Humble Beginnings

Guinea woes

That's how I feel right now.  The guineas have destroyed all but 7 of the 78 green bean plants I planted (and all of them were sprouting).  I tried row cover but they WALK ON THE ROW COVER picking at the plants beneath it.  Hubby suggested a scarecrow.  I've replanted the green beans and I hope that this next batch sprouts and grows.  I'm so disgusted, frustrated and wouldn't mind eating guinea stew for dinner tonight.

The plan today is to prop up the row cover where it sits a little higher so they can't walk on it.  And, I'm going to build a scarecrow.  We shall see what that does. 

If these don't work, we may just have to put a fence around the garden (which costs $$ that we really don't want to spend right now).

And, I'm going to say a prayer that the guineas find some other food source (at least until the plants are large enough to withstand some pecking).

Garden

{ 08:59 , Saturday, April 12, 2008 } { Posted by jennickless/simplehomemaker }

We had a similar problem last year. We needed to keep the birds out of the garden/pool. I found bird netting, that is typically used for berry shrubs. We tied the corners off onto four stakes. It worked! I am not sure what Guineas are, but I hope this helps. All materials cost about $20. It was definately worth the price. Good luck! (:

Jennifer

Sorry to tell you but from our experience it's normal

{ 09:29 , Saturday, April 12, 2008 } { Posted by Vickie }

Unfortunately they will do this. Chickens will too! Once the plants are well-established it's not as much of a problem, but just to warn you, they will peck your tomatoes on plants also.
We had to pen our chickens just for this reason last year.
A fence around the garden would take care of it but I do understand it's costly. We could not afford to do this & so we penned ours in a coop.
That doesn't mean you always have to pen them, just keep a close watch.