We tried our hand at raising chickens for the first time in 2014 and absolutely fell in love with them! Who knew they had such personalities? We have heard it said “Why have 10 chickens when you can have 50?” and we took that to heart, 50+ chickens later, here we are. But it didn’t stop there, we added ducks, geese, guineas and a turkey. We quickly filled up our little coop with all sorts of breeds. We soon realized we needed a bigger coop. Building the coop was one of the first major projects on the farm. With some bumps and bruises along the road we completed their much larger coop.
With the presence of eagles and hawks in our area (back pasture to be exact), we began researching guinea fowl. They have been used as warning birds, described as loud, easily startled and reactive. All of this is true! They are very loud, startle easily and react by sounding the alarm. Most of the time this helps warn our flock of danger, other times it’s just us bringing out treats. Guineas eat thousands of insects a day with their favorite being ticks. That benefit outweighs any of their minor inconveniences.
If you are just starting out on your self-sustaining journey or maybe just toying with the idea of livestock, we would suggest starting out with a small flock of chickens. There is a high probability that you will fall in love with them and soon embrace the saying just like we did.
