Guinea hen care

[GuineaFowling]

Quote:

Hello everyone,
I am brand new to the Guinea/Chicken world. We are moving onto 20 ares and will be having horses. We are moving in the next few months so I want to make sure I am prepared. We want Guinea's to help with the ticks. Now I need some advice, do I get adults so they can free range almost right away or do I just go head and get Keets? I'm not sure how fast they grow and would be able to start going outside the coop. I want to make sure I do everything correctly. Any advice would be great! I will have a coop that is connected to an old silo.
Thanks for the help!

It depends entirely on what you prefer. If you want friendly, tame birds I would suggest keets. Keets grow much faster than the chickens and its a wonderful thing to experience raising them. Raising keets will also help you with having to train them to coop at night. Adults would have to be kept in for a week or two and then let out and locked back in at night for a couple of days. With keets you would move them into the coop once they are too big for the brooder and they would have imprinted on it before they are even big enough to free range. If you do go ahead and get adults I would not let them free range immediately as they would fly away trying to find home. I always start off ith babies as I love to be able to handle each bird everyday. My guineas are sooo tame I can walk up to them and pick them up without having to chase them down. They are really fast so chasing them would be a hassle. Also in my flock I have an equal male to female ratio so that no males get left out on breeding season (and they fight a lot over hens)but you dont have to do that.

 

[KCoppock26]

Thank you so much for the help. I would love to get keets but my only worry is that we are probably not moving until October. Is this going to leave me enough time for the to grow before snow flies?

 

[GuineaFowling]

They are quite hardy. I dont live where it snows but I know some people who do and the guineas often are out in the snow but they do like taking shelter when it gets too cold for their feet (often on the porch). Well I would not let them in the snow until they are adults and then still I would put a heat source for them. When does it begin to snow for you?

 

[R2elk]

Thank you so much for the help. I would love to get keets but my only worry is that we are probably not moving until October. Is this going to leave me enough time for the to grow before snow flies?

I keep my guineas in the coop when it snows. They seem to have a problem with all the white and will take to the trees and not come down until there is something on the ground other than white. I had to scatter hay on the snow to get my birds to come down when I made the mistake of letting them out on a snowy day.

I have read of cases where guineas that took to the trees refused to come down and starved to death before the snow melted off. Those were extreme cases.

The recommendation when bringing in adult guineas is to keep them penned up for 6 weeks. It takes that long to get them to understand that this is their new home. Many also recommend only releasing part of the group when you first allow them out to free range as it tends to keep the loose ones closer and makes it easier to get them back in the coop in the evening.

It is very wise to keep the guineas in a predator proof coop at night if you want to protect them from predators.

Good luck.

 

[KCoppock26]

I live in Michigan so it starts to snow Nov/Dec. This past winter was very cold. If this happens again this year I will probably keep them inside with a heat source. I do have a pretty cool set up I think. I have a pretty decent size coop that is next to an old silo so I can open a door and they can go in the silo and "be outside" but protected.

 

[GuineaFowling]

That should work just fine.

 

[Star2014]

I live where we have very cold winters (sometimes) so we put our free ranging guineas in in the winter. A silo coop would be good. If you have females I would make a nursery spot for brooding and keets. Around breeding season watch your females; if they go out and disappear for periods of time you could try following them to see if they have a nest. Also if you have a pen connected to the house the keets could start thier bug eating job out there. I would get keets and start them in the house and then move them to the pen and at around 8-9 weeks you could let them free range. I mean when they are 8-9 weeks old sorry and move them out of your house at 6-7 weeks old. Hope this helps.

 

[NEAChickArtist]

Hi from Arkansas! I bought ten keets Saturday. They are a week old. When do you take away the light that keeps them warm? Also I have put them in a big box for now. When should I put them in their enclosed coop? I have nine chickens that have a coop & nice big run. We live in the hills, have eight acres, mostly wooded. We want the guineas to free range on the property around the house because we have lots of ticks. And I think it looks cool to have them walking around freely in the daytime. Thanks for any response!

 

[ASeaton]

I was sold 3 guineas as chicks. They are 4 weeks old and thriving. I treated them like chicks. Temp and all. Gave them chick feed. They are now 4 weeks old living at 75 degrees still eating chick feed. I live in a big city and I am trying to re-home them.