Birchtree Farm

Do your birdies lay eggs? If so, do you eat them, and do guinea eggs taste like chicken? Pretty birds!

They aren't laying eggs yet, as they are still too young, but yes, we will eat them and they are waaaay better tasting than supermarket eggs. Our chickens in NY kept us in eggs with extra left over to sell. I haven't tried guinea eggs (yet) but they probably taste similar. Guineas themselves supposedly taste like pheasant!

Hi Karen,

I saw yourpost on the AWFA site and wanted to let you know that I will be breeding a litter of farmcollies this winter for a Spring 2009 availability. I'm in Massachusetts and the dam is in Upstate New York. If you're interested, please drop me a line. My stud dog is wonderful on poultry and goats, the dam is on a cattle farm.

Thank you.

Serena

I have a question for you, what are the guinea foul like to raise? Are they like chickens (in that they put themselves to bed at night?). Or like ducks, an argument every night about the bedtime? Are they good eating? Regular egg layers (unlike our Muscovy ducks).

They look awfully beautiful.

PS. Your chicken flock looks a lot like mine...a happy bunch of mixed breeding!

The guineas were easy to raise. You need to keep them in the coop for probably at least a week before letting them out for the first time. The conventional wisdom says keep them confined in the coop for six weeks, but we didn't do that and it worked out fine. We got ours at about 2 weeks of age and kept them in a brooder for a little over a week and then kept them in the coop for about a week and a half. Once they know that's "home" they come back every night just like the chickens. We turn on a light in our coop in the evening which may (or may not) help.

Might just have to give those a go. I'm looking for something to replace my Muscovy ducks. They are unreliable egg layers and hopeless mothers, and the argument about bedtime is getting old!

Thanks for answering my query.

One more thing, do you have the chickens and the guineas living together???

The chickens and guineas do live together. The guinea males can be rather annoying to the chickens sometimes - pulling feathers and such - and they say the guinea roos can harass the chicken roos something awful. But mostly they coexist in peace. Guineas are LOUD though - be sure your neighbors aren't too close!
P.S. the chickens aren't mixed breeds - yet. They are all individual breeds at this point - NH Reds, Araucanas (Easter Eggers), Gold-Laced and Silver Laced Wyandottes, and one Speckled Sussex.