and either butcher the hens or sell them). The birds taste great, I have a wonderful recipe for smothered guinea.

I had a guinea go broody last fall, and she hatched 28 chicks! She stayed hidden (and the predators couldn't smell her, even my dog who as a GREAT sniffer) because she nested where I had a huge patch of chocolate mint growing.

I love them, they are way hardier than chickens and their eggs taste better (at least I think so). They are pretty, and mine usually stay on our property (although we live next to a road and we have a fence up).

We are great fans of these wonderfully entertaining birds!

Had a bit of a problem with predators the first year but got two wonderful Great Pyrenees dogs that watch over them. Whenever they feel threatened they begin chattering and the Pyrs take off to clear the area. Works well for us.

We raised ours (24) from keets and they are more tame than any that I have encountered. Their favorite "welcome" to visitors to our farm is to untie all the available shoe laces. One of my cousins has tried everything that she can think of, including tight double knots, to thwart them but to date nothing has worked.

Our guineas roost in the old cedar trees on the perimeter of our yard and carry on conversations for most of the night...kind of nice if we happen to be out. The weather never gets so bad that they go inside the barn....where they could easily roost high up in the rafters out of the wind and rain/snow/ice.

Seldom are they a problem to any of the other animals but occasionally one of the chickens may get on the nerves of a particular guinea and that situation is quickly "righted". I have a very small miniature pinscher that thinks that she "rules the world" but the guineas have taught her a healthy respect for their presence. 8) I have to laugh when I see Littabit giving a guinea a wide berth.

Since we have lots of deer and a huge number of ticks we love to watch our guineas ranging over the front fields. We are about a quarter of a mile from the road so they seldom go over there. But, the guineas are in constant motion picking, picking picking in the grass.

Would never be without guineas!

Thanks everyone for your responses, it is so good to hear of all the positive things about these interesting birds.

Patrick, how many guineas did you have?

After reading all your responses and checking out the links provided I decided to give up my guinea dream because I live in a fairly quiet neighborhood (plus my husband didn't enjoy my roo's crowing so the guinea noise would put him over the edge right?)

You can imagine my total shock when he walked in the door yesterday afternoon w/ a box of 13 keets! I literally almost fell on the floor, totally speachless!

He was at the feed store and got talking to the store clerk who raved about the wonderful tick control etc. He also mentioned these "French Guineas" were very good eating and a bit larger in size. They had a 12 bird minimum so that's what he got plus they threw in an extra.

I have a strong feeling we will be finding homes for several of these beautiful birds, but we will learn first hand what it's like to care for them :) one day at a time.

-Sheila (I still can't believe it, I'm the crazy bird lady not him!)

I've so enjoyed all the guinea stories. We have 4, 3 roosters and a hen that we got late last summer so this will be our first summer to have them eating bugs.

Does anyone know if they eat Colorado potato beetles?

Ours have not been as noisy as I expected them to be. We also have a large rooster and a hen that they seem to get along well with. The chickens seem to be boss right now. Our golden retriever gives the big rooster a wide berth but isn't afraid of the guineas.

I also find them very entertaining. I love to watch them run around the property. They remind me of the little granny in the old movie Tobacco Road. You would see her running through the scenes in the background. They wear their little "calico dresses":-) I always chuckle when I see their bedraggled "dress tails" from the early morning dew or the rain.

We got ours as adolescents and were not able to train them to roost inside the coop. At least they didn't run away. My cousin, whose property joins ours got 4 guineas at the same time. He lost one right away. Every day or so, the 7 guineas meet on one property or the other and do a lot of flying at each other and honking. Then later you might see all 7 foraging together peacefully. They always return to their respective properties before dusk.

As I just posted on another thread... Guineas are great!

Best bug catchers in town, and very entertaining!

Yes, they can get noisy, but they make a great early warning system when someone comes to visit!

I think the worst thing is they have no common sense to get out of the freezing rain.
They will perch up in a tree when the wind and the rains come. and even when it turns into a full blown blizzard... there they will stay!
If you happen to be gone for the day when it happens, you can expect to come home to find them frozen to death in the tree!
Can you guess what happened to mine?

If anyone in the Intermountain West has any Coral Blue or Purple Keets for sale, let me know... I would love to replace mine.
I know some places sell them for 4-5 dollars each, I am willing to pay extra to just get two.
jkeamommy@yahoo.com
This time I will train them to go in the coop at night w/ the Chicks!

Thanks for your responses! it is very enlightening to hear of all of your experiences and thoughts. I do have a question though, if you call a female guinea a hen then what do you call a male? it seems rooster wouldn't fit the bill but maybe you all can tell me.

