I was so glad to see this video, as it confirms exactly what I've found in raising up a herd of outdoor guinea pigs here in Louisiana. They need a dry spot with well insulated shelter in the winter, and deep shade and cool thermal mass in the summer. But we've also 'lost' some escapees over the years. A deer hunter on our property was in his raised deer stand, and said he saw a guinea pig come out of the brush. That was 2 years after that particular piggie had escaped, so I know they can survive the wild for a bit, with no human care or manmade shelter, year-round. Once, i bought some piggies from a local person, of mixed types. I found that the fancier hair varieties do not survive well outdoors, so a smooth coat type is important. Also, its likely that the indoor pet trade has made many of them physically unfit for outdoor living. However, from 2 males and 5 females, I've got quite a land race project going. Meaning, I put them out there, and the ones who are of sturdy enough constitution to survive the elements will go on to breed, while the weaker ones do not. I accepted higher losses at the beginning as the weaker ones de-selected themselves. Now, after almost 3 years of pastured piggies, it's very rare for me to lose one to weather conditions, given proper shelter for the season. Since I've pretty much got them selected for outdoor hardiness, now I've culled for body size for meat production. From about 60 piggies, I narrowed it to my 2 heaviest males, and 10 heaviest females. The extra males who didn't make the cut went out to wild pasture and did very well until predators got them. I think had the foxes and bobcats and coons not got them over time, they'd still be thriving with no care from me except their cinderblock house I built them. The extra females were dressed and went into the freezer. The reason for this sort of selection is that i don't want to ever release females into the wild. Because they do so well outdoors, i don't want them to establish and over populate locally and have the neighbors bothered by them. Predators do a good job of tending to them, but i still don't want to take that chance with females. Now that I've got them selected for hardiness and size, I'm dallying with predator resistance. Pet genetics have made them too slow and oblivious to danger. I'm allowing some pressure from hawks, so that the faster and more observant ones will be selected to continue on. My numbers are kind of low right now, only about 20, but those 20 seem to be too fast for the hawk. They schloop into their pipe tubes when they see the hawk coming and the hawk usually leaves frustrated. Years of pet breeding had done a number on their suitability as farm animals, but once I do maybe another year of land race selection, I ought to have a fine breed of piggie to sell or trade, and for their very best use as mowing and compost generation. You could use them as meat in a pinch, but they're really more valuable for mowing and compost. And it's just so darn cute to see a herd of them out happily munching on green lawn, eager to see you when you come with treats! Despite all this selection pressure away from pet genetics, my oldest male who has survived all the hurdles will come to take peppers or carrots from my hand. He's my favorite and his name is Chevy, because he's black with an orange chevron marking on his face. He's no good for breeding anymore because younger more dominant males always attack him and lame his back end. I built a special hospital shelter just for him, as he's had spinal damage and paralysis twice, and recovered both times. I just can't put him in with other males, so he's free roaming over the whole property, wherever he wants to go. He usually stays near my busy paths in the garden and close to the fence where the other piggies are. But he always comes to take a treat from me.
Thanks for the detailed comment! Very interesting to read your experience with them. We too have found that the long haired ones don't do well outdoors - they are a mess! Hair gets matted and wet. We're also selecting for heavier guinea pigs. You're right though - a good source of meat when you're in a pinch, but quite fiddly as there are lots of bones to pick through. We just LOVE having them - so cute and so good as mowing and pooping!
Really nice story, I totally enjoyed reading it. I had rabbits & they added a lot to my garden/compost in many ways, but I can see where guinea pigs would be better.
I’ve kept cuy (aka Guinea pigs) as small meat stock for about 10 years now in a colony system. They do much better than meat rabbits in my Texas climate. They take up little room, need minimal barriers as they don’t jump, climb, or dig. They do quite well on native forage, garden waste, and cover crops. Their manure is not “hot” and makes excellent fertilizer fresh or aged. Their litter sizes are reasonable and the young hit the ground able to begin eating solid food, eyes and ears open, fully furred and mobile. As a small meat stock, they are perfect single serving size and stack efficiently in the freezer when spatchcocked. They are delicious either with or without the skin and prepared in any number of ways, so butchering is a easy. Even when “free ranging” they return to the colony HQ and don’t wander very far from there. Highly recommend.
Wow, thanks for sharing. You've confirmed pretty much everything we have experienced and researched. I'm amazed at how many people raise guinea pigs on farm. How many do you have?
I’m in Abilene and used to be a top 10 show breeder of Guinea pigs and genetics is kinda my thing so selective breeding for meat would be easy enough. We have 5 acres and I’d love to know more about your setup. My biggest concern would be the heat of course. Please reach out to me, I’d love to know more.
@@parccarreg My core colony is around 20 animals. I arrived at this number over time, adjusting it to fit my needs and abilities. I'm getting older, so adding to my physical workload at this time of life is a no-go. I harvest an average of around 60-90 animals a year, depending on weather and my timing. This number is about right for our personal human and animal consumption over the year, with a little leeway to offer some for people who need the meat for their raw animal pet feeding. Fun fact: Many dogs and cats are allergic to some protein source or another, but very few are allergic to cuy.
Thank you, and I just subscribed. I have two wormeries in the garden and now the garden produces flowers and food. A couple of years ago, when digging the soil, noticed not 1 single worm, no ants, and the soil was not good. Since the wormeries, the garden is thriving. Best wishes to you and yours in all your endeavours
To heard your worms, slowly pull the black plastic sheets in the direction you want them to go. Keep a light on the trailing end of the sheet. The worms will go away from the light and go towards the dark.
I remember David Bellamy did a series back in the 70s showing them running round peoples homes / mud huts in Papua New Guinea, the lady of the house picked one up, bashed it on the head and put in on the fire. He said it was 'blooming delicious', We had much loved Pinky and Perky at the time and it cut a bit. Keeping the grass down is a great reason to house them. I believe grass was introduced for the 'perfect lawn' but mostly to aid a very profitable gardening industry, sales of mowers, weed killers etc and of course grass is not highly palatable. Prior, we had purslane and chamomile lawns both of which only grow to a few inches and are very beneficial to health.
I remember that too. It was interesting. I had a pet guinea pig as a pet at the and I didn't like how they did that to the poor thing. But now I know it was best as it was very quick.
I started with gunea pigs at school, and had a small business supplying the local pet shops. One day in th early 70's a man working locally but from Malawi approached me to supply gunea pigs for eating, as they are similar to the rock hyrax they were used to eating, as I was already breeding meat rabbits and broilr chickens, I was used to selling for slaughte, and had a profitable business for years, until conscription at 18. My cage design was two storied, with the bottom wired, (too many digging predators) and moved them on my parents large lawn three time per day, with a lucene patch for subsidised food in summer, and hay made for winter. The top story was solid, half enclosed for sleeping, with wood shavings for bedding through the whole top story - cleaned weekly, and spread directly onto my experimental no till veg garden. Used the same design except the nest area was insulated, and a wooden plank with a small entrance which was put in place for winter to reduce the door area for the nest box, for my children when we moved to Wiltshire UK. This same cage was sufficient wheb I later moved to Eyemouth Scottish borders, and no problems with cold an wet through winter - though I did add plenty of straw during the coldest months - gunea pigs are very adaptable, and just common sense hutches will work. I gave the cage and gunea pigs to a local child when we left (mine were grown and left home) and they were still thriving years later when we spoke to the family, What do you anticipate the future market being for the Welsh bred gunea pigs?
Very interesting thanks for sharing! I think guinea pigs are a great way to manage grassy paths and borders whilst improving soil health. I don't think there will ever be a market for their meat here in the UK - not unless there is serious food shortage. People generally want convinient and familiar food.
A chap in Northern Queensland (Australia) has been using guinea pigs in his permaculture garden/orchard for quite a few years. Guinea pigs have been eaten in Peru for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Guinea pigs in Peru are hardier and STILL they are kept indoors because of how susceptible they are to temperature changes, humidity and diseases. But people on here are ignoring that bit of wisdom and instead playing battle royale with animals made for the pet trade.
