if you have Guineas that sleep in the trees?

[maltesegirl1980]

Hi I like to get some Guineas but I want them to sleep in the trees . How do u train them to stay on the property and what age should I get them for this .. thanks

 

[R2elk]

Hi I like to get some Guineas but I want them to sleep in the trees . How do u train them to stay on the property and what age should I get them for this .. thanks

Depending on where you live, having guineas spend the night outside of a protected coop can be a death sentence. They are very vulnerable to predators at night. Hens in particular can be extremely vulnerable. When it comes to laying and brooding season the guinea hens make their nests on the ground and become very susceptible to an even larger group of predators.

I lost my whole first flock of guineas to owls before I realized what was going on. I put my current flock of guineas in their coop at night and have not lost a single guinea to predators by using this method.

The best way to get guineas to learn where home is, is to start with keets.

 

[Potrack]

Most guineas available are day old keets and this is good because, being creatures of habit, you want them to develop the
habit of your homeplace being their homeplace. In my experience free range guineas generally stick pretty close to wherever they
spend their childhood and maybe range over 5 or 6 acres. As for my guineas, roosting in the trees was a natural development. Must be instinctive. They roost in a tree in my chicken pen 99% of the time and are safer that way. I have owned around 25-30 guineas at the time for many years.

 

[ludwing]

They are lovely to watch around, but easly to become a supper on predators indoors.

 

[jak2002003]

I am lucky where I live as don't have any problems with owls or hawks at all... I think local people have shot them all a long time ago.

Lots of ground predators like pythons and mongoose, but my guinea fowl sleep very high in huge trees so they can't be captured.

But I did have a problem with street dogs killing my first flock. The crafty dogs would hide under the bushes and wait until the morning when the guinea fowl first flew down to the ground.... then rush out and grab them just at they hit the ground.

Now I got my property dog proof... and my current flock is safe.

If you have no predator problems, and the weather where you are does not get too cold in winter, then its easier to have them sleep in trees. You have no coop to clean out, you don't have to round up strays and herd them to the coop at night, etc.

The young birds should be put outside after they get their feathers and can fly (about 6 weeks). Keep them in a small coop / chicken tractor / pen, under the trees where you want them to roost.

Keep them in there for a few weeks. After that let them out to explore. At night they should come back to the pen and you can lock them in. When you feel they have 'homed' to your property and are not wandering off you can then lock up the pen and when they come back in the evening they will then try to sleep on top of it or fly up into the trees. After a while they will get into the habit of flying up into the trees to sleep.... they really love to get as high up as they can.

Good luck.

 

[ludwing]

I am lucky where I live as don't have any problems with owls or hawks at all... I think local people have shot them all a long time ago.

Lots of ground predators like pythons and mongoose, but my guinea fowl sleep very high in huge trees so they can't be captured.

But I did have a problem with street dogs killing my first flock. The crafty dogs would hide under the bushes and wait until the morning when the guinea fowl first flew down to the ground.... then rush out and grab them just at they hit the ground.

Now I got my property dog proof... and my current flock is safe.

If you have no predator problems, and the weather where you are does not get too cold in winter, then its easier to have them sleep in trees. You have no coop to clean out, you don't have to round up strays and herd them to the coop at night, etc.

The young birds should be put outside after they get their feathers and can fly (about 6 weeks). Keep them in a small coop / chicken tractor / pen, under the trees where you want them to roost.

Keep them in there for a few weeks. After that let them out to explore. At night they should come back to the pen and you can lock them in. When you feel they have 'homed' to your property and are not wandering off you can then lock up the pen and when they come back in the evening they will then try to sleep on top of it or fly up into the trees. After a while they will get into the habit of flying up into the trees to sleep.... they really love to get as high up as they can.

Good luck.

Jak2002003 thats a nice wrote about your guineas.

well we have guineas and its been a while, as you mentioned out that you dont have any predator problems, what challenges do you face during the breeding season? dont you loose a bit of your hens,when nesting? if you not then, your world is as of a heaven of sand grain,
we have guines that never roost in the coop, they free-range as much as the world allow them to. nest to any degree. some of them come back from nesting and some never see the next days.
so what are your challenges during the breeding season?

