Guinea Fowl - ` To be or not too be`

[springchicken66]

These birds look fun to watch and interesting. I need advice on housing, run protection and feeding please.

 

[R2elk]

These birds look fun to watch and interesting. I need advice on housing, run protection and feeding please.

Read the thread Raising Guinea Fowl 101 and pay particular attention to posts made by @PeepsCA .

 

[SulkyBantam]

I love guineas, but just to say they are not as intelligent or affectionate as chickens.
If you have roosters, they won't get on with guinea-roos.
Not to dampen your enthusiasm though, they are indeed very fun!
Mine just eat layers pellets like the chickens.
They don't love cold weather but are not delicate.
Rain protection is good.
They are loud though not usually early in the morning.
Our are good in a chicken-house, however they will not willingly go in to bed and would rather roost up high... it takes up time getting them out of trees if you are worried about predators.
Hope that helps!

 

[Sydney65]

They're a great deal of entertainment. I've never had chickens to compare, but mine follow me around like ducklings & knock on the door for attention. I've never read anything about their hearing acuity, but they always seem position themselves right outside of where ever we are in the house. Keets are skittish, but my adults are accustomed to being picked up. Once they're about 8-10 wks old, they're pretty sturdy birds. Keets are fragile. They'll debug your property. Juvenile females are loud. My adults are quiet. You train them to go to the coop at night. Mine now head in on their own around 5 pm. Like everything else, you get outbof them what you put in.

 

[My2butterflies]

^^Agreed.
If you put in the work to get them on a routine right from the start they will stick with it.
If mine are out when I leave the house and I don’t get back till dark, I know they will be in the coop when I get home. All I have to do is shut the door.
And even adult guineas are able to learn new routines. I switched coops on mine last year. Now, it was a bit of work the first week or two, but it got easier each time. And now they are completely settled on cooping up at night on their own.

There are lots of threads on here with coop setups, feed recommendations, fencing(funnel fencing that is very helpful when coop training), and so much more.
They are awesome birds.

 

[Sydney65]

^^Agreed.
If you put in the work to get them on a routine right from the start they will stick with it.
If mine are out when I leave the house and I don’t get back till dark, I know they will be in the coop when I get home. All I have to do is shut the door.
And even adult guineas are able to learn new routines. I switched coops on mine last year. Now, it was a bit of work the first week or two, but it got easier each time. And now they are completely settled on cooping up at night on their own.

There are lots of threads on here with coop setups, feed recommendations, fencing(funnel fencing that is very helpful when coop training), and so much more.
They are awesome birds.

I'm glad you commented on rehousing. I wondered how they'd handle that.

 

[My2butterflies]

I'm glad you commented on rehousing. I wondered how they'd handle that.

It was something that gave me a lot of stress just thinking about it. I pictured having to chase them down with a net and relocating them one at a time. And with 12 adults at the time I was not looking forward to that
We put in a funnel fence and herded them to the new coop. It took 4 of us to get them in the first few nights. The first night I had to catch one guinea by hand, but that was the only time.
After that my two kids helped me round them up for a couple weeks. And then I was able to do it on my own. Now with the short days they coop themselves well before dark. I just shut the door.
It went a lot smoother then I anticipated.