Long story short. Started with 7 guineas in June and while transferring them to their permanent coop at 4 weeks old, 2 go out, never to be seen again. Got 7 more the next week (same age ish) and they all got along great. 3 were transferred to a friend, and at 6 weeks in their coop and run they went for their first supervised free ranging on 7 acres!!
They were very interested in the 21 chickens in the 40x50 ft chicken run and stayed next to the run under brush most of the time. During the next few weeks they would venture only in the upper acre of grass and would sound off when they would be in a new area. Dog and guineas got along great. They would also come back to the coop at dusk with a little coaxing of food with no issues.
Well except for tonight.......being teenagers, they wanted to stay out later than what daddy and mommy wanted. Would come to the coop, then turn around singing and laughing like it was a game. I tried the piles on each arm to "herd" them, but again next to the coop, they ran and laughed!!!
By this time it was dark, so out came some improvised netting attached to poles and one by one they were caught and picked up by their feet and placed back home. Kinda neat how their instincts kicked in and would go quiet and close to the ground when I was near. It worked well except for the ringleader male French pearl!!! He bolted!!! He tried to fly up in a tree the first time, but didn't make it. But between the others I lost track of him.
Now all the rest are huddled in the coop, not roosting, like they are lost. I have a flashlight in there to hope the ringleader comes back, but shut the doors for fear of predators. I know they are hear cause I shot a fox last month and my dog was attacked by something while he was trying to protect his chickens (two huge bit wounds down to his organs).
I am hoping I will wake up and see him on top of the coop in the morning, but am assuming the worst. Maybe he found the other two runaways and they are headed to Vegas.
So much for long story short!!
Any ideas would help!!
They were very interested in the 21 chickens in the 40x50 ft chicken run and stayed next to the run under brush most of the time. During the next few weeks they would venture only in the upper acre of grass and would sound off when they would be in a new area. Dog and guineas got along great. They would also come back to the coop at dusk with a little coaxing of food with no issues.
Well except for tonight.......being teenagers, they wanted to stay out later than what daddy and mommy wanted. Would come to the coop, then turn around singing and laughing like it was a game. I tried the piles on each arm to "herd" them, but again next to the coop, they ran and laughed!!!
By this time it was dark, so out came some improvised netting attached to poles and one by one they were caught and picked up by their feet and placed back home. Kinda neat how their instincts kicked in and would go quiet and close to the ground when I was near. It worked well except for the ringleader male French pearl!!! He bolted!!! He tried to fly up in a tree the first time, but didn't make it. But between the others I lost track of him.
Now all the rest are huddled in the coop, not roosting, like they are lost. I have a flashlight in there to hope the ringleader comes back, but shut the doors for fear of predators. I know they are hear cause I shot a fox last month and my dog was attacked by something while he was trying to protect his chickens (two huge bit wounds down to his organs).
I am hoping I will wake up and see him on top of the coop in the morning, but am assuming the worst. Maybe he found the other two runaways and they are headed to Vegas.
So much for long story short!!
Any ideas would help!!
in the evening get then used to treats to come in to