I've been raising guinea pigs similarly in Utah for about 4 years now. The willow here must be different as mine don't like it much. We have invasive Russian Olive and Chinese elm trees and they love those and strip the bark. They'll eat almost any garden waste. I'll also gather invasive Phragmites (common reed). So, those without much property have ways of gathering free fodder. Guinea pigs actually are very delicious. I also cull whole, freeze and feed to my dog. I've trained him to leave the live ones alone. I've sold a few to local Peruvian friends. I put a shovel or two of manure in a bucket of water, soak for a day and pour around my plants and trees for a manure tea. I use a lot of ground up paper and cardboard as bedding that gets mixed with the manure for extra carbon in the compost. I also put that directly around my fruit trees. It gets the worms working around the plants to improve our heavy clay soil and helps retain moisture with our dry, hot climate. I use upside down totes similar to your barrel halves to help them weather the cold and storms and to help provide shade.
I'm glad to hear that! After OP mentioned how much they love willow, I spent a few hours reading about willow trees and finding which ones will grow in my area. Then i had the bright idea to just go on a walk around my place with a tree ID book and see if i already have some willow, to gather a few test leaves for them. Sounds like you have a great system worked out for compost and compost/manure tea for the garden. I'll have to try that! It's so awesome to hear from others who also manage guinea pigs, learn what they do, and see how we've found similar solutions to problems. I wish my dog would have taken them as food, but he was old and set in his ways. My cat turned his nose up at fresh, warm liver. Cat is too spoiled!
@@UtahGmaw99, I'm a bit north of Ogden. So likely we do have similar weather. They do fine as long as they can stay dry and find a shady spot in the heat. It's best to remove all but one or two males as they will fight over the females.
We had seven that each got a cup of leafy greens daily with carrots and peppers thrown in. The sold pellets are supposed to be a minor part of the diet. I bought hay by 50-40 lbs of the third cut hay for them. Near the end I was growing leafy greens indoors for them and the bearded dragons.
Now you have reignited my guinea pig/cuy rancher dreams...still working on my wife and the little lasso roping skills for round up time. Will be following the duck progress and guinea pigs with great interest!
How can u put them in blueberry area without hawks etc getting them? We've got pheasant netting on the currant batch so we can put chicks in and protect berries from thrushes etc. but it's only 10 bushes not 700.
Guineapigs are grown and eaten as a cheap protein source in Portugal..ideal for single or elderly cpuple households,ofcourse in rural areas nearly everyone has a fruit and vegetable garden, complete closed system living.
Closed loop systems are my goal. I was thrilled to see the huge piles of compost with worms in it in this video. I use chickens for their eggs and for garden clearing seasonally, when I switch over to the other garden plot. If the zombie apocalypse (financial crash, true pandemic, or solar CME) happens, I want to not need inputs from shopping at the feed store every week. I plan to use sorghum and the worm bin to feed my chickens, and it looks like stepping up my guinea pig compost to a larger size like this gentleman has would be ideal. I've purchased many bags of soil to top up my garden beds as the organic matter decays, and just this year started a large compost area to make my own. Everything goes in it, old eggs, dead animals, grass clippings, kitchen scraps, and lots of guinea pig poo. I hope to soon be independent from the feed store. This video gives me encouragement that it's really possible to close that loop and need very few, if any, inputs on our place. I know my soil needs phosphate, but it's not hard to lay in a long term supply of that. Hopefully, as I get the phosphate in my soil, it will circulate in this closed loop system and not deplete much.
@markcassidy1428 from what I've seen here they usually use similar to chicken or rabbit, mostly one pot wonder stews,or breaded and fried, theres not a lot of meat,similar to that of a large quail but ofcourse cooking the whole carcass adds important protein and the bone broth type elements.
After I ate guinea pig in Ecuador, I was hooked. Its the perfect permaculture livestock. An herbivore that poops out ready to use compost and has 8 pups 3 times a yr in the tropics
I like your channel. You do not use other peoples videos to create revenue. You are an honest, hard working man who has vision. I wish you and your family years and years of prosperity and happiness. Great Video!!
Just occurred to me you could put 3-5 in a 4' x say 27" mobile and run them between 30-36" corn rows, which you could just rip a furrow in with a sub soiler and plant right in it. Fifty foot rows they could get down in a week could overseed right over a yard then come autumn could seed winter rye in between as it's drying then you could shred the stalk up for coop litter. The rye would do well also seeing it just got all that nitrogen.
I was thinking about a similar idea. We're looking at different cover crops and they could do the work and add to the soil when it's time to terminate and start planting. Plus keeping them in long narrow cages between rows throughout the season.
I have mine outside in Louisiana, similar climate and critters. We also have plenty of coons, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, and the occasional 'mountain lion'. Because of deer and coons, we had to move our garden and chickens right up against the house and put a 10 foot fence all around it. Makes about a 90ft x 80ft square, subdivided and cross fenced into alternating chicken-garden plot, a wedge along one side for guinea pigs, and about a 25x30 little front garden for raised beds. So, our piggies seem pretty safe inside the 10' fence. A hawk visits occasionally, but i figure he'll just improve genetics by picking off the slow ones. None have been gotten by quadrupeds.
We have those predators in Tennessee. My neighbors use a strong charge electric fencing along with wire fencing. Two strong wires are spaced with one about 6 to 8 inches off of the ground and the other at the top of the fence. So far it's kept critters out of his small livestock pens. He does have issues with leaves and branches on his netting top, but seasonal brushing and blowing helps keep them from weighing down and collapsing the net.
Thankyou very much ! I have been hoping to learn a bit more about Guinea pigs , that was very informative , I did enjoy the overview to show how they fit in your whole system !
In the Andes Guinea Pigs are the only form of protein besides llama. They are kept inside the native hut and the doors have to be stepped over a foot high barrier to prevent them from getting out. They are treated very well like pets until time to be used. A very practical use of a small fast multiplying rodent. They are very cute.
Cuy...a delicacy in South America...extremely high in protein and vitamins. You will have people that have a problem with it but is a staple in many countries. Congrats and best of luck!!!!
Guinea pigs are soooooo cute… their little whistles of excitement ❤️ I used to rotate my run around the backyard lawn…they fed the grass while eating jt.. was great
Recently in response to a prepper-oriented video about which livestock is best for preppers or off grid homesteads I mentioned guinea pigs & I think most folks thought I was nuts. They have much to recommend them though. They are one of the ONLY animals that can thrive on grass, weeds, & veggie scraps. No outside inputs needed. To my mind the other great thing about them is that slaughtering a few pigs for a meal wouldn't leave you with meat that you'd either have to find a means of preserving or be left to rot. There's literally no drawback to simply leaving them alive until you need the meat. Don't ask, I've never eaten guinea pig & I don't know any good recipes but it's meat so I'm sure I could figure it out. lol
Your choice is so well thought out and trialed. While I get GPs are ‘cute’ and furry there is no reason they should not be used as an alternative meat source. I hope it all goes well for you. 😊
We ate roasted guinea pig with a native family in the sacred valley of Peru. Tastes like pork to me but lots of tiny bones. The Peruvians keep them in the kitchen to keep the floor clean.
Great video! We have guinea pigs as well. They started as indoor.pets but we figured out quickly half our family members were highly allergic to the hay! We moved them outside against most internet advice. They are thriving. We do have a temporate climate with mild temps most of the year. They eat all the uncook scraps plus my kids keep a few patches of long grass just to harvest and feed them. Plus, guinea pigs are very kid friendly! You can pick them up and not worry about them biting or ramming into the kids. Plus they are small enough for the kids to happily do the guinea pig stuff. Our enclosure is only big enough for 2 right now but in the future I hope to expand and have a mini guinea pig rescue.
