I was at Rural King over the weekend and they had guinea fowl, male and females mixed. We had one take up residence last year for a few weeks, so since we have a few acreas I thought a few would keep the bugs down. Anyway, they were 6.99 each. That seems expensive for a young peep. Is that a covid price? Amish won't sell chicken eggs locally, I guess they are hording them.

They eat lots of ticks.

My folks had them, all dark meat, better than a watch dog for making a racket when someone drives on the place.

Yep. They do make for good burglar “alarms”.

Guinea eggs are excellent too.

My mother said the hens would take the new chicks through wet grass, and they would die. They had better luck putting the guinea eggs under a setting hen to raise.

I’ve had it. Pretty damn good in a stew.

Had Guineas twice over the years.

Both times, they grew up to maturity, then migrated 1/2 mile down the road to my neighbor’s farm.

7 bucks a chick is about right. Eat tons of tics and bugs, don't tear up gardens, hell on snakes, loud as can be, love setting on your roof and cars, and fun to have around

One of the best things I ever ate on safari was guinea breast sliced thin and grilled and served up in a sweet cream sauce with some sliced baked apples. It was unbelievable.

The problem we had with those stupid birds was they always managed to get themselves killed before tick season.

they are good in a gumbo

We had them when I was young, good watchdogs for sure.

My Dad always has Guinea fowl. One time he was losing them more every day. He caught all the survivors in a large dog kennel. Got dark and all the sudden the guinea fowl started going crazy. He shines a spotlight out there and he said the biggest great horned owl he ever saw was standing on top of the cage.

Obnoxious screaming fuggin things. Not a fan. Probably because we used to live on an acreage and one of the neighbours lost his from his "coop".. a 15 minute waste of time building it. Several years later there were about 50 roaming the area if they roosted within 200 yards you could hardly sleep some times.

Some well placed BB caps and a stew pot would’ve taken care of that problem for me...

They got pretty skittish after a few generations, thick fir and cedar forest all around they'd pull the Houdini pretty quick when they wanted to. The odd one did get taken but the rest would scatter far and wide in a hurry.

My dad always told me they were hard to hunt cause they’re smart as whip. And if you shot or trapped them in a certain spot you’d probably never see them there again.

We have them now and have had them in the past. For a farm they are great and they really do reduce the tick population.

In regard to the "smart as a whip". I sprayed, disced, and sowed 20 acres that surround our house a few years back. We had a fair sized flock of guinea then. They started dust bathing all over the fresh disk ground....it burned me up so I grabbed the M2 and started killing. The first 3 or were easy. The next several were on the wing. I couldn't get within a 100 yards of the last couple that were left. They learned FAST and I never got near them again. They got to live out their days.

They've got some thought process going on all right. I'd see them on our gravel road all the time they'd just step off into the ditch or a little beyond feeding and picking grit as you pass them not a care in the world. If you'd try to stop as soon as you started to slow down.... boom all gone in to the bush some running some flying. They also figured out the couple granola muncher types in the hood who wouldn't shoot them and fed off their gardens and meadows a lot. But they didn't live anywhere just roamed in and out of the bush. That was like 23 years ago it'd be interesting to go back and see if there's any still around.

I've been toying with the idea of getting some. But I wonder how they'd get along with the chickens. I do tveven care if they roost in the coop, but I'd like to get them to lay eggs in a nest box

My youngest son just bought his house and is getting married in 3 weeks, 9 acres of pasture woods and yard. I would love to get him some to aggravate him 😀 , I just don’t want to tick off his neighbors

If I still had the acreage I’d be all over it. I think they’re cool as hell. And tasty to boot.

Cool azz birds. I want some in the worst way. But the HOA won't allow it, so I am out of luck.


Unless.........



Emotional support flock?

Get him a peacock!

duck,

I didn't figure you as the HOA type.

Surprised they let you cook in the egg. You know, the smoke might bother some. Do you have to keep it out of sight from the road?

And adopt a burro from the BLM out here.

I had to send in a BGE color swatch for full approval.

Side note:

We actually bough the house, in part, because the title search came back with NO HOA.

We found out we were actually IN an HOA about 6 months later, when we got the first communique from the gestapo, that we'd been sent to collections for dues we never had any idea we had to pay.

It's been a battle to this day. Too many plucked duck feathers blowing around in the street. Elk can't hang from the maple tree. It never ends.

Azzholes.

GD, I guess so.

I'd be in touch with one of Remsen's "tribe" if I were in that situation. Why do a friggen title search if the results don't mean anything.

Where we live, there's a good sized development, started back in the 70's when they split up a huge ranch or something. Had Erik Estrade doing commercials to sell lots at the time even. We looked into it and found some references to an HOA, then dug further and found some things like types of fences and such are no longer enforced. Folks have dead vehicles in the yards, etc. Assoc fees go toward plowing the roads in winter, grading in the spring, mowing the acres of unsold/abandoned lots, and the fire dept.

We got lucky and found our place a couple of miles down the road in another development from around that time with no HOA. Which works best for me. I didn't move far away from town to be told I can't put a garden where I want to put the garden.

Hope your battles go your way.

Thanks. Looked into legal options but the freedom to paint my house polka-dots and park the motorhome in the front grass wasn't worth the thousands of dollars.

It's been more fun to screw with them

This is a fun read about a HOA.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/609731.The_Association

You would think,the neighbors would like keeping the "tick" off...

Fhhhccckk HOA’s. Passed on quite a few nice houses because they were in them. And ffahhk peacocks! Noisiest friggin animal on earth..

They can be meaner than hell to other farm fowl.

When I was in high school, the dad of a friend was interested in having some exotic birds around. He heard of a guy who had peafowl not that far away. Sent my friend and I over to check it out. Guy took us into this enormous Quonset hut that was filled with peafowl. They all stopped to look our way. My friend decided to scream at them. They all screamed back.

I have a friend that has both, they share the same coop and get along fine, they were raised together.

Same.

Chickens, Guinea's and ducks all raised together. They get along fine and share the same coop.

I love their eggs very tasty

Friend of mine had some. When the white ducks would venture out into the yard to pick up the corn that Louie had scattered there, the Guinea's would come tearing out from wherever they were with great fury, pulling the tail feathers out of the ducks who were rapidly executing a strategic withdrawal.

I ran over a flock when I was in drivers ed last century. The coach thought we were gonna die because a van was oncoming. Spoiler: we didn't die but there was feathers and blood on the front of the drivers ed car

hit a flock in a monte carlo going 70 same result.

That would be a sight to see!

Grandparents used to have them. Had chickens too but I do not remember any problems. Remember them eating bugs off the bumper of the car when we got there. Saw flocks of hundreds of them in Africa. Always thought it would be fun to hunt them but never got the chance.

The Guinea's I've been around were more interested in staring at their reflection in chrome bumpers and storm doors than eating tics.

Noisy, annoying little chits would roost on the hood of my truck and slide off scratching the clear coat when shooed off.

They mysteriously went missing one weekend long ago.

I was riding a horse down a secluded country lane one time and passed under 6 Guinea hens on a tree branch. They waited until I was right underneath when they all screamed at the same time. Have you ever seen a horse do a split?

Ha
I would if I could find a free one or pair, he'd shoot it within a couple days I'm sure