Central TX ... same weather, same terrain and similar brush as many parts of Southern Africa. Why have tame guineas not propagated? Coyotes? Yes but Jackal?

http://www.chron.com/news/hous...-loathed-1524146.php

Some perspective on the subject.

They had some in a chicken coop about 100 yards away from the guest house we slept in during my Namibia safari in 2005.

They don't really ever shut up.

There sure are plenty of hoppers around here. They stripped my tomato plants of leaves in a few days. Toying with the idea of putting a few guineas in my vegetable garden and covering it with mesh.

Interesting you mention them. I've thought about putting a couple out on my ranch near Stephenville. I hesitated because I don't want them to compete with or somehow spread a disease to the wild turkeys that live there.

My BIL periodically buys and releases a few dozen on his farm. In no time at all, the hawks, coyotes,etc kill them all. I think there are maybe 3 left out of the last batch.

I hunt a friend's ranch near Cross Plains. He has been releasing Guineas for years. First batch only a couple survived. More were released few more survivors. Eventually they learned what not to do and now a self sustaining, except frost kills them.
They are on top of the chicken coop at night and wandering in the forest during the day.

M

In southern africa they survive frost, snow, wet, dry, heat, whatever you throw at them. Owls, jackals, hawks, eagles, wild cats etc. They are pretty much everywhere, high elevation, low elevation, brush, plains no matter. But they particularly thrive in farming areas and potatoes and corn are magnets for them, more for the associated bugs than for the crop itself.

I think survival has more to do with how you raise them and perhaps the ones we have here are a bit too inbred ie stupid.

Goineafowl indiginous to South Africa are wild populations, and subject to all the natural selection / survival challenges that Russ Gould points out. Research in SA has shown that these wild birds loose their ability to survive in the wild (virility) after 1 generation in captivity. SA has no put and take hunting of birds - only wild populations. Domesticated guineas seldom survive. Interesting that there are no wild ostrich available in SA - this is a problem for nature reserves that have resident leopard and cheetah - they quickly develop a taste for ostrich and these seldom survive.

We had Guineas around our ranch house, They were pets like a chicken, and the best guard dog in the world Im told, but they raise hell if a cotton tail shows up, so I never felt they were worth a damn for anything except making all kinds of noise..

Someone released about 20 guinea fowl out in the oil fields next to a plant I used to work at.

They lasted less than a week, the coyotes got them all.

They are a great gamebird here in SA - over pointing dogs or when driven - and they taste very good! Look at
https://www.facebook.com/Birds...rsa-608384315951107/

Are they good to eat? The wild ones in Southern Africa?

I always ask why we don’t eat some when on Safari. I have always been told that they aren’t very good to eat.

They taste great, and JDOLLAR is right, I have released over three hundred at my place and have only five left.They set and hatch, but if you do not get the hatchlings in a day or so and pen them up they will not last three days. I think everything eats them,maybe we just have more predators per acre than Africa has,house cats,dogs,yotes,bobcats,foxes,coons,possums,owles and hawks, snakes,hogs,bears,rats, on and on.

Lane, I got that same answer hunting amid hundreds of them in Namibia. PH also said it wasn't worth scaring the "real game" by sniping guineas. Made me think a good air rifle like a Benjamin Marauder would be a very useful tool on safari. Francolin are supposed to be much better for the table.

The staff raised guineas in one of my camps in Tanzania. I was told that they were for snake protection. They would raise hell if a snake was spotted.
At the end of the season, they ended up in the pot.

I don't know the exact taxonomy, but remember that there are two types of guinea-fowl:
The wild ones that we are used to in SA and the "pulpatater" domestic type as commonly seen around some farmyards and raised all over the world, especially Europe.
The domestic ones are not nearly as tough (eating and survival!) as the wild ones.

We usually keep a pair for barnyard alarms. Supposedly they are also good at tick eating (perhaps). They do make a ruckus when something harasses the coops or flock.

They are also stupid/bold enough to stand and scold a fox or coyote. That doesn't work out so well.

Current pair seem to be above average idiots and do fly up into trees first.

At one point we raised a small flock of them (25 - NOISY) and the varmints ate more of them than we did. I think they are delicious (dark meat). They tend to range very large distances (a mile +/-) if left free range. If raised as keets in with the chicks they will stick with the chickens better.

They make great yard ornaments. Funny to watch them chase bugs and go about their business. Beautiful feathers but up close the ugliest heads.

They do amazingly well in our unheated coops through the NY winters. Better than some breeds of chickens do.

My girlfriend and I took a little weekend trip to a B&B to SW Córdoba. There were guineas on the grounds. The climate is very similar to central Texas. Foxes would occasionally snag one, but not too often according to the owner.

Guys,

Guinea fowl are very good to eat. The cooks in a couple of camps made some very tasty appetizers from them. Popping them with a 22 is great fun.

Mark

Friend of ours has had them on their farm here in NJ for last 30+ years. They do get hit by fox.

Our ranch was a coyote, fox, bobcat Mt. Lion mecca and I don't recall losing but a few. My dad had a thing for them as watch dogs, but hell they would go nutso and wake the dead over a rabbit, mouse whatever, but when a few "wets" walked up for food at night it woke up the family and dad would put them up in the bunk house and feed them a day or two then send them on or hire them then if needed...Those days have changed somewhat today, The border is much more violent. What a shame.

Im surprised about the preditation on farms and ranches elsewhere, we lost few Guineas but the hatched more eggs to the point we had to haul many to town and give them away..????????????