I just had to jump in and agree with the previous poster who mentioned the great book "Gardening with Guineas" and the awesome message board moderated by the same author (known as "Frit"); http://guineafowl.com/board/list.php?2 I found the book first as I was interested in guineas because they would NOT SCRATCH at dirt/plants like my chickens do. (We practice organic gardening and love the help w/pests.) I provided the guineas a mirror and dust pit which also keep them happy and away from my house. I must also mention that I find their poop much less icky! ;-) I love my chickens but they make me insane when they scratch all my mulch out of the beds and eat my flowers. I've finally made a run to keep the hens locked up more (tho they are still let out frequently). I LOVE the silly silly guineas tho - they do not hurt my plants and are so entertaining and helpful as they roam our pastures eating bugs and weeds. We do have a large farm, set well back from the road so neighbors aren't really a problem. Their noise only bothers me occaisionaly if they come up and interrupt a conversation by "barking" at the stranger to our farm. I did follow all of Frit's great advice; started keets in my house w/handling, transitioned out to "nursery" pen in my chicken coop for another 6 wks, then allowed them out. They share the coop nicely w/my hens, eat the same layer feed (now that they are grown - turkey starter w/AMP as keets)although in early spring hormones(?) made my dominant cock a bit mean to the lowest ranking hens and scary for my small kids. They are very good about "going to bed" but they'd like me to close them in earlier than my chickens. On the rare occasion I've left them out too late they have had predator loss so I feel that following Frit's set-up works best. I do gather their (many)eggs to eat. It can be hard to get them to lay in the coop as they want to be more secretive and make nests in tall grass. Right now we've even got a bunch of eggs in an incubator and are eager to see if they hatch. If we get many keets I'll be sharing with all my chicken friends who are now excited to try guineas too. I highly recommend guineas and wish you much fun with them!

I've had several flocks of guineas over the years, and I too love them enough to put up with the loud noises they can make....my experience is that they calm down greatly when they get out of their teenage time. In fact, my last adult guineas hardly ever said anything unless something startled them. And how I loved their bug-eating ways ! My 2 hounds never,ever had ticks, nor did I see those huge, ugly lubber grasshoppers in my flowers. I also learned never to buy adult guineas if I wanted them to stay around (all my flocks have been free range). I wish I lived near someone who wanted to give away the fresh eggs or keets ! Would love to have some guineas again.

I've been picking up rabbit waste (manure, straw, and litter) fresh from a rabbit rescue nearby. I've put some in my Biostack composter and some directly into the Square Foot Garden frame I built. I've also put some between layers of newspaper (weighed down with bricks) where I plan to build another SFG frame in September. This rabbit rescue also places guinea pigs and (*sigh*) rats into new homes. I can do w/o the rats, but rabbits and guinea pigs are true herbivores, so their manure (already composted!) should be terrific. Cynthia H. El Cerrito, CA

Tonight was Round Two. Arriving home from a shopping trip to Dallas, I went into the chicken coop to turn on the heat lamp to keep the keats warm overnight and there was a big old long chicken snake stretched out on the chicken roost. Of course, by the time I turned on the lamp and saw him or her, I was already past the snake and it was between me and the door, so I had to go back past the snake to exit the chicken coop. (sigh) Several "hysterical woman" phone calls later, two sets of neighbors arrived, gloves and guns in hand. (We have the world's most wonderful friends and neighbors.) One dragged that ugly old snake out of the chicken house, the other shot it, and peace and calm reigned again. I did call DH at work to tell him that his "snakeproof" chicken coop, as he has repeatedly described it since building it--most recently two days ago--is NOT snakeproof. (I wish it was.) I believe we will spend his days off attempting to do some more snakeproofing. The good news is that, for the second time in a week, a snake got into the building but not into the bird brooder cage, which DS apparently did an excellent job of snakeproofing. And, I hate to say that for fear I will jinx us and the next snake we see will be inside the cage eating keats. And, by the way, fresh, home-grown tomatoes are an excellent "thank you" to give a neighbor who comes running to rescue your keats from a big ol' bad ol' snake. I gave one neighbor a bagful and promised one to bring one to the other neighbor tomorrow after I pick tomatoes. Only six more weeks until the keats are theorectically large enough that a snake cannot crush them and eat them. Of course, it still will be a battle with the other predators, but the guineas usually can fight that battle on their own pretty well. Ada, my cousin's cat was picked up and carried away by a red-tailed hawk about 25 or 26 years ago....and then the hawk dropped the cat into a pasture and it made its own way home, a little scratched up and bloodied, but it survived. However, from what I recall, that cat pretty much stayed inside the house after that....and that cousin had a big snake problem as well, but with western diamondback rattlers.....I'd rather have the chicken snakes. Dawn P.S. If the neighbors hadn't come to our rescue, I guess Kristine and I would have shot it, but we would not have dragged it out of the chicken coop first, because we weren't going to touch it....and we didn't really want to blow a hole in the wall.