Advice for new Guinea Owner?

[shannon0716]

These are my babies, now almost 8 weeks old. We are new to the Guinea Fowl adventure!! Any advice would be appreciated, especially on the topics of coop and run maintenance!

 

[KAZROB]

Hi there,

I have Guineas too and I am relatively new to them, however I got my first three a year ago and have since had 7 eggs hatch, they are now at laying stage! I adore them and my ones do free range, however they go to their hut each night. I have an older one(Male) whom likes to perch up in a tree and over look the huts.......As far as your coop, ensure they have perches and nesting boxes and as they are young ensure they have at least 26-28% protein in the food in which you give them...I am in Australia and I fed mine a game bird starter, then moved on to game bird grower. also my Guineas loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee grated cheese, so I give them a couple of handfuls most days and finely cut up lettuce too...When they see me or hear me call Guineas they fly at me and welcome me with excitement as they know I have cheese lol. mine are also partial to Rockmelon (cantaloupe). I cut them in half and they love the seeds.

I have Lino/Vinyl on the floor of my hut, then scatter it with natural wood shavings. this makes cleaning for me easy, as I I sweep the shavings out and wipe the floor down with vinegar and then refresh with shavings.....In their nesting boxes/bed I have straw or hay.

Guineas love to dirt bath, so if you are not having them free range best to provide them with a dirt bath box.....as I said mine free range and I have built a lovely large frame like a sandpit frame and filled with lovely loose soil from our garden centre and they love this, at times I add ash to it from our fire and they go nuts for ash, as do my chickens....

Will your Guineas be free ranging in the day? if they do, you may fins that you will need to round them up way before dusk on a few occasions to begin with and even sometimes there after, I generally go out each day around 430 pm and clap them to bed if they are not in bed, as come dark they get confused if they have not found there huts as they don't see when it is dark.....otherwise they are happy healthy birds that require little from us other than fresh food and water! Oh and at times you may have one that insists in perching in a tree overnight and at first I was a little concerned, but he is happy and that is his thing lol lol...and on the odd occasion one of the females will join him. But so far the seven that hatched just go to bed and are easy to put to bed.....

ENJOY them...I think they are adorable!

 

[shannon0716]

Thank you so much for the wonderful info. I plan to free range mine and then keep them in the coop at night as well. Today I spruced up the run with some sand and DE and they have nice new big feeders. We had a lot of rain recently and the flies came as soon as the sun came out so I had to dry things up and prevent them from coming!

They are 8 weeks old and I think tonight while I clean their coop out I will give them a few minutes of free range time before sunset and start breaking them in.

They put themselves in their coop for the first
Time last night! Usually we have to put them in al by hand. Progress!!!

 

[KAZROB]

YAY, progress! Mine at times still need to be walked into bed, as I wont let them stay out any later than 430pm (Winter) in the summer time here, it doesn't get dark until about 830pm but winter it is dark around 5 ish, so as it gets to dark to quick and they haven't gone to their hut they are slightly worried and confused! So we just ensure they are in their hut by 430pm As I mentioned we have 2 older Guineas and they often will perch in the tree that we have hanging over our chicken hut...The male generally does and the female joins him some nights...she has a love affair with one of my drakes, so she will often be with him in the duck hut....either she perches in the hut and he sleeps under her or she is in his box with hi....its so cute and funny and strange to see such a connection between them...they often just lay together in the day or wander around with each other lol lol

I am not sure if this will help you slow down the flys, but I hang (fresh) Lavender in bunches all around the huts and over the entrance of the doors, as well as I buy fresh vanilla beans and open them, a bit so the smell comes out and I place a stick of vanilla bean in with some bunches of lavender, mainly the ones near the entrance, this helps us in the summer with flys and I do the same in the duck pen, I also throw in my rose petals and sticks of lavender in the huts and I do believe it helps and the advantage is, that the huts smell nice! Lavender is so easy to buy and grow. we have just a few bushes and I get plenty. I have also read that some ppl buy the things that can hang in the car (air freshener) in Vanilla and hang them....I have yet to do this....But all in its hard to rid of the flys completely, but I tend to clean my huts each morning with a quick pick out of poop and refresh, then once a week a good clean and then a few times a year a big clean, walls and all...that happens mostly in the spring and summer months.....For feed containers I have Grandpa feeders, they are a little expensive but in the food that I now save and time saved as I only need to fill up on a weekly basis and yes it took my flock a while to work them out, but they are a huge success now and I hardly loose any feed, minimal mice now and I am not feeding the wildlife birds as they are to light to operate it and tend not to know what to do anyway! Of course my young chicks, ducklings and keets cant operate them, but as they grow and become grown they learn quick as they have seen the others accessing them. So I have feed containers in the huts for them whilst they are young and with mum... I actually have some broody huts that are all decked out so as mums can have time looking after and teaching their young, then when they are bigger I start to integrate them. As my little huts are not far from the others and they have their own run, the others accept them quite readily when they start to free range, as they have been use to seeing them and hearing them, it also helps the mums not loose the pecking order to much either..

I love your new profile pic as well, is that your daughter and family pet dog? What a beautiful picture! Anyway good luck with your keets, what do you plan to do with them? I just have mine as part of the farm family....I couldn't eat them, but I do use their eggs and sell their eggs....So mine are for keeps lol...

Kaz

 

[shannon0716]

Sounds like you have a lovely farm family!!! My guineas are for pets and pest control. We live in a densely wooded area with lots of ticks.

And yup that's my daughter and dog. They love the Guineas!

Last night I let the birds out to roam for about 10 minutes and they were pretty easy to get back in the run. A few times they got nervous and ran back in there themselves lol which is awesome because that means they love their home and feel safe there!!