There’s a guy in the Netherlands (Bosgoed Animal Paradise) who free ranges his Guinea pig flock…lets them out in the morning and calls them back at night and they do a marvellous job of avoiding predators - a really interesting video :-)
That one video of his has done the most damage to guinea pig quality of life since the golden age of animal testing. They are not built for the outdoors; They simply outbreed their loses. A miserable way to keep them even if you intend to eat them. That Dutch loser is doing it in the name of 'rescue' and 'natural living'.
I thought you were insane when you said you were breeding Guinea pigs but now I get it! A genius solution. I'm not sure I could eat one however, no logical reason though.
I used to have pigs as pets. Had a rat problem and had my male roam free in home, after that the rats left,never had problems again.😊 They are great pets. Have you really amazing personalities!! Usually live for 6-8 years . I'm allowed pets where I live now,so I decided on getting more, however I got t a rescue dog!! It's a lot different than a piggie at least they do it get into garbage, and poo is way smaller.
Our piggies outdoors must be far too kind. You know how rodents are sometimes hard to see, because they're so gray and they move so fast? I suspected i had a rat or field mouse outside in my piggie pasture, living among my piggies and eating their food. I did my evening feeding, then quietly sat on the big feed box to wait and watch. Sure enough, a long tailed rat would dart out of the shelter, grab a pellet or a piece of bell pepper, and scurry with it back inside. The guinea pigs didn't even react, like they were long accustomed to their housemate. They seemed to be like "Bob, you don't need to run off with it, mate! Just eat it where you find it. Relax." Oddly, if the rat had the same sit still while you munch habits, it would have been far harder for me to pick him out among all the piggies, but his constant darting was quite distinct. A rat trap placed outside the pen worked fine to get him. Maybe your male guinea pig was facing off against a male rat, and he did his little rumble-strut dominance thing and scared the rat away. My males don't tend to be overly aggresssive.
Fantastic stuff. Do you know whether they eat willow dry, as tree hay? I love the idea of getting another yield from the biomass willow. UA-cam is so frustrating at times, I can't believe I've not had your channel suggested before now.
This is mind blowing 😳🥰🥰🥰 Even a big lot could do this,so much easier than chickens ‼️ Saving this and sharing it. Never heard of anything like this. THANKS AGAIN‼️‼️‼️‼️ MAY MY FATHER,GOD,BLESS YOU 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
@@parccarreg I also like that you live in Wales. Most homestead channels seems to be American - which is fine, but their climate tends to be very different compared to Europe. I can relate to it raining all summer.. Greetings from Norway.
Hi, in this video is the first time that I have seen "Farmed Blue berries" grown. I noticed that when you picked the berries that the tree/bush was very flexible, which gave me an idea on how to make the picking/harvesting easier. Have or make a fan, possibly 4' - 6' & weave the branches into the fan. Of cause you will see the advantages for the collection of the fruit. As for the fan depending on how much you are prepared to spend will decide the value of the fan. I suggested a fan as opposed to a line simply because of the distance between plants. As for the gunnie pigs I believe that in Peru that they keep/have the gunnie pig alive in the kitchen & should the want some more protein the dispatch the animal.
By the way ive been growing guinea pigs for 9 years now. Rabbits for 10. Chickens for 8. Ducks for 8. Geese for 4. Goats for 3. And this year we plan to get some cows. Just know southern nevada, USA is one of the worst places on the planet to try and create a homestead.
McCard031584 since I lived in Pahrump for over 20 years, you are correct. BUT depending on your time and cash the kids at 4H did well. Pahrump was first a cotton farming town, then lettuce and several folks have greenhouses to sell there produce to Vegas.
@@parccarreg its just part of being, well, part of cultures..... i studied anthropology but no amount of cultural relativity will let me eat dog, i think. however, i think the practicalities of guinea pigs *vastly* outway the stigma. i think they will get accepted into the diet over the next decade, maybe you are ahead of the curve!
1st time viewer.. & my kids had a couple of guinea pigs when they were young kids (they are now in their 30s).. It was incredible how much poop 2 could make... Too bad I didn't have a worm bin back then.. lol... Very interesting.. I'll have to check out the channel...
we started off feeding chicken pellet, but stopped a while ago. We primarily feed fresh grass, willow and wheat or barley grass. They don't need anything else
@@Troy-y5b i would love to get more chicken but unfortunately the government has just decided that we have to register them and I only do meat chickens by the time I’ve registered them. It will be time to put them in the freezer then I would have to register that I don’t have them anymore. A nightmare of paperwork I’m sick of government telling us what we can do, our freedom is slowly being taken away from us. 😡😢
So I had to a Peruvian guineapig with the long hair. He lived in our yard without a fence for a year and he mowed our yard lived under the mower. I moved it every day.He was so wonderful. We loved him very much. His name was Poncho. He was such a good boy!
Ours was called Gee Pee, i loved her so much.She was very old when she died naturally,never got another though.She liked to lick my nose when i lay by her.
I love this idea, but what do you do in the winter when there is no grass growing or the ground is covered in snow? Do you have to pay for Guinea Pig feed all winter? Anyone tried this in a climate like mine with long, cold winters?
So how do you het worms trasferred to a new batch of compost? And do you hand pick worms out of compost when you are ready to use it in garden.? I know you can leave some worms in there..but thats a lot of worms to be putting in garden soil. And then you need to somehow replenish worms in new compost pile.
I think i saw a video somewhere where someone in the northern states had piggies in their backyard that had gotten loose and were living under a shed. But it wasn't really clear if they had additional winter protection, or if they died during winter.
Yes and no. It depends on which types of trees or shrubs they have access to. We are still experimenting and learning. So far it looks like they would not be an issue for mature wood.
I have found they may like more tender stalks, but only of some species. I can chop down an entire banana tree and throw it to my piggies, and they'll have it mostly gone in a day or two, but that's quite a soft green fiber. They have woody stalked weeds in their pen now, and they won't touch the stems. Much like banana, I've found that they absolutely love tumeric plants, the little hogs. I thought my tumeric might be safe, but no. They sought and destroyed every shoot as it came up, after first mowing down all the mature plants. I usually keep a pen of males who aren't my best breeders, and if I'm testing any potential feed plant for toxicity, I'll toss it to them at first to see if guinea pigs even like it, or if its toxic to them. I've generally found that they just won't eat some things, maybe they're toxic or taste bad, while they'll seek and destroy others. Mine will eat brassica, but they don't love it. They adore banana plants (not the fruit), parsley, carrots, celery, sweet peppers, cucumber melon and squash, sorghum and corn plants, beets and sweet potatoes and sweet potato leaves and a bunch of other stuff I've forgotten. I thought since they need vitamin C, they would love lemons and oranges. Not so much. It's likely too strong for them. Likewise, I thought they'd love rose hips. Not really. Guinea pigs are too expensive here ($60USD each) to just experiment random potentially toxic feeds on them, but not once you've got dozens of 'free' piggies from a few years of breeding. Plus, I've never lost a piggie to anything toxic. They just won't eat it, it seems. The point of knowing a wide variety of what they can eat and cant is that in the winter, when feed is more scarce, having experimented with things gives you more available sources of food to gather for them from the environment. When it's dead brown winter and they need something green, rather than just hay and pellets, I can chop them a banana tree from the greenhouse and they are very happy. I built my greenhouse in order to grow sweet peppers and cucumber and banana and such for them through the winter. And tumeric. I suppose I'll give the little gluttons tumeric too, once my plants breed up again to sufficient numbers.
Are they normal sized or like the cuy ones bred for meat? They are supposed to be 3 times the size. I love piggies and had up to 7 mixed sex byt the males were neutered in a 42"x84" c and c cage. People freak of the idea of them being food but some places do not eat beef or pigs. It's so darn rare gor people to their personal pets and they don't realize they are just a food source for many.
I've seen those gigantic piggies too, but i think you run into some issues when keeping them. Like, they jump higher and are harder to handle, so they're not as easy to keep. I''d love to get a female one and add her larger genetics to my herd, maybe select for slightly larger body size, but not so big that they jump over the fence.
I like chickens. I've had them as pets, and livestock for meat and eggs. I could deal ith it. I tell people that I do eat meat I don't eat FAMILY. I already have one with that title.
