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[mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>]

Guineas are free ranging at our place, rarely come inside the coop except in the coldest weather.  After 5 years or so they've essentially gone wild & really only need to be fed & watered in the snowy part of the year.  The only downside I can see is that they wander into all the neighbor's yards, waking them up at 5am.  While there tends to be some predation, the hens all have 10-15 babies once or twice a year so they seem to out populate the attrition.

~mIEKAL

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 9:00 AM, Deb S <debs913@gmail.com> wrote:

Really top notch bug eaters are Guineas.  However, it is difficult to convince Guineas to stick around and not head for parts unknown.  There is a book called Guineas in the Garden, which offers good advice.  Our one experiment with Guineas started with 13 adult birds.  We kept them penned for 4 months.  When we let them loose, by the end of the week we were down to 2 birds..the others all just left.  After a month it was zero as predators took the last two (raptors).  We may try Guineas again, but from chicks which would help imprint them on "home" better.