Guinea talk.

[R2elk]

If they go to coop at night, you might have two by fall.

I shut my guineas in the coop every night and have not lost a guinea in all the years that I have been doing this. I do not allow any of the hens to sit out at night on a hidden nest.

Before I put my guineas in a coop at night, I lost every single one of them to Great Horned Owls.

the lighter colored ones are the best targets for predators. whites, grays, blues..

I have not lost any of my Coral Blues, Lavender, Powder Blue, Sky Blue or White guineas to predators. I did lose all of my Pearl Gray guineas to predators.

 

[Melodychick]

Thanks @jvls1942 i understand the risks of free ranging and accept them. I’ve been free ranging my hens for years and haven’t lost one to predators, but I realize the guineas will travel farther and therefore will be more at risk. I think I’ll be able to train them to come in at night from the posts I’ve read on this site, but if I fail I understand what can happen. Just want to know if they’ll eat all my butterflies and bees.

 

[jvls1942]

I doubt that they will all of one kind of bug/butterfly .. they are nomadic and keep walking and eating. same as wild turkeys do.
they cannot discriminate one bug from another. if it moves they will eat it.
no guarantees that they won't eat the good bugs with the bad.
I would suggest that you fence the garden so they don't go into it.
now here is where R2elk will chime in and say that they will fly over the garden fence.
OK they might. and then again they might not..
R2elk , I am happy that you can get your guineas to go in every night. but miss , just one night, and see what happens..
I too have had 55 years of experience with all sorts of fowl .. I know quite a bit about guineas too, just as you do..
Instead of tearing my posts apart, why don't you add some of your favorite tips on how you handle your birds ??
.......jiminwisc....

 

[R2elk]

now here is where R2elk will chime in and say that they will fly over the garden fence.

Actually, it didn't enter my mind. My guineas do not fly over my garden fence as they have lots of other things that interest them more.

If a person wants their guineas to "police" their garden, do not feed the keets or any age of guinea with treats from the garden. My experience is that guineas form their food likes at a very early age and if fed treats from the garden, they will remember them and go after those treats when a garden is open to them.

R2elk , I am happy that you can get your guineas to go in every night. but miss , just one night, and see what happens..

My guineas have been trained to go in the coop at night. I normally go out early and herd them in. Sometimes they are already in the coop with a lookout waiting for me so they can all make a mad dash out for me to herd them back in. If I get out there too late, they are already in the coop on their roosts which are the ceiling joists that are 8' above the floor. The only exceptions are in the summer when I may have to chase a hen off of her hidden nest to get her to go in the coop.

Obviously the first few months took a much greater effort to get them in the coop than it does now years later.

Just want to know if they’ll eat all my butterflies and bees.

I know a person that kept honeybees and guineas. He had to put a fence around his bee hives because the guineas would stand right in front of his hives and pick the bees off as they came out of the hive.

My guineas have not associated my bee hives with being a food source. I am sure that they eat some bees but not enough to harm the hives and the honey they produce. I keep a stand of sweet clover growing in my guinea's area so there are always bees available to them in season. They show a far greater interest in grasshoppers than they do in bees. They will chow down on caterpillars and moths and probably butterflies too. Thinking back I do not notice many butterflies in their area but I have lots of areas where the guineas do not go. They do really go after the millers when they are in season.

 

[Gdog Bossman]

The knowledge that I get here is great. ImI pretty sure that my Guineas are alive because of this.
I trained my birds like I was taught here, and they are in the coop at dark.
They use the nest box I made, it has 24 eggs now . But no one sits on them .Just a pile of poopy eggs .
Should I do something? It's very cold here, I doubt they will explode, but some are getting pretty old.
Thanks everyone!

 

[Dmontgomery]

The knowledge that I get here is great. ImI pretty sure that my Guineas are alive because of this.
I trained my birds like I was taught here, and they are in the coop at dark.
They use the nest box I made, it has 24 eggs now . But no one sits on them .Just a pile of poopy eggs .
Should I do something? It's very cold here, I doubt they will explode, but some are getting pretty old.
Thanks everyone!

Since I appear to be awake first, I’ll reply first.
Congratulations on getting them in the new coop at night and especially on getting them to lay in the nesting box. It took me 2 years to get mine to lay inside the coop!
Since yours were just hatched in June, they may not even have an interest in going broody this young, I don’t know. The eggs aren’t likely to go bad since it’s still cold out this time of year, so they definitely won’t explode, but they might get broken from being shifted around as new ones are layed. If yours are like mine, they will kick any bad ones out of the nest anyway. Then you can dispose of them.
You can always take out any really dirty ones, but if you disturb the nest too much, they may stop laying there and move somewhere else. Are they enclosed all the time or do they free range during the day? You really, really don’t want them to start a hidden nest out in the woods.
Out of the ones you have left, how many are females? 24 eggs for multiple females really isn’t a lot. I’ve heard of nests with 60 eggs before. My lone female would lay up to 30 before she went broody. (This year will be our first with multiple females and I’m not really prepared for a huge clutch.)

 

[jvls1942]

it would help if we knew about where you are located .. very cold is relative.
I am surprised that your guineas are laying eggs this late in the year. because here in Wisc they usually quit laying around Sept/Oct..
instead of saying really cold, give us the average temperature..
I have had a community nest of almost 80 eggs.
hardly any of those hatched..
now I put eggs into the incubator.
I hatch and sell about 300 keets per year..

 

[JeffreyH]

300 KEETS!! wow
How do you go about selling them?
By the way Hi Y'all

 

[jvls1942]

it was no problem, Craig's List..
once the word got out, people just kept coming.
I have a friend who raised guineas. she is how I got into it. we helped each other with selling keets. If she didn't have any she would give my phone number out and I would do the same..
I hatched hundreds of eggs for her, too.
and she often just gave me eggs from nests she found..
...jiminwisc.....

 

[DoeAndGander]

it was no problem, Craig's List..
once the word got out, people just kept coming.
I have a friend who raised guineas. she is how I got into it. we helped each other with selling keets. If she didn't have any she would give my phone number out and I would do the same..
I hatched hundreds of eggs for her, too.
and she often just gave me eggs from nests she found..
...jiminwisc.....

Are you by chance on the Minnesota side of Wisconsin, Jim? I bought my keets from a lady who hatched hundreds and works in Bloomington. Doubt it’s her but small world if so!