Guinea pig tractor question ... where did you get the metal grid sides from? They look the perfect height for that sort of thing and would love to get some for similar projects!
I have a question. I have a real problem controlling sassafrs in my back yard. Neighbor has a large one in their backyard and i get hundreds of saplings a uear. Does anyone know if the piggies might enjoy muching on the saplings? Sassafras laughs at Roundup, mowing leaves oh so many little stumps, and i can't keep up with hand digging. My backyard does have a lovely rootbeer smell and absolutely no ticks, fleas, or mosquitoes, but also no room to enjoy it 😢 thank you and much love from Oklahoma, U.S.!
I raise mine in town,use the wheelie bins to do the breeding and free range them out the front at other times. I get $20 for a baby and $30 if they are fluffy. Currently I have about 7 females and 5 males. I will sell off the adults and keep the best babies before winter.
@@valkyrie1066 If you can keep the boys from the girls you can keep them in check. This is way harder than you would think,lmao Hence the side hussle of pet piggies. ATM it is spring and the boys are chasing the girls all over the lawn,babies in a month or so ready for Xmas. I got them when meat started to sky rocket and they are not bad eating,ATM I am not bothering,just breed a new generation each year and sell the adults to the pet store. I have a enclosure of about 2 mtrs by 1.5 mtrs for up too 15. (that is packed at 15,currently it is about 8 plus males)
I use to have guinea pigs to as well as rabbits as i use to show them and the poo from them both and shavings was very good for your ground to grow your grass or flowers
yes, they would nibble the blueberries - but we'd pen them away from them. GP's do fine in our winters which don't often get much below -5C. You need to give them shelter from wind and rain though
Thank you so much for your response! I’m a perennial farmer myself, working on integrating animals for the same reasons you are. I know how busy this work is, so I appreciate your sharing. I’m in upstate New York so it gets quite a lot colder than Wales! I’m currently working on getting geese and Muscovy ducks to do my mowing… looks promising so far. Do you have videos on your experience with using geese?
@@bingcheah ducks and geese are a great option for cold environments. I don't have a video about geese, but we have kept them in the past - really great addition to the farm being 100% grass fed. Perhaps we'll do more with them one day
once you've taken the guinapigs out, simply put the worms into that space, as I see it is a contained system. It's in a poly watering tub, right? It would be a perfect space for all your worm composting. The castings will grow the best crops ever. Worm castings, if there are enough of them are prized by every gardener, and quite valueable.
The first thing I thought was, they look like rats as they scamper around - I bet rats get in with them! Why has no one developed a guinea pig rat-b-gone product?
If its a plant, slugs will eat it. At least you dont seem to have Moon slugs like we gave in Halifax NS. 1 can defoliate an entire garden. Their tongue us also strong enough to draw blood(found the out the hard way when I picked one up, took it like 5 licks). I find with ducks you need to watch them to make sure they dont eat some leaves, so you cant just leave'em there. But running through every so iften may work.
we use a chicken tractor, on 16 square meters. there are approximately 40 female guinea pigs and one male guinea pig and they have young all summer and keep the grass completely down by moving every day.
wow, nice job. How do you move the coop? That's quite large. We found that the ground has to be very flat to avoid little exit points under the frame. Our pen design is quite good at flexing to the contour of the ground. Does yours have mesh on the bottom?
Tried watching this again and I have a suggestion I hope will boost the quality of your footage. Invest in a good Gimbal and research motion footage image stabilization. Meant with the best intentions as someone who gets migraines from shaky cam footage! ❤️
I read a report that a pet company in the US got the wrong “breed” of Guinea pigs from South America, they were larger, not very easy to domesticate, and were a meat breed. They did not make good pets. I’m wondering if you heard of this, and if they would be better for mowing and raising for meat. Your set up looks brilliant !
I was so glad to see this video, as it confirms exactly what I've found in raising up a herd of outdoor guinea pigs here in Louisiana. They need a dry spot with well insulated shelter in the winter, and deep shade and cool thermal mass in the summer. But we've also 'lost' some escapees over the years. A deer hunter on our property was in his raised deer stand, and said he saw a guinea pig come out of the brush. That was 2 years after that particular piggie had escaped, so I know they can survive the wild for a bit, with no human care or manmade shelter, year-round.
Once, i bought some piggies from a local person, of mixed types. I found that the fancier hair varieties do not survive well outdoors, so a smooth coat type is important. Also, its likely that the indoor pet trade has made many of them physically unfit for outdoor living. However, from 2 males and 5 females, I've got quite a land race project going. Meaning, I put them out there, and the ones who are of sturdy enough constitution to survive the elements will go on to breed, while the weaker ones do not. I accepted higher losses at the beginning as the weaker ones de-selected themselves. Now, after almost 3 years of pastured piggies, it's very rare for me to lose one to weather conditions, given proper shelter for the season.
Since I've pretty much got them selected for outdoor hardiness, now I've culled for body size for meat production. From about 60 piggies, I narrowed it to my 2 heaviest males, and 10 heaviest females. The extra males who didn't make the cut went out to wild pasture and did very well until predators got them. I think had the foxes and bobcats and coons not got them over time, they'd still be thriving with no care from me except their cinderblock house I built them. The extra females were dressed and went into the freezer. The reason for this sort of selection is that i don't want to ever release females into the wild. Because they do so well outdoors, i don't want them to establish and over populate locally and have the neighbors bothered by them. Predators do a good job of tending to them, but i still don't want to take that chance with females.
Now that I've got them selected for hardiness and size, I'm dallying with predator resistance. Pet genetics have made them too slow and oblivious to danger. I'm allowing some pressure from hawks, so that the faster and more observant ones will be selected to continue on. My numbers are kind of low right now, only about 20, but those 20 seem to be too fast for the hawk. They schloop into their pipe tubes when they see the hawk coming and the hawk usually leaves frustrated.
Years of pet breeding had done a number on their suitability as farm animals, but once I do maybe another year of land race selection, I ought to have a fine breed of piggie to sell or trade, and for their very best use as mowing and compost generation. You could use them as meat in a pinch, but they're really more valuable for mowing and compost. And it's just so darn cute to see a herd of them out happily munching on green lawn, eager to see you when you come with treats!
Despite all this selection pressure away from pet genetics, my oldest male who has survived all the hurdles will come to take peppers or carrots from my hand. He's my favorite and his name is Chevy, because he's black with an orange chevron marking on his face. He's no good for breeding anymore because younger more dominant males always attack him and lame his back end. I built a special hospital shelter just for him, as he's had spinal damage and paralysis twice, and recovered both times. I just can't put him in with other males, so he's free roaming over the whole property, wherever he wants to go. He usually stays near my busy paths in the garden and close to the fence where the other piggies are. But he always comes to take a treat from me.
Thanks for the detailed comment! Very interesting to read your experience with them. We too have found that the long haired ones don't do well outdoors - they are a mess! Hair gets matted and wet. We're also selecting for heavier guinea pigs. You're right though - a good source of meat when you're in a pinch, but quite fiddly as there are lots of bones to pick through. We just LOVE having them - so cute and so good as mowing and pooping!
Great reply mate! Andre
I agree on the smooth coat. Fancy hair just makes them less hardy to extreme temperatures or susceptible to mites.
Really nice story, I totally enjoyed reading it. I had rabbits & they added a lot to my garden/compost in many ways, but I can see where guinea pigs would be better.
Do they burrow like rabbits?
I’ve kept cuy (aka Guinea pigs) as small meat stock for about 10 years now in a colony system. They do much better than meat rabbits in my Texas climate. They take up little room, need minimal barriers as they don’t jump, climb, or dig. They do quite well on native forage, garden waste, and cover crops. Their manure is not “hot” and makes excellent fertilizer fresh or aged. Their litter sizes are reasonable and the young hit the ground able to begin eating solid food, eyes and ears open, fully furred and mobile. As a small meat stock, they are perfect single serving size and stack efficiently in the freezer when spatchcocked. They are delicious either with or without the skin and prepared in any number of ways, so butchering is a easy. Even when “free ranging” they return to the colony HQ and don’t wander very far from there. Highly recommend.
