Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[Mmmaddie13]

I use a big cast iron bell to get mine to come. Good ole' Pavlov method, ring the bell, give them treats, and pretty soon they're learn that the bell means yummies.

 

[Shan30]

Hello,

I scanned the thread but did not see any answer to my question, sorry if I missed it!

I have 6 guineas around 3 months old that I raised with 3 chicks in hopes of making them tamer.
Hahaha kinda made the Guineas a bit tamer but those three chickens are very skittish.

The Guineas do go in the coop and roost with the entire flock of chickens (20ish).

What I am wondering is if they will ever fly out of the 100' x 30' run to forage? And if they do, will the three chickens follow?

I actually want the guineas to forage as I partially got them to get rid of the ticks, but I don't want all of my birds to free range.

My hope is that the guineas being better flyers will be able to clear the fence to forage but still be safe in the coop at night.

Has anyone done this? Success?

 

[BridgetBarger]

We live on 5 acres with fields all around. I have read several tips on here that I am going to try. Does anyones dogs mess with there guineas?

 

[kynewbchickie]

Well my missing Hen showed up with all her little ones in tow

Great news!!!

 

[kynewbchickie]

We live on 5 acres with fields all around. I have read several tips on here that I am going to try. Does anyones dogs mess with there guineas?

My pit bull never messed with the guineas, but would chase the chickens. A friend's mini-doxie went straight-away after the guineas but treads lightly around the chickens. Never can tell with dogs! haha

 

[Gingerlilypad]

Hello,

What I am wondering is if they will ever fly out of the 100' x 30' run to forage? And if they do, will the three chickens follow?

I actually want the guineas to forage as I partially got them to get rid of the ticks, but I don't want all of my birds to free range.

My hope is that the guineas being better flyers will be able to clear the fence to forage but still be safe in the coop at night.

Has anyone done this? Success?

My experience with adult guineas and chickens is that it depends on the type of chickens. My adult guineas will NOT stay penned, they fly out of anything not covered. The chickens I had were Austrolorps and they were too heavy to fly out of a 8 foot pen, however my banties would fly the coop along with the guineas as soon as the sun started rising. Hope that helps.

 

[Gingerlilypad]

We live on 5 acres with fields all around. I have read several tips on here that I am going to try. Does anyones dogs mess with there guineas?

The dog I have now will not mess with my guineas, nor will my cat. My guineas have attacked both, so they learned. I have had dogs that couldn't learn not to attack them, so they found new homes quickly (local no kill shelter). Stray dogs will attack guineas and chickens. I consider stray dogs and cats as predators, place them in the same catagory as coyotes and raccoons, and handle as necessary. If I can catch/trap stray animals, I take them to the shelter. If I can't then I use other means to protect my poultry.

 

[Farmergreen]

Banties can fly a holding pattern and 500 Ft LOL just kidding but mine can really get up thier sometimes. My Guineas are funny when they walk up to a fence pace back and forth forever Then suddenly take off like a lier Jet

 

[Farmergreen]

My Pryreneses Doesn't bother any of our stuff. Guineas or chickens. He is in the outer pasture with Goats. On the other hand He kills anything that get's in the pasture that isn't ours. Nieghbors chickens become brunch, ours can walk right by him.

 

[HoneyDreameMom]

My current Pyr protects our guineas and chickens, although we got him specifically for the goats. Our last dog was pretty good with the goats and tolerated the chickens with only occasional chasing, but she made far too many attempts to kill the guineas. We were unable to break her of it and eventually gave her up to be adopted out by the local Great Pyrenees rescue (to a loving family without guineas). You won't know until you introduce the dog to your birds. Have the dog on a lead and if they try to go after the birds, hold them back and reprimand them with a firm 'No!'. You will likely have to repeat this several times for a few weeks. Don't leave the dog with the birds unsupervised.

This is the technique I've dealt with most, but there are others if that doesn't work. Even though we weren't successful breaking our dog from bird chasing, I've heard of many 'bird dogs' who, with training, successfully learned to leave birds alone.