Cooping Guineas

[mkeawsh]

No, I never let my guineas out all nite......too many predators lurking around. Guineas have terrible night-sight, and are unable to see dangers when it's dark. I've heard too many stories about owls swooping down and killing them. mkeawsh - I'm glad you haven't had any trouble since you hung those solar blinking red lights, but it didn't work too good with my chickens. When I first started raising birds (at that time, I only had chickens) I also attached them everywhere possible around their coop and surrounding barnyard. We got home maybe a half hour after dusk, only to find a coon had gotten into their coop (we were planning on closing it up when we got home). Out of a flock of 10, it had killed 3..... another one had a slit on her neck and was laying there in shock, and we had no idea what had happened to the rest of them since they were no where to be found. Fortunately, the remaining 6 had escaped out the backdoor and were hiding in the woods, eventually showing up the following morning. Ever since that night, we never relied on the solar blinking red lights to protect the birds. We took every precaution to make sure they were locked up securely anytime we weren't around.

Coons were our problem too. So, I adjusted the blinking lights on all sides of the tractors and coop so that they are eye level to them and the one on the roof is angled so it faces the tree over hanging the structures to deter the coons in the trees and the owls that are always around. Have one on the goat enclosure that is eye level to coyotes and hear them all the time but they never get near.

 

[chickenmadness7]

The blinking lights are GREAT! WE have them too.

 

[DesertLab]

So, last night we didn't get home until well after 8 p.m. The coop was dark and I could not get my guineas to go inside. I ended up having to pick each one up and put them in. I'm starting to rethink the while coop thing for 5 he guineas and maybe instead cconvert a dog kennel to a guinea coop with perches and cover tops and sides with tarp.

We lock our guineas in on most nights. However, if we get home late they can still let themselves in and have some safety until we close the door. Our pens both have perches that are 6 feet off of the ground. The perches in the pen we leave open are suspended from the ceiling ... So nothing can crawl up a pole and get to the birds. Also, the door to our pens are half doors. The bottom of the door stays closed (and keeps the chickens in) but the top half drops down. As a result we don't have easy access for predators walking around because the bottom half of the door is closed. With the top half open a critter that can climb or fly could get in but that has not happened. The sides of our pen are not climbing friendly. Our birds let themselves in at night if we are delayed getting home. We only feed them inside their pens and they get meal worms as a great for coming when called or at night for being inside the pen.

All the best.

 

[Bean789]

I have 4 guineas with 4 baby chicks in my brooder. All are almost 2 weeks old. I also have 8 pullets almost ready to begin laying in a makeshift coop with small run for now. My chicken coop will be finished this weekend for the 8 older girls. It is a rather large coop able to handle all 12 of the chickens when all are eventually incorporated together.

I need to build a coop for the guineas near the chicken coop with run and am thinking of obtaining a large wooden crate and putting it up on 4 X 4 posts, 6 ft. above the ground with a small fenced run underneath and extending another 2-4 ft out. Will they fly up to their coop or do I need to have an access point from ground level into their coop?

Never had guineas before and not sure of their habits or ability to adapt to what is available. Want to keep them safe and happy.

 

[Percheron chick]

I just raised my guineas with my layers. At about 8 weeks , I let them go with the hens and about 3 days later they were brave enough to wander outside. They return to the coop and roost with the hens at night. I feel guineas need more room in the run that the 10 sq ft a hen needs. They pace and fret more than hens when they are locked up. For 4 guineas, I'd want close to 60 sq feet or more.

 

[Bean789]

Thanks!

 

[DesertLab]

My 20 guinea hens are in the same run as my 3 chickens. The guinea hens free range during the day. Our chickens are a breed that really can not do more than flap their wings.. they can not fly much beyond a hop. What we did when we built our 36x12 foot run is the following. The run is fully enclosed. We sunk boards into the ground and to those we have hardware cloth attached. The hardware cloth goes up about 3 to 4 feet.. then a slightly bigger wire goes up to the walls and over the roof. We wanted our guinea hens to have access to the run all day (we close them in at night) but we didn't want our chickens to free range. Since our chickens are of the less athletic variety we also needed to protect them form dogs, owls, coyotes, etc. We built a door so that the top drops down. The door stays closed but we can drop the top half down so the birds can fly in and out. The drop down part is about 4 feet off of the ground. The guinea hens have no problem flying in and out of the door's opening at all... guinea hens can fly up into the tallest of trees. We have taught the birds to come in at night at dusk or when called for a treat of meal worms. If you want to train your birds to come when called you should start right away. I found they learn very quickly as youngsters.. but are a bit slower to learn to come when called once they get older.

All the best =)

 

[chickenmadness7]

Thank you so much for all of the thoughtful replies and for sharing your experiences. I ended up re-homing 3 of my guineas so just have two now. They free range most of the day now and always come back to the run for dinner. However, they've decided they won't go into the coop anymore. So after a week of having to catch them I'm letting them roost in the covered run. They seem much happier. I'm not sure how I will handle the situation come winter time.

 

[guineaczech]

I only keep mine in coop till there a month old or two and then they roost in the tree. Or try to roost on my truck.