Guinea fowl are native to Africa but are winning favor here in the U.S. as major consumers of deer ticks, the ticks that carry Lyme Disease. Unfortunately, we recently learned of a study done in Turkey that shows guineas don’t eat more ticks than chickens and may actually carry up to 300 ticks in their feathers at any given time! This leaves us with our favorite motto, usually reserved for our self-possessed Lhaso Apso dog Buddy…they’re too cute to shoot.
Their eggs and meat are often sought by gourmet restaurants and they are wonderfully entertaining birds to have running around the place.
We purchased a dozen guineas from a neighbor in July 2012. We keep them in a fortress of a coop at night and let most of them roam during the day. We keep a few captive to keep the others from roaming too far. When the flock was reduced due to predators and passing traffic, we got some more and we’re now at 10. Guinea Fowl International is a great source for information on raising guineas.
We plan to keep them for eggs and entertainment.
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