Also, it sounds like the males overall make less noise, I'm wondering if I kept 2-3 males would they get along ok or would the ratio be bad? These will be cooped w/our chickens.

Thanks,
Sheila

Sheila,

Do not think that you would have any problems with a small group of just male guineas. We have many more males than females and there doesn't seem to be any "bloodshed" from the inequity.

I question the theory that the males are actually measurably "quieter" than the females. The female does have a distinctive two-note call.....POT-Rack, POT-Rack" while the males only produce one note but they do produce it in rapid succession so there is, in my opinion, just as much "noise" just less diversity of sound. I enjoy hearing the little hens calling!

You may be able to keep guineas cooped with your chickens without problems. I think the key to that is raising them together. When our guineas go into our coop all the chickens evacuate.....though they do "graze" side-by-side without difficulty in the yard and fields.

Generally guineas are less likely to fall ill that chickens, in my experience. Though when you get them as tiny keets do make sure to start them out at a 90 degree temperature and gradually (over a period of weeks) lower the temps to the ambient temp.

The past summers here have been terribly hot....up to 108 for a couple of weeks at intervals, and my young chickens have had bouts of coccidiosis that have needed treating on a recurrent basis despite all my best efforts at keeping them in a clean enviornment. Have treated the young guineas only a couple of times (Sulfa in the drinking water).

Hope all this helps. Good luck!

Judy

Thanks Judy,
I think only time will tell if they will work out for us, I am not getting my hopes too high. My friends guineas are surprisingly not loud, but they are five years old and I'm sure that's a factor. Ours will be free ranging during the day in a half acre chicken yard, it's got deer fencing around it. I have read their wings can be clipped to keep them inside a 6 foot fence.

-Sheila

I've enjoyed reading all of the above information, as I just recently purchased two guinea hens at a local swap meet. I have 6 acres with horses, a donkey, and a bunch of heinz 57 chickens (and two roosters) and have never had a problem with them wandering or fighting with the chickens. Let me start by saying that I am a suburb boy trying to go country, and I let mine out the minute I got home to wander. My donkey chased them into the woods, along with the chickens, in just twenty minutes, I saw $30 of birds rear ends, and that was it! To my surprise, the next morning they were all at the barn door wanting food! Every morning and every nite they are there to greet me....but only after the dang donkey has been put up for the nite! By the way, mine don't fly. They apparently had their wings clipped, so I guess that they just had to hang around!

An Amish gardening pen pal of mine sent me guinea eggs this season. I have 5 that are about a month old. I have tried to handle them as much as I can. They are still skittish--or so I thought. THENSince my daughter and I got Lyme Disease from ticks last year, I am happy to have these helpers. They have interesting peeps, but boy can they be shrill when picked up or separated from mom (a chicken).

Watching them move is amazing. They look like one of those precision flying troupes--moving together, keeping in tight "formation".

So far, so good, but I do hope that they will go inside at night. I will fence the perimeter of our field, which is surrounded by full-sized blue spruce trees on 3 sides. So, even if they could fly over the fence, the densely branced tree is there, and there is no way to pass.

I have enjoyed everyone's input here--especially the movie!
Robin

Sheila, how did this turn out?

--Jonathan

Hi Johnathan,
Well I ended up selling all my guineas, ultimately they took up too much space in my coop and got to be a pain in the evenings because they wouldn't come in at night. They would roost on the roof of our coop and my husband used to have to gently push them down w/a broom to get them locked up for the night. The boys were definitely much more quiet than the females but they still liked to chatter quite a bit (especially at dusk). I think if we had more space I would have kept them for entertainment and insect control. The women who purchased them had a child w/immune issues and needed them for tick control, she was delighted with them.

Sheila

Hi Scheila,

Good to know. People have such different experiences, and I think a lot of it has to do with space and property layout. I'm on 2 acres, with a long thin plot (maybe 250 feet across, with the barn halfway back). The birds and I each get half. I wonder if they will be far enough from the house, or if they are going to want to roam to our neighbors yards, though, with just an acre. I'm thinking of getting half a dozen.

I just read "Gardening with Guineas." It's a fine book for what it is, but it's really just based on the experience of one person.

--Jonathan

Guineas are the "barking dog" of the bird lot. They make as good a watch animal as a dog. They make a racket when snything out of the norm encroaches on their territory. They are independent and do not form a close alliance with their human keepers because given half a chance, they are capable of fending for themselves. Instinctivly, they will roam in search of food and are prefectly happy to roost overnight in low branch trees. In certain settings, you may need to fence a few acres to encourage them to stay. However, they are fairly good flyers and can sail over a 6 ft fence.

