What do guinea hens taste like?

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Last summer I purchased some Guineas for my garden. Was really looking forward to gardening with my new friends this year. Unfortunately they have taken a liking to terrorizing and hurting my hens. This morning I went out to the barn to found one hen almost featherless with her flesh laid open to the muscle in about a 4 inch long meaty gash. I fixed her up the best I could but I doubt she'll live. That was it! I kicked them out of the barn. So now I am considering butchering these birds for the supper table. My hens free range a good deal of the year and I cannot have them brutalized. So, is guinea good eatin?

-- Tiffani Cappello (cappello@alltel.net), March 05, 2001

Answers

Wow, that's some mean guineas! Mine get along fine with the hens, but then they were raised by hens. Haven't tasted guinea meat, a friend of mine said they were all dark meat and they didn't like them :-( Good luck catching them!(Only way I know is to catch them off their roost at night.) My dad is considering putting guineas in his fenced garden, away from the hens--is there any way you could try some alternate arrangement? Don't blame you for kicking them out. Good luck, mary

-- mary, texas (marylgarcia@aol.com), March 05, 2001.

Heck, eat the chicken. It's already butchered.

-- Joe (jcole@apha.com), March 05, 2001.

Tastes like chicken.

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), March 05, 2001.

Forgive me....I couldn't resist. There's one in every crowd.......

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), March 05, 2001.

They taste a lot like pheasant, they are very good.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), March 05, 2001.


When I went to cook one, I put it in the pan on it's back. During cooking, it fell over. The side that was in the pan was tough, while the side on top was really quite good. All dark meat, like they said. I don't know what pheasant tastes like to compair it.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), March 05, 2001.

Guinea hens taste like Steak! :-) They do to me anyway! ;-)

-- Cosmic Country Girl (CosmicCountry@Yahoo.com), March 05, 2001.

Guinea fowl are prepared like pheasant for cooking. I understand they are sometimes served as 'pheasant.' So, perhaps they taste the same.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), March 06, 2001.

I had heard that they are supposed to taste like pheasant. Ours didn't. They tasted more like chicken or turkey. A little darker flavored, but not much. Ours had free choice of chicken layer and also got to range.

Just curious. What makes you thing that it was the guineas that did this? That is quite an attack for a guinea to have done to a full grown chicken.

-- Trisha-MN (tank@linkup.net), March 06, 2001.


Well, I'd say more like pheasant than chicken. Darker meat than either. Like a pheasant, it's not worth plucking or trying to salvage the legs. Just skin the breast of the whole carcass, and filet out the breasts. Personally, I like either chicken or pheasant better, but I don't dislike the guinea. We ate or sold ours because we free range, and they would roost outside in the summer, and create a cacophony outside the bedroom window before dawn, which is as early as 4 am. GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), March 06, 2001.


Trisha, I am sure it was the guineas. They have been terrorizing my hens for some time and pulling out their tail feathers. Funny, they really only pick on one breed of chicken. The rest they terrorize but don't try to mutilate. I found one of my black and white chickens dead last week of "unknown causes" then I found this one laid open this week. While in the barn to do the milking I watched them and they were definately attacking this one chicken - so out they went. It is rather cold here so they are in the barn -but not in the chicken coop. I'm may try them out in the garden from mid March till I let my chickens free range again. Then I'll have to butcher them. What a shame - I really like them. I am glad to hear that they are worth eating. I fed those boogers all winter!

Believe it or not that chicken is still alive. I wanted my husband to shoot her and put her out of her misery but he wouldn't. She is acting normal so he doesn't think it is necessary. I keep spraying her with iodine twice daily. She has a 2 inch open wound on one side and a quarter inch open wound on the other. The muscle is showing. Anyone know if this lady will survive? Seems a shame to let her suffer if she is gonna die anyway. Can new skin form over this wound?

-- Tiffani Cappello (cappello@alltel.net), March 06, 2001.


Tiffani, use pine tar (available from the feed store or local farm co- op) instead of the iodine, the hen will absorb enough toxic iodine to either poison her or make the eggs toxic to us. The pine tar is very healing and will discourage further picking, you could also use aloe vera with goldenseal tincture added to it ( a few droppers full per ounce of aloe vera juice) to help heal up the hen, this works wonders on most any animal or human. If you have tea tree oil, add a few droppers full of that to the aloe/goldenseal mixture too. She should be fine if you can keep the "pickers" away from her and doctor her wounds. It is easiest to doctor a chicken after they have gone to roost for the night, use a samll flashlight that you can hold between your teeth to work by (old vet trick) to see.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), March 06, 2001.

I had a chicken once with this type of injury from a dog. We were out of town when it happened or we probably would have killed it(the chicken). But she did miraculously recover. She definitely should be separated from the flock. mary

-- mary, texas (marylgarcia@aol.com), March 06, 2001.

they taste like guinea hens!

-- Erik (enricoestabar@yahoo.com), March 08, 2001.

I had always heard that guineas and chicken roosters shouldn't live together 'cause the guineas will attack the roos. I have several roos with my hens. All the birds free range together during the day and tuck themselves into the pens at dusk. No problem with the birds fighting.

Some say their guineas yell all night, but mine are quiet. They don't show their voice until I let them out of the pens.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), March 09, 2001.



I have never tasted guinea either, though we probably will be soon. Our guineas were raised with young chicks and we've never had a problem with them getting along. I can't imagine a quiet guinea, though. We had wanted them for tick and other garden pest control, but they seemed to prefer tomatoes that were just about ripe enough for us. Last year, out of a 5-gallon bucket of tomatoes, 4 had not been pecked on by the guineas, none had any "bug" damage. We are taking our chances with garden bugs and the guineas are in the chicken run so our garden is safe.

-- Yvonne Hardy (poorfarmclan@hotmail.com), March 12, 2001.

I smoked a few and they tasted like chicken with a hint of pheasant. I think they taste much better than chicken. I had about 20 that patroled a 1 acre garden and about 10 acres cleared land. They kept the place pretty well bug free. They would be on my short list of animals to raise if I were on a farm again.

The attack on the chicken was probably an accident. The guinea probably freaked about something and accidently clawed the hen. If you have a small roost, I would keep the guineas in separate area.

pete

-- PETE OSTLUND (POSTLUND@JUNO.COM), September 19, 2001.


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