Fowl Creatures – Guineas Hens, Silkie, Polish Top Hat, Buff Orphington and Cochin Chickens

Guinea Hens

When we moved to the country from the beach, we knew we wanted to have a more “green” existence.  Because we have indoor critters as well as our farm animals, we didn’t want to use any chemicals or pesticides on our property.  To that end, after much research on the internet, we purchased the book Gardening with Guineas by Jeanette S. Ferguson, visited her website and learned all about guineas at www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/.  We then bought our first farm animals in June 2005:  24 one-day-old guinea hens, known as “keets” at that age.  They required a 6-week stay indoors in a temperature controlled environment (what a mess that was!) and then were moved to their outdoor housing and fenced area for another 6 weeks before they could be released into our yard to start doing their job.

Guinea Hens are multi-tasking fowl.  They are called “the farmer’s watchdog” because they create such noise whenever anyone or anything, comes near our property, kind of like an early warning alarm system!  At night, when you hear them squawking, you grab the spotlight and gun because a predator is likely near.  We know there are foxes and other predators in our wooded property which are a threat to all our animals. 

Guineas' second purpose is eating pests, any kind of pests, from fleas and ticks to mosquitoes and flies, they love them all.  They will corral a snake, surround one of our cats or run to the fence to see the neighbors' dogs.  They are curious and funny looking birds, but do a great job in keeping our property clear of flying and ground pests.

Their third purpose is laying eggs.  They’re smaller than hens’ eggs, but just as edible and many country cooks swear by their eggs for baking.  It takes 2 guinea eggs to equal one hen egg.  Therefore, we have LOTS of eggs!  We’re still waiting and hoping for a natural hatch after 5 years.

The guineas are free-ranged during the day, and at dusk, they return to their roosting/nesting house, which is enclosed and has a screen door that we latch every night.

Silkie, Cochins, and Top Hat (Polish) Chickens

We currently have Silkie, Cochins and Polish hens.  These breeds lay lots of eggs and mate on a regular basis.  They are great brooders, and it's said they'll sit on a golf ball and try to hatch it.  They make excellent house pets and you can even buy diapers online for them at www.chickendiapers.com.  There's a large segment of the population that have many different exotic breeds of chickens for house pets.  Who knew?

Fuzzy and the 2 original Sweetie Chickens

Our original rooster, Fuzzy, a white Silkie, and two Barred Rock layers we call "Sweeties" were given to us in 2005 by our neighbors when they moved to New York.  We also inherited their two guinea hens which moved in with ours and tried to rule the roost, but alas, they eventually gave up and just became part of our flock.  The only way we can identify them from ours is their dark brown color, while most of ours are silver pearl.

See our guineas and chickens in the photo album.