finally, we get to start letting the guineas out update w/pics

[jbirds2012]

well i let the first one out sun morn,

then later in the day i let 3 more out one hour before dark because i felt sorry for her being out all by her lonesome.

then monday an hour before sundown i let out 4 more










yay !!! only 9 more left to let out

 

[KrisH]

yeah! we kind of let ours out in batches too. started with 2, then a couple of days later, 6, then 10, then 12, then all 15 within about a week. over a year later we still have 13. one hit by car, and one we could not find on a nest overnight.

They come in every night, force the chickens off their roosts and sleep until morning

We tried to follow "Guinea Goddess" PEEPSCA recommendations.

RobertH

 

[jbirds2012]

sorry ya lost the two .so far none have ran off. i have been leaving the light on in the coop for a bit so they can see to go on in and when i went in to turn off the light i noticed they wern't shy about getting them selfs a good place to roost with the rest of the family. so, so far so good

 

[PeepsCA]

yeah! we kind of let ours out in batches too. started with 2, then a couple of days later, 6, then 10, then 12, then all 15 within about a week. over a year later we still have 13. one hit by car, and one we could not find on a nest overnight.

They come in every night, force the chickens off their roosts and sleep until morning

We tried to follow "Guinea Goddess" PEEPSCA recommendations.

RobertH

LOL Robert, I am so not the Guinea goddess... just the food goddess to all my Guineas!

And my method of letting my birds out to start free ranging isn't the "just let one or just a few out at a time" method... but I have tried it. With as many birds/flocks/coops/pens of birds as I have, the upset birds that get let out just ended up getting so stressed out that they'd go pace back and forth in front of another coop/pen and forget all about their own flock, so that doesn't work for my birds. I'm not saying that method is wrong (and not everybody has 100+ Guineas divided into separate flocks like I do), it just doesn't fit into my Guinea routine.

 

[jbirds2012]

hi peepsca, wow i am honored that you posted on my thread !!! we got these at the same time so they are the same age. these are our first, we don't have any others. so i have zero experience. I'm only going on what I've read. i read that if you let them all out at the same time they might make up some little nap sacks and start hitch hiking down the road. ?

 

[PeepsCA]

LOL jbirds, yah, they can definitely take a road trip.. I have had my neighbors call me and tell me she saw one of my first flocks walking up the road heading to town before... (I live about 20 miles from town, lol). I had to go round them up and herd them back home on my quad, lol... but typically I will hang out with my flocks when I first start letting them out, and correct them when they wander too far, hop the fence etc. I start out with just letting them out an hour or so before sundown, and work on establishing their coop up routine (using the sun going down as their visual cue), then if all goes well the next day they get let out 2 hours, and so on. As things progress I will leave them alone to do their own thing, but check them often (and do a head count). I don't leave them completely unattended until I have gradually worked up to leaving them out for hours at a time and am confident that they will stick around and coop up when I call them. My property is fully fenced now, so that helps keep my birds home.... it was only fenced with hot wire for horses back when my flock decided to head to town, lol.

I see you have Slate and Blue Palm Turkeys

... I may want to order some eggs from you when your Hens start laying!

 

[jbirds2012]

LOL jbirds, yah, they can definitely take a road trip.. I have had my neighbors call me and tell me she saw one of my first flocks walking up the road heading to town before... (I live about 20 miles from town, lol). I had to go round them up and herd them back home on my quad, lol... but typically I will hang out with my flocks when I first start letting them out, and correct them when they wander too far, hop the fence etc. I start out with just letting them out an hour or so before sundown, and work on establishing their coop up routine (using the sun going down as their visual cue), then if all goes well the next day they get let out 2 hours, and so on. As things progress I will leave them alone to do their own thing, but check them often (and do a head count). I don't leave them completely unattended until I have gradually worked up to leaving them out for hours at a time and am confident that they will stick around and coop up when I call them. My property is fully fenced now, so that helps keep my birds home.... it was only fenced with hot wire for horses back when my flock decided to head to town, lol.

I see you have Slate and Blue Palm Turkeys

... I may want to order some eggs from you when your Hens start laying!

lol i catch myself doing head counts quite often ok, i'll let ya know when they start laying.