Completely Free-Range Guineas?

[LapisLazuli]

I would like to start with keets, when they are adults I would like to free range them completely. No coop, no feeding, etc. I have every type of predator around. Is this possible to free range them?

 

[sourland]

They will be vulnerable to predation - especially Great Horned Owls at night as they roost.

 

[R2elk]

I would like to start with keets, when they are adults I would like to free range them completely. No coop, no feeding, etc. I have every type of predator around. Is this possible to free range them?

If you choose not to provide a secure coop for their nights, you will lose all of them to predators.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I would like to start with keets, when they are adults I would like to free range them completely. No coop, no feeding, etc. I have every type of predator around. Is this possible to free range them?

I’m in Oklahoma, with tons of ticks, so lots of people with land want to have guineas. I sell keets and hatching eggs and sometimes the buyers want to talk. There are people who buy many keets or eggs every year because they completely free-range their flock, and they lose and replace the flock every year. I actually doubt that they get good pest control from them, because they have lost so many guineas by the spring, when ticks are most active.

I do know of one person who maintained a huge guinea + chicken flock at his property and they were 100% free range. However, he also killed hundreds of predators every year. He recently developed some leg issues that kept him from being outside with his firearm very often. I don’t know exactly what happened to his flock, but I heard that he no longer keeps guineas or chickens…

 

[cajuncluckerswla]

Give them somewhere to sleep in safety and you're good to go. We let ours sleep in the trees and so far, they're doing quite well. I do force them to relocate every so many weeks to keep the poop buildup down. I think it helps them with the being a predictable sitting duck issue.

 

[Mossy Dell]

I would provide a little evening grain, say two ounces a bird, as an energy supplement to range, from spring to fall. I'd have a little high protein pellet in it, and then they'd be inclined to eat some pellet in the winter when they could use help on protein.

We kept a free range guinea flock going for 10 years at our southern Ohio farm before we moved. The KEY is they had a safe place to sleep. We had a hay barn that was roofed and it was 16 feet up to the bottom of the roof trusses where the guineas roosted. As far as I could tell, no coon ever climbed that high, or couldn't on the 6x6 frame, and coons are the worse predators overall.

We did lose some guineas and chickens to hawks. (Here in SW VA we have a fox problem like I have never seen.) Also, the guineas were vulnerable when they nested out. However, they raised enough keets each year to keep the flock going. Lots of keets did not make it, of course, primarily due to the way guineas drag them through the wet grass. Guineas apparently did not evolve with dew as a factor on the dusty trampled plains! A good chicken mother can do better.

Now I realize, based on the question, that the feeding alone does not match the desire. Never mind the barn, even if we already had it . . . But, look, I love fowl and there's a happy medium between protecting (and having them) and doing nothing. The latter is foolish, in my experience, as well as against human nature, which is to nurture to some extent.

It would not be too costly to build or have built a small open pole shed. I'd make it so they are roosting at least 12' up. And you may need an anti-climbing collar on them or a stretch of slick metal on the bottom 4'. Personally I would enclose the sides with welded wire, have sliding doors at the ends, and raise the guineas in it so they would be more inclined to roost there. Ours never seemed to take to the trees, which would have been slowly fatal due to owls and coons.