Calling all Guinea experts

[Julic]

I have a male and female Guinea and have had them since January. I got them both as adults and at the time they were housed with chickens.

Once arriving to my house, they were given a large dog run with a coop of their own which sits 2 ft up off the ground. They rarely go in the coop but rather sleep on top of it.

I kept them confined to that run for 6 weeks before letting them out to free range with the chickens. They have been free ranging for 3 weeks now. Each morning I let them out and each night they return to the run where I feed them and lock them in.

For some strange reason, tonight they did not return to the run. I found the female pacing in the woods looking rather distraught. After looking around I noticed the male was roosted on a tree branch. (a low one thankfully).

Anyway I shooed him down and then for 30 minutes my husband and I walked through the woods trying to coral them back to the run. Oh did I mention it was POURING rain. :-(

The only thing different today was that the cat went into their coop earlier (he is not aggressive with any of the fowl). He has gone into their run before to eat cracked corn (weird cat) and I shoo him out but that never stopped them from returning in the past. I sniffed inside the coop door to make sure he hadn't urinated in there.

I sure don't want to confine them for another 6 weeks but we do have owls and hawks so I don't want them out at night either.

~~Any ideas about why they would suddenly stop returning to bed? Help?

 

[Percheron chick]

I'm not of much help but most of mine stopped sleeping in the coop just as soon as it started "warming" up. They sleep just outside the coop in the rafters of the barn. I would take the food away and just offer it at the end of the day using it to bait them. Mine tend to come running when I fill the feeders but eat and scoot back out.

 

[mommaguinea]

Perhaps she is thinking about nesting? Do you have a suitiable area in the coop space or run? ANd yse, sometimes they just like being up higher - but not safer! Hard to know what goes on in those little brains.

Good luck

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Hello:

It has been my experience that Guineas just like to roost high up. I had a few last year that roosted in the big tree next to the barn while most of the others went ahead and roosted in the rafters of the barn. These are about 10 feet up and I do shut the barn doors up (they have a low wattage light bulb on all the time) and The Mini Stud stays in there with therm.
The barn cats and two wild roosters also tend to stay in there at night.
I just think they are looking for a high roost and they do this when it warns up at night.

Hope this helps:
Guinea G.

 

[Julic]

Thanks to everyone for the great responses.

To answer a couple questions: They are inside a dog run that is approximately 15ft long, 5ft wide, and 7ft to the top of the canopy cover. The coop is inside the run and off the ground. It is 4 ft x 3 ftx 3ft insulated plastic box with a cover, door cut out, roost inside, and a home made nesting box inside as well. They always lay on top of the coop unless it is very cold then they will go inside.

After reading the replies, I removed the cover to the coop (box) and put two large tree branch across the top of the coop. This brings them up off the ground at least 5 or 6 ft.

I also did not feed them in the morning (which I had been doing). This evening I put food in the run and they came running

Hopefully that solves the desire to stay out and in the trees.

 

[farminglady]

I don't mean to intrude on thread but your title was so eye catching
My question for the guinea experts is...my pearl grey female has been mating with my royal purple male. What color will the keets be?

 

[R2elk]

I don't mean to intrude on thread but your title was so eye catching

My question for the guinea experts is...my pearl grey female has been mating with my royal purple male. What color will the keets be?

It is my understanding that the color pearl gray and the full dotting gene are dominant over all other colors and dotting schemes. If your pearl gray hen is pure pearl gray without any hidden genes, all of the offspring will be pearl gray in appearance.

If she is not pure, then her hidden genes and the hidden genes of your male will play a factor in determining what the color of the keets will be.

http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/genetics/

 

[farminglady]

Thank you for the reply. I am so excited to meet the keets