Our guineas tended to roost overnight in our plum orchard. We had to train them to go into the bird house at night. Roosting outside exposed them to preadotrs.

I got my guineas at a really inopportune time, the day before my son's graduation. My husband is deployed and I had company coming from out of state. Plus, the birds showed up on Wed instead of Fri so I didn't have everything set up. I lost most of them but ended up with 5. Well, the fifth ended up being a chicken, LOL. They ran shrieking in terror any time I approached their pen. One even hurt its leg trying to squeeze itself in a corner to get away from me. I had them in a kennel with 6 foot walls. They all flew off at some point and I've not seen them since. I think I will try again next summer when hubby is home and I can devote more time to getting them off to a good start. Lori

I have 13 of these weird but funny bird and they are comical they eat the bugs. I like how they fallow they horses and cattle. They also come when they are called and when you go to ride the horse they fallow and they also ride on the back of the horses and cattle. They also chase cars to see who will win. Do you know if that is normal????

MY neighbor owned 6 of these noisy birds! They worked all day.I didn't I'm at home most of the time. I love to set out in my screen house on nice summer days and read. putter around in the garden. I was so very, very happy when the neighbors Guinea fowls wandered off to greener pastures so to speak. They ruined many a good day by me having to listen to their LOUD noise. I hated it..Not sure what happened to them but I am glad they are gone.

I realize this is an OLD post and that everyone is entitled to their opinion but I had to offer my two cents on the subject! I love my guineas.... it seems that every year, we start with two dozen and end the year with a half dozen; it breaks my heart, they are usually lost to predators that grab them during the day, I suppose because they are vigilant about coming in at night to roost... we have lost a few because they made it out into the road and we lost a half dozen in the hurricane this year but I always hatch enough to replenish by spring.... and I have several that I keep cooped all year as breeders. I also do a head count each night and usually I can go find a hen sitting in a place where they all frequent; I work outside a lot so I know their routines.

And yes, they can be loud but normally the only time they are in when they get separated and they will call so every one reunites... they are extremely loud in the barn when they come in to roost at night but will stop once every one is accounted for.... they are flock birds and quite in tune with each other... and no one seems to complain when their dog barks as a stranger comes on their property; well, my guineas let me know when anyone or any thing is somewhere they do not belong... they have sounded off over snakes in the barn, a skunk in the woods behind the house etc.... I agree they are quite loud but I appreciate what they do for me far too much to think of their noise as anything but one of their endearing traits....

As most of you I like my guineas , we got 6 in June, and they are doing fine. They been together with the chickens and been doing good until now. The Guineas attack our chickens, and the poor hen have no chance when 6 Guineas are attacking. Should I just let them run free or is that too early , I honestly don't know what to do.

This is an old post but was sent on to me so I wanted to respond. I would separate the chickens from the guineas immediately if they are attacking your chickens. It's always so upsetting to see a bird getting picked on. I realize you might not have an ideal set up for this but if possible separation is what I would do to protect the girls.

Does anyone know of guineas on the big island of Hawaii??

If so please contact me bt1358@yahoo.com

I would never have them again. They were obnoxiously loud, constantly making noise. They also ruined the roof of my chicken coop. They would roost on top of it and peck all the grit off the shingles. They disappeared across the road into the farmers field and I couldn't have been happier. Then the darn things found their way home. I got rid of them and don't know how anyone can stand the constant noise.

We had about 30 some guineas for years, and then eventually got rid of all except for 5 or 6. Then guess what happened? Predators started snatching our chickens right and left! We lost a bunch and so I started to hatch more guineas. They do help deter predators, especially if you have fox, hawks, owls, coyotes and mountain lions. They help to alert the chickens that death is near.

I bought four guineas two weeks ago and they are in a coop that is enclosed with wire. They absolutely refuse to go into the indoor section of the coop, and today they are in the rain for the first time, and wont get out. I am a bit worried because winter is just starting here (but it seldom gets to freezing point). I hope to let them free range after keeping them enclosed for a couple of months. So far they are amusing, not particularly noisy, but a bit nervous and flighty...