Wow, thanks for sharing. You've confirmed pretty much everything we have experienced and researched. I'm amazed at how many people raise guinea pigs on farm. How many do you have?
Did you film some videos or write blog posts about your operation?
I’m in Abilene and used to be a top 10 show breeder of Guinea pigs and genetics is kinda my thing so selective breeding for meat would be easy enough. We have 5 acres and I’d love to know more about your setup. My biggest concern would be the heat of course. Please reach out to me, I’d love to know more.
I have never heard of eating guinea pigs in my lifetime, what does it taste like. I live in Missouri USA
@@parccarreg My core colony is around 20 animals. I arrived at this number over time, adjusting it to fit my needs and abilities. I'm getting older, so adding to my physical workload at this time of life is a no-go. I harvest an average of around 60-90 animals a year, depending on weather and my timing. This number is about right for our personal human and animal consumption over the year, with a little leeway to offer some for people who need the meat for their raw animal pet feeding. Fun fact: Many dogs and cats are allergic to some protein source or another, but very few are allergic to cuy.
Thank you, and I just subscribed. I have two wormeries in the garden and now the garden produces flowers and food. A couple of years ago, when digging the soil, noticed not 1 single worm, no ants, and the soil was not good. Since the wormeries, the garden is thriving. Best wishes to you and yours in all your endeavours
great to hear! thanks for subscribing
To heard your worms, slowly pull the black plastic sheets in the direction you want them to go. Keep a light on the trailing end of the sheet. The worms will go away from the light and go towards the dark.
I remember David Bellamy did a series back in the 70s showing them running round peoples homes / mud huts in Papua New Guinea, the lady of the house picked one up, bashed it on the head and put in on the fire. He said it was 'blooming delicious', We had much loved Pinky and Perky at the time and it cut a bit. Keeping the grass down is a great reason to house them. I believe grass was introduced for the 'perfect lawn' but mostly to aid a very profitable gardening industry, sales of mowers, weed killers etc and of course grass is not highly palatable. Prior, we had purslane and chamomile lawns both of which only grow to a few inches and are very beneficial to health.
I remember that too. It was interesting. I had a pet guinea pig as a pet at the and I didn't like how they did that to the poor thing. But now I know it was best as it was very quick.
@@UtahGmaw99 Very true, he opened up a new world for me. Shame he was censored for his views on climate change.
@@graceydavis429 Yes things are very different now. I never would have thought it would turn out this way.
I started with gunea pigs at school, and had a small business supplying the local pet shops. One day in th early 70's a man working locally but from Malawi approached me to supply gunea pigs for eating, as they are similar to the rock hyrax they were used to eating, as I was already breeding meat rabbits and broilr chickens, I was used to selling for slaughte, and had a profitable business for years, until conscription at 18. My cage design was two storied, with the bottom wired, (too many digging predators) and moved them on my parents large lawn three time per day, with a lucene patch for subsidised food in summer, and hay made for winter. The top story was solid, half enclosed for sleeping, with wood shavings for bedding through the whole top story - cleaned weekly, and spread directly onto my experimental no till veg garden. Used the same design except the nest area was insulated, and a wooden plank with a small entrance which was put in place for winter to reduce the door area for the nest box, for my children when we moved to Wiltshire UK. This same cage was sufficient wheb I later moved to Eyemouth Scottish borders, and no problems with cold an wet through winter - though I did add plenty of straw during the coldest months - gunea pigs are very adaptable, and just common sense hutches will work. I gave the cage and gunea pigs to a local child when we left (mine were grown and left home) and they were still thriving years later when we spoke to the family, What do you anticipate the future market being for the Welsh bred gunea pigs?
Very interesting thanks for sharing! I think guinea pigs are a great way to manage grassy paths and borders whilst improving soil health. I don't think there will ever be a market for their meat here in the UK - not unless there is serious food shortage. People generally want convinient and familiar food.
A chap in Northern Queensland (Australia) has been using guinea pigs in his permaculture garden/orchard for quite a few years. Guinea pigs have been eaten in Peru for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Guinea pigs in Peru are hardier and STILL they are kept indoors because of how susceptible they are to temperature changes, humidity and diseases. But people on here are ignoring that bit of wisdom and instead playing battle royale with animals made for the pet trade.
I've been raising guinea pigs similarly in Utah for about 4 years now. The willow here must be different as mine don't like it much. We have invasive Russian Olive and Chinese elm trees and they love those and strip the bark. They'll eat almost any garden waste. I'll also gather invasive Phragmites (common reed). So, those without much property have ways of gathering free fodder. Guinea pigs actually are very delicious. I also cull whole, freeze and feed to my dog. I've trained him to leave the live ones alone. I've sold a few to local Peruvian friends. I put a shovel or two of manure in a bucket of water, soak for a day and pour around my plants and trees for a manure tea. I use a lot of ground up paper and cardboard as bedding that gets mixed with the manure for extra carbon in the compost. I also put that directly around my fruit trees. It gets the worms working around the plants to improve our heavy clay soil and helps retain moisture with our dry, hot climate. I use upside down totes similar to your barrel halves to help them weather the cold and storms and to help provide shade.
very interesting thanks for sharing!
I'm in northern Utah. I was wondering if we have a similar climate as opposed to southern Utah.
I'm glad to hear that! After OP mentioned how much they love willow, I spent a few hours reading about willow trees and finding which ones will grow in my area. Then i had the bright idea to just go on a walk around my place with a tree ID book and see if i already have some willow, to gather a few test leaves for them.
Sounds like you have a great system worked out for compost and compost/manure tea for the garden. I'll have to try that!
It's so awesome to hear from others who also manage guinea pigs, learn what they do, and see how we've found similar solutions to problems. I wish my dog would have taken them as food, but he was old and set in his ways. My cat turned his nose up at fresh, warm liver. Cat is too spoiled!
@@UtahGmaw99, I'm a bit north of Ogden. So likely we do have similar weather. They do fine as long as they can stay dry and find a shady spot in the heat. It's best to remove all but one or two males as they will fight over the females.
@@predatorgetterdo they fight if there are no females?
Goodness! 15 guineapigs can munch that much in a day?! That’s just incredible!!!!
I know right!
@@parccarreg you are raising them for meat though right ?
How is the fat balance?
21:59
Oh wait, you're not raising them for meat....
We had seven that each got a cup of leafy greens daily with carrots and peppers thrown in. The sold pellets are supposed to be a minor part of the diet. I bought hay by 50-40 lbs of the third cut hay for them. Near the end I was growing leafy greens indoors for them and the bearded dragons.
Now you have reignited my guinea pig/cuy rancher dreams...still working on my wife and the little lasso roping skills for round up time.
Will be following the duck progress and guinea pigs with great interest!
Haha, that's what we need - a little lasso! Glad I've reignighted your interests :)
@@parccarreg do they eat rushes?
@@alxp-zd1zj oh I don't actually know. Good one to test!
@@parccarreg nope. tried. not eating em.
How can u put them in blueberry area without hawks etc getting them? We've got pheasant netting on the currant batch so we can put chicks in and protect berries from thrushes etc. but it's only 10 bushes not 700.
Guineapigs are grown and eaten as a cheap protein source in Portugal..ideal for single or elderly cpuple households,ofcourse in rural areas nearly everyone has a fruit and vegetable garden, complete closed system living.
Closed loop systems are my goal. I was thrilled to see the huge piles of compost with worms in it in this video. I use chickens for their eggs and for garden clearing seasonally, when I switch over to the other garden plot. If the zombie apocalypse (financial crash, true pandemic, or solar CME) happens, I want to not need inputs from shopping at the feed store every week. I plan to use sorghum and the worm bin to feed my chickens, and it looks like stepping up my guinea pig compost to a larger size like this gentleman has would be ideal.
