Broody guinea hatch

[southwind00]

So your keets have been confined to the coop until you make a little run for them? We have several unpopular roosts near the ends of the coop. Welch and babies are roosting on one of those, so the other birds ignore them there....

Yea, they have been in my little coop for a week or so. And for the first few days I would shut the trap door at night and after I started leaving it open they where still roosting in there so I figured I'd give them some yard.

Yesterday they kind of just perched on the little door threshold and some barley made it out in the grass. This morning they seem a little braver. They seem to connect ok with the other guinea now thru the chicken wire except of course Big Male. (Side note- Last nite Big male and mate roosted with the keets inside the big coop while my three amigos where out in the run roosting-go figure?)
I'm going to open the little yard door in the next few days and let one or two out and see what happens. I'm kind of winging it here but thinking that all the keets will get along but the parents will reject them. And another concern of mine is the open yard gives the multitude of cooper hawks I have around here another dinner choice, doves being one of there favorites and these keets being the right size. I find piles of dove feathers if not weekly around my bird feeders bi-weekly. One day a few years ago I sat inside and watched a coopers hawk lunch on one on my deck railing. We'll see out it turns out.
Eventually I may have to put in some more roosts at the back of my big coop but maybe it will be a two coop winter. Right now we'll take it a day at a time.

 

[southwind00]

So, yesterday was my day for disaster. At about 2:30 pm I was up on ladder working on an out building when I heard the major guinea distress call and here comes big Male flying in at about 30 feet with his mate right behind him. I had a spray gun,brush and gloves on but was down the ladder in a a few seconds and went running down past their coop into the edges about 30 yards past my pearl's nest and across the yard I saw a fox running. I had a pretty good look at it and I did not see it carrying anything in it's mouth but it might have had a keet. Anyway all the other birds where spread out big time. I found Ebay on the other side of the little chicken wire perimeter fencing I have north of their coop area with a keet. After an hour and a half of walking around and even taking a four wheeler down lower thru some pretty thick stuff. I got everybody but two keets back to the coop. I didn't see the fox with a bird but even if it did, I am sure It didn't have two. So one or two might just be lost in the woods but nobody was around this morning. I'm not holding out much hope.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

So, yesterday was my day for disaster. At about 2:30 pm I was up on ladder working on an out building when I heard the major guinea distress call and here comes big Male flying in at about 30 feet with his mate right behind him. I had a spray gun,brush and gloves on but was down the ladder in a a few seconds and went running down past their coop into the edges about 30 yards past my pearl's nest and across the yard I saw a fox running. I had a pretty good look at it and I did not see it carrying anything in it's mouth but it might have had a keet. Anyway all the other birds where spread out big time. I found Ebay on the other side of the little chicken wire perimeter fencing I have north of their coop area with a keet. After an hour and a half of walking around and even taking a four wheeler down lower thru some pretty thick stuff. I got everybody but two keets back to the coop. I didn't see the fox with a bird but even if it did, I am sure It didn't have two. So one or two might just be lost in the woods but nobody was around this morning. I'm not holding out much hope.

I thought that the Cooper’s hawks sounded terrifying... but foxes!!! Ugh! Have your guineas dealt with foxes before? Ours have dealt with coyotes, bobcats, dogs, and snake attacks. I hope you get your keets back!!!

 

[southwind00]

I thought that the Cooper’s hawks sounded terrifying... but foxes!!! Ugh! Have your guineas dealt with foxes before? Ours have dealt with coyotes, bobcats, dogs, and snake attacks. I hope you get your keets back!!!

No big snakes around here , some people have bobcats locally but I don't yet and tons of coyotes around here but I think my dog and the their skittishness keep them away but FOXES, I think the term is "I'm lousy with them". Nobody is hunting or trapping them any more with the tanking of fur prices and they have exploded in numbers. I've dispatched a few but I have to get more aggressive with that. This spring I lost three guineas to them and one day last spring I heard the distress call and here comes five guineas flying at me with a fox right behind them. I was right on the trail and the fox was 5 feet from me before he saw me.I should have been carrying. So the next day I was out in the yard and actually working in the garden getting ready to put some onions in and i went into the house to get some lunch at noon with all the guineas in the yard close to the house. My kitchen sink window was approx 50 feet from them as I turned to work at the counter I heard the distress call and couldn't believe something actually happened but I looked and they were all up on the coops or in the trees and I saw tons of feathers flying. Shocked I ran out and did a head count and sure enough one was missing, my pied female, Big males old mate. Totally devastated I walked around and saw a feather trail to the north. Oh boy, so I pulled the card on my trail cam behind the coops and there was the evidence.

It inspired me to put the the lattice work behind the coops and on either side of that chicken wire to at least cut off the foxes direct path to my yard. One friend said you get the north side done they'll never cross your yard from the south, Monday the fox did. More wire to put up I guess.

 

[Sydney65]

I wonder..you can buy pellets to deter pests that are predator urine..I haven't put it out bc my rabbit issue in the garden subsided once the babies left the nest- and the one I got is fox urine bc that's all that was left on the shelf when I got it. But -I wonder if appropriate predator-based would deter them from our bird territory..

 

[My2butterflies]

Ugh so sorry to hear about the attack

 

[southwind00]

I wonder..you can buy pellets to deter pests that are predator urine..I haven't put it out bc my rabbit issue in the garden subsided once the babies left the nest- and the one I got is fox urine bc that's all that was left on the shelf when I got it. But -I wonder if appropriate predator-based would deter them from our bird territory..

I have thought about putting out coyote urine around my perimeter ,some people say that might work but I'm not sure, it might just attract some of those darn "yotes" closer to my property and I don't need anymore predators. In the spring when the foxes are feeding there young I'm going to be keeping my guineas in there chicken wire yard because the fox are way more daring then, but in the middle of summer I think I just have to keep putting up my perimeter fencing. It isn't fool proof because I can't totally enclose my property, but it makes it way harder for them.