Upcycled homestead

Keeterwaul · Sep 19, 2015

Hello everyone. Exciting day at the Keeterwaul estate. Our flock has just finished installing their fly pen attatched to their upcycled feed barn turned coop. We have a mixed group of 11 guineas. Best we can guess they are around nine weeks old. Today was their first day outside and we want to give a huge thanks to all members and their forum posts. We have been reading everything we can to familiarize ourselves with this new venture and your forums answered most questions before issues ever arose. Thanks for being there for us! More pics as the little "guins" grow.

ElliottAcres · Sep 29, 2015

Nice job! How is it going? Will they always be contained or will you eventually let them out for part of the day?

Keeterwaul · Sep 30, 2015

They've been hootin and hollerin outside for days now. Seem to all be happy and healthy. They leave the coop on their own after their door is opened and seem to have taught themselves to coop up at sundown on their own. I'll plan to free range them in the afternoons come spring.

Keeterwaul · Sep 30, 2015

ElliottAcres · Sep 30, 2015

I really love the look of the natural branch perches. We did the same with ours, only letting them out in the afternoons for several hours. This kept them closer to home and we are really happy (and lucky) that after a year we still have the same 13 we started with. It also meant that much of the egg-laying took place within the coop or the run. This way, we didn't have many females going broody out in the woods. One tried, but couldn't commit or something found her eggs, and she came back after sleeping outdoors for about a week.

Keeterwaul · Oct 1, 2015

Thanks Elliot. We are trying to run this show based on the same thinking there. We hope by keeping them penned from now through the winter that they will associate the coop and pen with safety and always come home at night. Their first day out we walked to the coop to lock them up and see what kind of struggle we were in for trying to herd 11 birds but thankfully they had all decided to train themselves and were already home and perched in the coop for bedtime. I have been prepared with millet to train these birds but they seem to beat me to the punch every time. They leave their coop for the pen by about 10am and are all in coop by 7pm all by themselves. I plan to range them from 2-7pm come spring, hopefully with those hours all egg laying will have occurred within the coop. "Hopefully."

Keeterwaul · Oct 26, 2015

Our flock is doing very good. 12 weeks old now and ranging in the yard for the afternoons for four days now. It's endlessly amusing to watch them curiously and cautiously discover all the new things in their yard. Luckily they spend most of their time directly in front of the house for us to watch over them.

Keeterwaul · Jan 19, 2016

We have arrived at the six month mark for our little flock. They have learned to range their entire acreage and have learned to get along with the dogs and cats of the land. These guys have done everything by the book and never stop amusing us. We do wish they'd stop hopping up on the vehicles though. Our males go through bouts of pecking order shifts but are otherwise friendly enough. Our winter has started to get pretty cold here in southern Missouri but the birds march out every day to forage and explore. We can't wait for spring and the oncoming eggs and keets. Any tips and advice as we near maturity would be greatly appreciated as these forums taught us everything we needed to know to this point.

Keeterwaul · Mar 25, 2016

Eight and a half months of learning pains have paid off. Our first flock of 11 have survived their amateur keepers and this morning, seven and a half months later since we got them as days old keets, have rewarded us with our first two eggs! Very excited. And we are adding chickens and turkeys to our farm within a week.

Upcycled homestead

More options

Keeterwaul

In the Brooder

ElliottAcres

Hatching

Keeterwaul

In the Brooder

Keeterwaul

In the Brooder

ElliottAcres

Hatching

Keeterwaul

In the Brooder

Keeterwaul

In the Brooder

Keeterwaul

In the Brooder

Keeterwaul

In the Brooder

Similar threads

New posts New threads Active threads

Latest posts

Latest threads

Threads with more replies in the last 15 days