I've purchased many bags of soil to top up my garden beds as the organic matter decays, and just this year started a large compost area to make my own. Everything goes in it, old eggs, dead animals, grass clippings, kitchen scraps, and lots of guinea pig poo.
I hope to soon be independent from the feed store. This video gives me encouragement that it's really possible to close that loop and need very few, if any, inputs on our place. I know my soil needs phosphate, but it's not hard to lay in a long term supply of that. Hopefully, as I get the phosphate in my soil, it will circulate in this closed loop system and not deplete much.
Got any good recipes
@markcassidy1428 from what I've seen here they usually use similar to chicken or rabbit, mostly one pot wonder stews,or breaded and fried, theres not a lot of meat,similar to that of a large quail but ofcourse cooking the whole carcass adds important protein and the bone broth type elements.
What would you say the taste is comparable to?
@@PuppyNutter3 quail or rabbit
After I ate guinea pig in Ecuador, I was hooked. Its the perfect permaculture livestock. An herbivore that poops out ready to use compost and has 8 pups 3 times a yr in the tropics
I like your channel. You do not use other peoples videos to create revenue. You are an honest, hard working man who has vision. I wish you and your family years and years of prosperity and happiness. Great Video!!
Just occurred to me you could put 3-5 in a 4' x say 27" mobile and run them between 30-36" corn rows, which you could just rip a furrow in with a sub soiler and plant right in it. Fifty foot rows they could get down in a week could overseed right over a yard then come autumn could seed winter rye in between as it's drying then you could shred the stalk up for coop litter. The rye would do well also seeing it just got all that nitrogen.
Interesting idea! Out pens are 8ft x 8ft. We will be experimenting with different sizes...
I was thinking about a similar idea. We're looking at different cover crops and they could do the work and add to the soil when it's time to terminate and start planting. Plus keeping them in long narrow cages between rows throughout the season.
@@RoosterGal Yes I love that idea. They could feasibly be kept in cages right next to a veg crop
Wow, I’ve never heard of this. Good luck and Thank you ! 🙏🏻💪🙌
I wish I could have outside pens like you, but I'm in Florida United States. I have large predators like panthers, Bob cats, coyotes, and bears.
I have mine outside in Louisiana, similar climate and critters. We also have plenty of coons, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, and the occasional 'mountain lion'. Because of deer and coons, we had to move our garden and chickens right up against the house and put a 10 foot fence all around it. Makes about a 90ft x 80ft square, subdivided and cross fenced into alternating chicken-garden plot, a wedge along one side for guinea pigs, and about a 25x30 little front garden for raised beds. So, our piggies seem pretty safe inside the 10' fence. A hawk visits occasionally, but i figure he'll just improve genetics by picking off the slow ones. None have been gotten by quadrupeds.
We have electric fencing around the perimeter. So there paddocks are safe from ground predators
We have those predators in Tennessee. My neighbors use a strong charge electric fencing along with wire fencing. Two strong wires are spaced with one about 6 to 8 inches off of the ground and the other at the top of the fence. So far it's kept critters out of his small livestock pens.
He does have issues with leaves and branches on his netting top, but seasonal brushing and blowing helps keep them from weighing down and collapsing the net.
Pythons, don't forget pythons lol
And alligators. And snakes.
Thankyou very much ! I have been hoping to learn a bit more about Guinea pigs , that was very informative , I did enjoy the overview to show how they fit in your whole system !
Very interesting video. Thank you for sharing your farm with us, I learned quite a bit from watching
In the Andes Guinea Pigs are the only form of protein besides llama. They are kept inside the native hut and the doors have to be stepped over a foot high barrier to prevent them from getting out. They are treated very well like pets until time to be used. A very practical use of a small fast multiplying rodent. They are very cute.
Cuy...a delicacy in South America...extremely high in protein and vitamins. You will have people that have a problem with it but is a staple in many countries. Congrats and best of luck!!!!
Guinea pigs are soooooo cute… their little whistles of excitement ❤️
I used to rotate my run around the backyard lawn…they fed the grass while eating jt.. was great
Recently in response to a prepper-oriented video about which livestock is best for preppers or off grid homesteads I mentioned guinea pigs & I think most folks thought I was nuts. They have much to recommend them though. They are one of the ONLY animals that can thrive on grass, weeds, & veggie scraps. No outside inputs needed. To my mind the other great thing about them is that slaughtering a few pigs for a meal wouldn't leave you with meat that you'd either have to find a means of preserving or be left to rot. There's literally no drawback to simply leaving them alive until you need the meat. Don't ask, I've never eaten guinea pig & I don't know any good recipes but it's meat so I'm sure I could figure it out. lol
Exactly. If you don't have cold storage they are uniquely suitable!
Your choice is so well thought out and trialed. While I get GPs are ‘cute’ and furry there is no reason they should not be used as an alternative meat source. I hope it all goes well for you. 😊
What a creative solution! I will seriously take a look at this for my blueberries
We ate roasted guinea pig with a native family in the sacred valley of Peru. Tastes like pork to me but lots of tiny bones. The Peruvians keep them in the kitchen to keep the floor clean.
I love it. I have seen the documentaries, it look like such a good fit for available forage and space. Perfect serving size as well.
Great video! We have guinea pigs as well. They started as indoor.pets but we figured out quickly half our family members were highly allergic to the hay! We moved them outside against most internet advice. They are thriving. We do have a temporate climate with mild temps most of the year. They eat all the uncook scraps plus my kids keep a few patches of long grass just to harvest and feed them. Plus, guinea pigs are very kid friendly! You can pick them up and not worry about them biting or ramming into the kids. Plus they are small enough for the kids to happily do the guinea pig stuff. Our enclosure is only big enough for 2 right now but in the future I hope to expand and have a mini guinea pig rescue.
great video. love the idea. great comments as well!
There’s a guy in the Netherlands (Bosgoed Animal Paradise) who free ranges his Guinea pig flock…lets them out in the morning and calls them back at night and they do a marvellous job of avoiding predators - a really interesting video :-)
Yes we were inspired by that video. In our case we've decided to keep them in runs in order to maintain control and stop them eating crops
That one video of his has done the most damage to guinea pig quality of life since the golden age of animal testing. They are not built for the outdoors; They simply outbreed their loses. A miserable way to keep them even if you intend to eat them. That Dutch loser is doing it in the name of 'rescue' and 'natural living'.
@@parccarreg Read the comments on that guy's videos.
So glad this is working and that you aren’t eating them.
Why not eat them,they are very tasty, and healthy meat....see how Peruvians do them.
@@firstnamelastname-uq9hr Because there is no need to..
Greetings from the USA, you won me over as a subscriber. This has been the talk in my networking today.
Thanks for subscribing!
I thought you were insane when you said you were breeding Guinea pigs but now I get it! A genius solution. I'm not sure I could eat one however, no logical reason though.
So loving this idea!!! Much love from my farm in Missouri USA 🇺🇸 ❤🫶👩🌾
I used to have pigs as pets. Had a rat problem and had my male roam free in home, after that the rats left,never had problems again.😊 They are great pets. Have you really amazing personalities!! Usually live for 6-8 years . I'm allowed pets where I live now,so I decided on getting more, however I got t a rescue dog!! It's a lot different than a piggie at least they do it get into garbage, and poo is way smaller.
Our piggies outdoors must be far too kind. You know how rodents are sometimes hard to see, because they're so gray and they move so fast? I suspected i had a rat or field mouse outside in my piggie pasture, living among my piggies and eating their food. I did my evening feeding, then quietly sat on the big feed box to wait and watch. Sure enough, a long tailed rat would dart out of the shelter, grab a pellet or a piece of bell pepper, and scurry with it back inside. The guinea pigs didn't even react, like they were long accustomed to their housemate. They seemed to be like "Bob, you don't need to run off with it, mate! Just eat it where you find it. Relax." Oddly, if the rat had the same sit still while you munch habits, it would have been far harder for me to pick him out among all the piggies, but his constant darting was quite distinct. A rat trap placed outside the pen worked fine to get him.
