You know those two Guinea hens that just a few weeks ago I proudly declared them both to be female?
They’re not.
Guinea hens are notoriously difficult to visually sex, however, believing that I somehow had the magic power, I decided based on the comb alone that both of my birds were girls.
Then we started hearing some major squawking from the hen house – sort of like the anguished cry of a clown horn mixed with a maniacal laugh. The first few times this happened, we went out to the henhouse to check on the birds’ safety. Maybe something had gotten into the henhouse and was threatening the birds.
It certainly sounded that way.
But no all the birds were fine. Hmmm, perhaps, my birds were just complaining about the cold weather.
Lord knows, I was these days.
Then when I was at the Poultry Congress, there was a young man who was trying to sell all of his Guinea hens. I was interested in maybe getting one or two but I only wanted hens. The good news was, they all looked like hens to me.
I mentioned to the gentleman that we couldn’t keep any roosters in our flock due to our neighbors and that’s when he said to me:
“Good luck in telling them apart.”
What? Wait…..do you mean?….
Yup, comb size (or lack thereof) is not an indicator of sex in a Guinea hen. Even this guy who was a breeder had difficulty telling them apart.
Pretty much the only indicator is their call -
Females have a two-toned call that sounds like they are saying “Buck-wheat”
Males have that shrill and constant call that tries to interrupt your writing thoughts and makes you think twice about going out in the back yard when its dark. (What the heck is that?)
Based on their calls, it looks like we have one female and one male. Not the worst thing in the world because I got them to eat ticks and not for eggs, so it doesn’t really bother me BUT, I’m thinking that my neighbors might have a different take on the situation once the warm weather comes and windows that had been closed tight to the winter winds are finally opened.
This is the best photo I could get this morning, the darn things won’t stay still.
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And Congratulations to Stephanie Ryan you are the winner of that chicken garland! I’ll have to get details from you on where to send it.