I purchased a lavender female in the summer and was given a brown male. they free range. She laid eggs in August and hatched 11 keets. I kept them confined for three weeks and let them loose. its December and I'm have five plus the parents (lost some to resident hawks and a bald eagle). at least one offspring is female. is there concern If the offspring breed amongst themselves next year?

also, to share my experience, I have not had a problem with noise like some others. they call for each other and if threatened. once my pit terrier mix was causing a ruckus with them and when I got there the dog was running for his life with mom and dad guinea chasing him at full speed and voice, but most of the time they are usually not noisy. they live mostly in 330' by 60' garden surrounded by electric fence. they have part of shed and roost in it at night. they wander out of garden to rest of yard (3.5 acres) and surrounding farmland (nearest house 1,000 Ft). they like to look at their reflection in my basement windows. In warmer weather they would roost in tree near house. my chickens are in tractor in garden and guinea dad does seem to torment them by running up to wire mesh and scaring them. I have had chickens get loose and never saw any problem with guineas. they are not far from the road but I never saw them in the street. I feed a corn type crumbles for game birds at night or whenever I get into the garden. they follow me when they think they are getting fed. they drink from drippers (although chickens wont). I showed one guinea how to drink and they all seemed to figure it out.

Ha ha! It can depend on variations of the breed too. I'm down to eight guineas, used to have 20, but we had a bunch of predators last year decimate the flock (inside the coop), so they are even more nervous than usual. The more birds you add, the noisier they become. Mine seem to be extra noisy because of the predator problem. I've never ever had any of them as 'good watchdogs', because they're always making a huge racket when they're free ranging. But, they are excellent at keeping the tick problems under control. I wish I had more because eight aren't enough in my opinion.

Regarding inbreeding, I've had the same flock for oh....I guess over 10 years. I haven't introduced any new blood at all. One time I got down to about 3 birds (bad year for night predators), and started hatching lots of keets again. So far I haven't had many inbreeding problems if you can keep your number of birds up higher it seems to help. Inbreeding problems are obvious with chicks that don't hatch, if you see bent beaks, a lot of unhatched malformed chicks, that's usually the indicator of too much inbreeding.

HELP:. New to Guineas. Raised from day old. They are now 12 wks and have been free ranging for 3 wks. Started with 14 down to 7 due to predators. Had a problem the first several days getting them in at night. I recently have figured out how to get them in their coop at night. They have become too comfortable with humans. They hang out on my patio and poop everywhere. They perch in the window sills and look in the windows and talk to us all day. They just started this when I closed their coop during the day. I'm going to go back to keeping it open and hope that this is the remedy. But wondering if there is a way to train them to stay out of an area.

Thanks in advance for any advise.

We started our flock this spring. Ticks disappeared nearly over night, once we started letting them out. We train them using dried meal worms as a treat. Start it with them still in the brood box. I use a distinct whistle to announce myself, then I feed them. Once in the coop, I keep the Keets inside for about a week, giving them worms while inside a couple of times a day.

Once we start letting them out, in the evening it usually only takes a whistle and a cup of mealworms and they are in the coop for the night.

Easy peasy. ;)

my neighbors have 9 genuea fowls and i absolutly hate these birds , they a loud and its constant , its making me go insane and now me and my neighbors are nol longer friends the noise they make will make you qringe last night i was so upset because they wouldnr stop with there noise i wanted to flip a car over, im not a angry person but these birds make me mad as a mayter of fact im going to see a dr today for my insanity on this issue of these birds . ive told the landlord and citations are on the way but still they are horrible birds to have especially for a neighbor .

I see that I put a comment on here 6 years ago, when I had just gotten four guinea fowl. Now I have only two left. My conclusions? Yes they are noisy, the worst noise they make is the continual calling out 'come back, come back, come back....' which can go on for hours it seems. The chorus of screeching that they also do, usually only happens when they are alarmed, such as by snakes, birds of prey and dogs. Also when they venture on new territory.

They free range well, and always return home, even from afar. I have seen them both ignore snakes and harass them, and I still have ticks in my yard. They also like to fly onto my roof, and peck at their reflection in the house windows, which can be annoying. They can be quite aggressive with other poultry, and cant be kept with chickens. They learn to come when called, if it suits them. Overall, I am lucky my neighbors didnt complain about the noise, but unlike peacocks, the noise is all during the day. They are entertaining, and I enjoy having mine. They say two birds is not enough because they like to live in big flocks, but when another guinea fowl from a flock down the street visited mine, my birds chased it away very quickly. My place is only an acre and a half; I dont think I will get another flock because of the noise for the neighbors.

As a neighbour of someone who has guinea fowl, they are a noise nuisance. They are constantly on our driveway, fowling and waking the household up at 4:30am. I cannot stress how noisy they are, I have constant headaches. They are the birds of the devil, and if you are thinking of getting this free-straying bird, be a good neighbour and ask those living close to you if they mind, first.