Maybe your male guinea pig was facing off against a male rat, and he did his little rumble-strut dominance thing and scared the rat away. My males don't tend to be overly aggresssive.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful information, Great ideas!
Thank you for such an informative upload Blessings to you and your family and your farm!😎✌🐧
Are your worms ordinary garden worms or leaf-litter composting worms?
Its great to see circular farming in action.
Fantastic stuff. Do you know whether they eat willow dry, as tree hay? I love the idea of getting another yield from the biomass willow. UA-cam is so frustrating at times, I can't believe I've not had your channel suggested before now.
Yes I believe they would eat dried willow leaves but they always prefer fresh. We do need some hay in the winter though
I love how the algorithm throws me a new channel - subscribed!
Glad you found us!
Thank You. I admire your work.
thanks!
This is mind blowing 😳🥰🥰🥰
Even a big lot could do this,so much easier than chickens ‼️
Saving this and sharing it.
Never heard of anything like this.
THANKS AGAIN‼️‼️‼️‼️
MAY MY FATHER,GOD,BLESS YOU 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
🙏
Awesome! Love your guinea pig set up. Guinea pigs is an under-utilised recourse.
GPs are so under-rated!
@@parccarreg I also like that you live in Wales. Most homestead channels seems to be American - which is fine, but their climate tends to be very different compared to Europe. I can relate to it raining all summer.. Greetings from Norway.
@@HelenEk7 Nice to meet you!
Hi, in this video is the first time that I have seen "Farmed Blue berries" grown. I noticed that when you picked the berries that the tree/bush was very flexible, which gave me an idea on how to make the picking/harvesting easier. Have or make a fan, possibly 4' - 6' & weave the branches into the fan. Of cause you will see the advantages for the collection of the fruit. As for the fan depending on how much you are prepared to spend will decide the value of the fan. I suggested a fan as opposed to a line simply because of the distance between plants.
As for the gunnie pigs I believe that in Peru that they keep/have the gunnie pig alive in the kitchen & should the want some more protein the dispatch the animal.
By the way ive been growing guinea pigs for 9 years now. Rabbits for 10. Chickens for 8. Ducks for 8. Geese for 4. Goats for 3. And this year we plan to get some cows. Just know southern nevada, USA is one of the worst places on the planet to try and create a homestead.
interesting! thanks for sharing
My childhood dream; you've almost reached it! LOL I just cling to a pet chicken. Great to hear it. Except for location, that is.
Worst place?
Due to Marxist government regulations?
Weather?
/
McCard031584 since I lived in Pahrump for over 20 years, you are correct. BUT depending on your time and cash the kids at 4H did well. Pahrump was first a cotton farming town, then lettuce and several folks have greenhouses to sell there produce to Vegas.
Thank you, for making this video.
I’m getting guinea pigs for my regenerative garden. I won’t be eating them but I’ll be using them to clear grassy areas!
great!
I clicked on in the middle and thought I heard you say "our blueberry rose". I was so intrigued!
Hello from California, USA.
I just found your channel and subscribed. I'm looking forward to future videos!
Thanks stay tuned!
Interesting livestock. How much meat does one get? What's the best way to cook them?
No idea yet!
Not sure why you were shy to share - Guineapigs have been used effectively for grazing in UK for decades using movable covers
As pets sure. In a farming context I don't see many examples, especially at scale
I’d never heard of it. I’ve only known Guinea pigs as pets.
the brits are a bit sensitive with which animals can be eaten and which not
@@toddberkely6791 Indeed, it's strange how culture makes such a big difference.
@@parccarreg its just part of being, well, part of cultures..... i studied anthropology but no amount of cultural relativity will let me eat dog, i think.
however, i think the practicalities of guinea pigs *vastly* outway the stigma. i think they will get accepted into the diet over the next decade, maybe you are ahead of the curve!
1st time viewer.. & my kids had a couple of guinea pigs when they were young kids (they are now in their 30s)..
It was incredible how much poop 2 could make...
Too bad I didn't have a worm bin back then.. lol...
Very interesting..
I'll have to check out the channel...
Inside the bark of willow IS natural asprin. Weeping is the elite version but the rest do the trick just as well.
Do you feed any pellets at all or is their diet entirely forage based? Back when I raised guinea pigs for show we also had to supplement vitamin c.
we started off feeding chicken pellet, but stopped a while ago. We primarily feed fresh grass, willow and wheat or barley grass. They don't need anything else
Yep, we’ve had an awful lot of rain this year and slugs are a problem real problem this year it’s hoping you sorted😢
Get some chickens
@@Troy-y5b i would love to get more chicken but unfortunately the government has just decided that we have to register them and I only do meat chickens by the time I’ve registered them. It will be time to put them in the freezer then I would have to register that I don’t have them anymore. A nightmare of paperwork I’m sick of government telling us what we can do, our freedom is slowly being taken away from us. 😡😢
Great ideas here, subscribed.
Love and greetings from Germany.
Thanks great to meet you!
Fantastic video!
So I had to a Peruvian guineapig with the long hair. He lived in our yard without a fence for a year and he mowed our yard lived under the mower. I moved it every day.He was so wonderful. We loved him very much. His name was Poncho. He was such a good boy!
Ours was called Gee Pee, i loved her so much.She was very old when she died naturally,never got another though.She liked to lick my nose when i lay by her.
Cuy actually being used properly, nice.
I love this idea, but what do you do in the winter when there is no grass growing or the ground is covered in snow? Do you have to pay for Guinea Pig feed all winter? Anyone tried this in a climate like mine with long, cold winters?
So how do you het worms trasferred to a new batch of compost? And do you hand pick worms out of compost when you are ready to use it in garden.? I know you can leave some worms in there..but thats a lot of worms to be putting in garden soil. And then you need to somehow replenish worms in new compost pile.
Do Guinea pigs need fresh grass all year round? Or could dried oat stalks be fed them? In michigan so Id have to keep them in doors in winter.
in winter you could feed them hay, food scraps, and other leaves / grain or straw based forrage
I think i saw a video somewhere where someone in the northern states had piggies in their backyard that had gotten loose and were living under a shed. But it wasn't really clear if they had additional winter protection, or if they died during winter.
Do they only eat the grass, or would they strip bark on small trees? Just wondering if they could be effective weed control for young tree crops.
Yes and no. It depends on which types of trees or shrubs they have access to. We are still experimenting and learning. So far it looks like they would not be an issue for mature wood.
I have found they may like more tender stalks, but only of some species. I can chop down an entire banana tree and throw it to my piggies, and they'll have it mostly gone in a day or two, but that's quite a soft green fiber. They have woody stalked weeds in their pen now, and they won't touch the stems. Much like banana, I've found that they absolutely love tumeric plants, the little hogs. I thought my tumeric might be safe, but no. They sought and destroyed every shoot as it came up, after first mowing down all the mature plants. I usually keep a pen of males who aren't my best breeders, and if I'm testing any potential feed plant for toxicity, I'll toss it to them at first to see if guinea pigs even like it, or if its toxic to them. I've generally found that they just won't eat some things, maybe they're toxic or taste bad, while they'll seek and destroy others.
Mine will eat brassica, but they don't love it. They adore banana plants (not the fruit), parsley, carrots, celery, sweet peppers, cucumber melon and squash, sorghum and corn plants, beets and sweet potatoes and sweet potato leaves and a bunch of other stuff I've forgotten. I thought since they need vitamin C, they would love lemons and oranges. Not so much. It's likely too strong for them. Likewise, I thought they'd love rose hips. Not really.
Guinea pigs are too expensive here ($60USD each) to just experiment random potentially toxic feeds on them, but not once you've got dozens of 'free' piggies from a few years of breeding. Plus, I've never lost a piggie to anything toxic. They just won't eat it, it seems.