 

[jak2002003]

Jak2002003 thats a nice wrote about your guineas.

well we have guineas and its been a while, as you mentioned out that you dont have any predator problems, what challenges do you face during the breeding season? dont you loose a bit of your hens,when nesting? if you not then, your world is as of a heaven of sand grain,
we have guines that never roost in the coop, they free-range as much as the world allow them to. nest to any degree. some of them come back from nesting and some never see the next days.
so what are your challenges during the breeding season?

They are OK in the breeding season. Also my chickens nest and brood eggs all outside... as they sleep in trees and live a natural life too. We have minor problems which are...

1. Snakes sometimes eat the eggs.
2. Ants invade a birds nest and drive off the sitting bird so the eggs chill.
3. If they nest when there is heavy rain some nest can get flooded and destroyed.... but this is very rare.
4. Once the chicks leave the nest I loose a few to a kind of predatory bird which will grab and take off any that go too far from the mother.

However, I have so many chickens and birds that I don't mind a few losses. In fact I am often surprised when a hen suddenly appears with a lot a chicks when I did not even know she had a nest.

I have about 60 mix breed bantam chickens... and now the new flock of only 4 guinea fowl. My last flock was 14... but the dogs got about 6 and I rehomed the rest as at that time I could not afford to secure my property from dogs.

PS I did have a serious problem with mongoose and a python about 3 years ago. The mongoose killed a lot of my pigeons and chickens... until I got 2 small dogs... which now protects the flock and the mongoose have gone as they are scared of the dogs. The python that ate some of my ducks lived in the pond.. it did not bother with the chickens.. it liked the taste of duck better. The pond dried up in the dry season and we were able to capture it and my Thai friends wanted to eat it. I made them bag it up and we went into the forest (a long way from my home) and released it.

 

[ludwing]

They are OK in the breeding season. Also my chickens nest and brood eggs all outside... as they sleep in trees and live a natural life too. We have minor problems which are...

1. Snakes sometimes eat the eggs.
2. Ants invade a birds nest and drive off the sitting bird so the eggs chill.
3. If they nest when there is heavy rain some nest can get flooded and destroyed.... but this is very rare.
4. Once the chicks leave the nest I loose a few to a kind of predatory bird which will grab and take off any that go too far from the mother.

However, I have so many chickens and birds that I don't mind a few losses. In fact I am often surprised when a hen suddenly appears with a lot a chicks when I did not even know she had a nest.

I have about 60 mix breed bantam chickens... and now the new flock of only 4 guinea fowl. My last flock was 14... but the dogs got about 6 and I rehomed the rest as at that time I could not afford to secure my property from dogs.

PS I did have a serious problem with mongoose and a python about 3 years ago. The mongoose killed a lot of my pigeons and chickens... until I got 2 small dogs... which now protects the flock and the mongoose have gone as they are scared of the dogs. The python that ate some of my ducks lived in the pond.. it did not bother with the chickens.. it liked the taste of duck better. The pond dried up in the dry season and we were able to capture it and my Thai friends wanted to eat it. I made them bag it up and we went into the forest (a long way from my home) and released it.

wow !! that is pretty amazing !!
well you got thousands of souls around you then, who'll woke you up early in the morning just for a see meal, and keep you up nti'l sunset to count and lock up. that is upsolutely an amazing flock, few guineas are easy to handle than a bunch. the first time we had guineas we started with 15, with so many hens. one by one dissapeared from broodiness. but now we down to 7, two males and rest hens. we have supper-man predators around, lynx and hawks. but that's not a big deal because during the breeding season we collect the eggs to incubate them under chickens. i think "DOGS" did help us alot, chasing the lynx one other night. thanks for your share, for the last question, how old are your guines. mine are 5yrs and two months, with the udult hen 7rs (the queen lady)