Some of you may have read of our problems with our guinea flock getting hit by cars on our nearby roads. The flock got adventurous as the weather warmed, so I suspected that hens had found nest sites across the road and were leading the guys there...
So, we wanted to pen the guineas at their coop with our new nest boxes to try to get them to accept this as their nest site, then let them free range again. I wanted a temporary fence that could be placed on a hill, so we went with electric poultry netting from Premier 1. We needed a cover so the birds wouldn’t fly out, so purchased “bird netting” with 1.5 in holes from Amazon. I filled 5 gallon buckets with dry concrete, added a 3” PVC pipe, then water. A bucket lid was used to make the overhead netting support. Buckets seemed wobbly on soft ground, so I leveled then drove stakes around them to try to keep them from being blown over.
our guineas understood the electric fencing pretty quickly and they respect it now, after three days, but still test it occasionally. The hardest part has been flock dynamics - with 16 guineas in a 40 x 20 ft run and 8 x 16 ft coop, the most subordinate females get chased and feathers pulled often. I hate to see that, but keep telling myself that it’s better than losing them all as road kill...
I thought I’d share pics in case anyone else wants to try electric netting with guineas, as I found so little information about this. Also, here’s the nesting boxes that we designed for guineas and are trying out - no eggs laid there yet! Only egg was a small egg found in the pen.
So, we wanted to pen the guineas at their coop with our new nest boxes to try to get them to accept this as their nest site, then let them free range again. I wanted a temporary fence that could be placed on a hill, so we went with electric poultry netting from Premier 1. We needed a cover so the birds wouldn’t fly out, so purchased “bird netting” with 1.5 in holes from Amazon. I filled 5 gallon buckets with dry concrete, added a 3” PVC pipe, then water. A bucket lid was used to make the overhead netting support. Buckets seemed wobbly on soft ground, so I leveled then drove stakes around them to try to keep them from being blown over.
our guineas understood the electric fencing pretty quickly and they respect it now, after three days, but still test it occasionally. The hardest part has been flock dynamics - with 16 guineas in a 40 x 20 ft run and 8 x 16 ft coop, the most subordinate females get chased and feathers pulled often. I hate to see that, but keep telling myself that it’s better than losing them all as road kill...
I thought I’d share pics in case anyone else wants to try electric netting with guineas, as I found so little information about this. Also, here’s the nesting boxes that we designed for guineas and are trying out - no eggs laid there yet! Only egg was a small egg found in the pen.
