Fencing

[centrarchid]

I'm looking into getting about a dozen Guinea Fowl to forage roughly 8 acres that will be mostly open with cover patches. Area is managed with a combination of fencing and sheep mostly for benefit of chickens and wildlife. Concern I have is with fencing. The area will be subdivided using high tensile electric wire that will be moved around a lot. Anyone have issues with flying Guinea Fowl colliding with the fencing. Only times I have seen Guinea Fowl fly, they quickly got up to 30 feet before leveling out, but I never saw them land. My game chickens doing same do not do a lot of fast gliding at fence level as they slow down out lot before landing.

 

[R2elk]

I'm looking into getting about a dozen Guinea Fowl to forage roughly 8 acres that will be mostly open with cover patches. Area is managed with a combination of fencing and sheep mostly for benefit of chickens and wildlife. Concern I have is with fencing. The area will be subdivided using high tensile electric wire that will be moved around a lot. Anyone have issues with flying Guinea Fowl colliding with the fencing. Only times I have seen Guinea Fowl fly, they quickly got up to 30 feet before leveling out, but I never saw them land. My game chickens doing same do not do a lot of fast gliding at fence level as they slow down out lot before landing.

I have my guinea pen fenced with 2"x4"x6' welded wire. The guineas easily clear it. I do not recall any of them flying into the fence. I did have one hen rip her toenail off when she got hung up on top of the fence from trying to use it as a temporary perch.

I highly recommend that whatever you use for fencing, do not put a top bar or rail on it. This serves as an attractive perching site and invariably ends with the bird getting down on the wrong side of the fence.

Over the years I have herded my guineas back in enough times that I rarely have them fly over the fence now. Breeding season is the only time I really have issues with escapees. But all I normally have to do is open the coop door and they walk back in.

 

[centrarchid]

The fencing is not intended to confine birds as I use other approaches that definitely work for the chickens. I'm concerned with the fencing being a hazard to flying birds. My perimeter fencing, barnyard perimeter, and orchard perimeter is similar to yours.

 

[R2elk]

The fencing is not intended to confine birds as I use other approaches that definitely work for the chickens. I'm concerned with the fencing being a hazard to flying birds. My perimeter fencing, barnyard perimeter, and orchard perimeter is similar to yours.

I haven't had my guiineas fly into a fence unless they are right beside the fence when they take off. In that case, they flap, claw their way to the top of the fence and over. I have not seen any hit a fence when flying from a distance. They either sail right on over the fence or land short of the fence.

 

[centrarchid]

Thank you for your information.

 

[Isadora]

I have various fencing around the property, mostly poultry netting, but also high tensile electric fencing for the goats and pigs. My guineas prefer to hop over the bottom strand or slip underneath if there's enough space vs flying over. I have seen them fly over occasionally but have never seen them collide with it.
They do, however, throw themselves repeatedly into my poultry netting if someone gets too close and they feel panicked.

 

[SamLockwood]

Mine seem like pretty cautious and agile fliers, for what they are. Unless they get startled they tend spend a good bit of time sizing up a potential flight path, and their eyesight is very sharp in daylight. If they get startled all bets are off, and when they get to a certain age (for me it was 12 to 18 weeks) they tend to freak out about anything and react by either flying away or aggressively approaching it and shrieking. For three weeks they tried to bite every squirrel that touched the ground within 20 yards of them. Lately (they're 26 weeks old now) they've calmed down quite a bit.

Their night vision is terrible compared to a chicken's (which isn't great either), and I've got two that are pretty much blind in dim light. I painted the coop interior & exterior white for them, and they've got solar-powered motion-sensor lights inside and in the run to help them orient and get to their roosts at dusk. Even then if they happen to not trip the motion sensor I've seen them miss the door and fly into the side of the coop when they're going to bed for the night.

They're more clumsy on their feet, especially when they're young. I lost count of how many times a keet would get itself wedged in between or under something the chicks wouldn't think of entering.