The point of knowing a wide variety of what they can eat and cant is that in the winter, when feed is more scarce, having experimented with things gives you more available sources of food to gather for them from the environment. When it's dead brown winter and they need something green, rather than just hay and pellets, I can chop them a banana tree from the greenhouse and they are very happy. I built my greenhouse in order to grow sweet peppers and cucumber and banana and such for them through the winter. And tumeric. I suppose I'll give the little gluttons tumeric too, once my plants breed up again to sufficient numbers.
@@oneperson5760 Very interesting thanks for sharing! Yes we've also found - to our surprise - some things that we think they will eat they just don't.
I had some in Peru. Was very good
Are they normal sized or like the cuy ones bred for meat? They are supposed to be 3 times the size. I love piggies and had up to 7 mixed sex byt the males were neutered in a 42"x84" c and c cage. People freak of the idea of them being food but some places do not eat beef or pigs.
It's so darn rare gor people to their personal pets and they don't realize they are just a food source for many.
I've seen those gigantic piggies too, but i think you run into some issues when keeping them. Like, they jump higher and are harder to handle, so they're not as easy to keep. I''d love to get a female one and add her larger genetics to my herd, maybe select for slightly larger body size, but not so big that they jump over the fence.
I like chickens. I've had them as pets, and livestock for meat and eggs. I could deal ith it. I tell people that I do eat meat I don't eat FAMILY. I already have one with that title.
Guinea pig tractor question ... where did you get the metal grid sides from? They look the perfect height for that sort of thing and would love to get some for similar projects!
They are weld mesh panels which come if 8 x 4 foot. We cut them in half to be 8 x 3 ft
@@parccarreg brilliant! Don't know why I haven't thought of that. Thanks.
I have a question. I have a real problem controlling sassafrs in my back yard. Neighbor has a large one in their backyard and i get hundreds of saplings a uear. Does anyone know if the piggies might enjoy muching on the saplings? Sassafras laughs at Roundup, mowing leaves oh so many little stumps, and i can't keep up with hand digging. My backyard does have a lovely rootbeer smell and absolutely no ticks, fleas, or mosquitoes, but also no room to enjoy it 😢 thank you and much love from Oklahoma, U.S.!
I raise mine in town,use the wheelie bins to do the breeding and free range them out the front at other times. I get $20 for a baby and $30 if they are fluffy.
Currently I have about 7 females and 5 males. I will sell off the adults and keep the best babies before winter.
we have a few chickens; my daughter has been asking abut rabbits; I'll counter with cuy. we are short on space.
@@valkyrie1066 If you can keep the boys from the girls you can keep them in check.
This is way harder than you would think,lmao
Hence the side hussle of pet piggies.
ATM it is spring and the boys are chasing the girls all over the lawn,babies in a month or so ready for Xmas.
I got them when meat started to sky rocket and they are not bad eating,ATM I am not bothering,just breed a new generation each year and sell the adults to the pet store.
I have a enclosure of about 2 mtrs by 1.5 mtrs for up too 15. (that is packed at 15,currently it is about 8 plus males)
QUITE interesting.... thanks!
I use to have guinea pigs to as well as rabbits as i use to show them and the poo from them both and shavings was very good for your ground to grow your grass or flowers
Very interesting thanks for the information.
Two questions:
1.Would the guineas nibble on the blueberry bushes?
2. How do the guineas do in the Winter? How do you keep them warm enough?
yes, they would nibble the blueberries - but we'd pen them away from them. GP's do fine in our winters which don't often get much below -5C. You need to give them shelter from wind and rain though
Thank you so much for your response! I’m a perennial farmer myself, working on integrating animals for the same reasons you are. I know how busy this work is, so I appreciate your sharing.
I’m in upstate New York so it gets quite a lot colder than Wales!
I’m currently working on getting geese and Muscovy ducks to do my mowing… looks promising so far. Do you have videos on your experience with using geese?
@@bingcheah ducks and geese are a great option for cold environments. I don't have a video about geese, but we have kept them in the past - really great addition to the farm being 100% grass fed. Perhaps we'll do more with them one day
Thanks for explaining why you didn't try to raise rabbits. I forgot that rabbits have that disease.
Do you buy and regenerate the worms?
We don't purchase any worms - in fact we sell the excess!
once you've taken the guinapigs out, simply put the worms into that space, as I see it is a contained system. It's in a poly watering tub, right? It would be a perfect space for all your worm composting. The castings will grow the best crops ever. Worm castings, if there are enough of them are prized by every gardener, and quite valueable.
They are a common livestock in Peru. I ate them at the fanciest restaurant in Arequipa.
We had Guinea pigs for rat control. Rats cannot tolerate the shrill of the guinea pigs. That was my experience with them.
Incredible
Now that's interesting
The first thing I thought was, they look like rats as they scamper around - I bet rats get in with them! Why has no one developed a guinea pig rat-b-gone product?
Good to know!
Wow, fascinating I just may try this..
If its a plant, slugs will eat it. At least you dont seem to have Moon slugs like we gave in Halifax NS. 1 can defoliate an entire garden. Their tongue us also strong enough to draw blood(found the out the hard way when I picked one up, took it like 5 licks).
I find with ducks you need to watch them to make sure they dont eat some leaves, so you cant just leave'em there. But running through every so iften may work.
That is absolutely terrifying. A slug that can draw blood?!? I can't handle that
I am in Western Australia and have been thinking of breeding guineas for meat ( what do they taste like)is there more information breed etc.
Great idea
My son in law is from Ecuador, they use them for meat, also, but they are not a weekly thing. They can be quite pricey!
What size is the shed?
What was the tiny egg in the duck compost?
How do you control aerial predators with the guinea pigs you allow to roam?
Common table fare in Ecuador also!
Question: how will you overwinter / feed the guineas
Guinea pigs are eaten in lots of countries in South America as well as Portugal to name a few.
You can put a salt barrier around your blueberries that slugs won’t cross
What about winter? Where do you keep them, what do you feed them?
we use a chicken tractor, on 16 square meters. there are approximately 40 female guinea pigs and one male guinea pig and they have young all summer and keep the grass completely down by moving every day.
wow, nice job. How do you move the coop? That's quite large. We found that the ground has to be very flat to avoid little exit points under the frame. Our pen design is quite good at flexing to the contour of the ground. Does yours have mesh on the bottom?
There we go; my experience has been in chickens but I wondered if a guinea pig tractor wouldn't work well. NICE!
Tried watching this again and I have a suggestion I hope will boost the quality of your footage. Invest in a good Gimbal and research motion footage image stabilization. Meant with the best intentions as someone who gets migraines from shaky cam footage! ❤️
What's the coldest they can do well in? I assume up north they would need supplemental heat over winter? What about winter feeding?
Not sure what the coldest is, but they come from Peru where it getting quite cold I believe
Very interesting.
I read a report that a pet company in the US got the wrong “breed” of Guinea pigs from South America, they were larger, not very easy to domesticate, and were a meat breed. They did not make good pets. I’m wondering if you heard of this, and if they would be better for mowing and raising for meat. Your set up looks brilliant !
Yes! The meat breeds or Cuy are much larger and quite feral. We would love to get some but cannot find any in the UK
was great watching your video. may get some guinea pigs. good luck wuith the experiment.
In Peru and many other countries they are raised for meat and leather
My uncle had a g pig tractor on wheels - to mow his lawn - excellent
Gpigs seem like a great livestock… but can you milk them?
Stay tuned! 😅
😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 like in the movie Meet The Fockers, Ben Stiller milking a cat lol
@@ShalomShalom-d5c 🤣🤣🤣
How do they keep their teeth ground down? I can only see the wood boxes.
I would have thought the giant Welsh/Flemish rabbets would have been a better choice but it's your money and your work. Best wishes and God bless.
I discussed why I'm not interested in rabbits here: ua-cam.com/video/WC5GY923q14/v-deo.htmlsi=fAS-LAfR9lqfyzdw&t=989
Short answer: Rabbit disease is bad. Guinea pigs arent susceptible.
how cold or heat tolerant are guinea pigs? how big are the litters and how often do they breed? interesting concept. enjoyed video.
Interesting thanks