Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ors often ask how I put up with that noise and I explain that it's usually only present
when there's something disturbing them or something unfamiliar nearby.
Now that we live only 750 feet away from our poultry yards, I rely on the guineas
to alert me to nighttime predators. I go to the front door, listen, and know if I need to
go to the poultry area and check for problems. Guineas are truly the watchfowl of the
barnyard.
Natural Exterminators
Guineas are also very active workers. When given a chance to roam in summer, they
exist almost entirely on the insects and seeds that they find. My first summer at Sandhill
Preservation farm, I purchased 100 young guineas. The previous two summers were
very dry and our sand hill was covered with grasshoppers. I started turning out the
guineas when they were about six to seven weeks old to let them range and forage. At
the end of each day, I could see how far the guineas had gone by walking through the
area where there were no grasshoppers into an area where the population was heavy. The
guineas worked with machinelike accuracy through the weeds, grass, and young trees,
picking and eating and fattening up as they went.
I've turned them loose in my garden at various times and watched them picking in-
sects off the leaves as they go down the rows. They eat insects that no other creature
would dare eat. They are the only poultry species I've ever seen that would even touch
a squash bug. Sure, they also have their favorite fruits and vegetables, and pick up those
as well, but they seek out insects predominantly.
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