Guinea questions!

[Justanother Brooke]

Hello -
We just got 6 guinea fowl today. They are 3 - 3 1/2 months old. How long should we keep them shut in before we let them start free ranging with the chickens?
Thanks!

 

[GuineaLady93]

I would say wait around 3 or 4 months to let them out.

 

[livenwpeeps]

5 to 6 weeks is what I do and I also train them while they are young to come back to the ringing of a cow bell so getting them in the coop is easier.

 

[PeepsCA]

It's a good idea to house them side by side with the chickens, separated by wire for about 6 weeks so they can get used to each other and hopefully avoid any aggression problems once you integrate them all. And I agree with livenwpeeps, training them to come running for food/treats to a certain call, sound, or a bell in the meantime is really helpful for getting them to come in at night to roost.

 

[Justanother Brooke]

I currently have them in my grow out coop, and this weekend we will be putting it inside our large outdoor dog run (no dogs in there, just fyi!), and covering the top so they can't fly out. The chickens have the run of the place, and seem very intrigued by the guineas right now. The guineas were freaking out this morning at the chickens, but now they are all just milling around their respective sides of the run, checking each other out.
How in the world do you train them to come to a cowbell (or other noise)? Ring the bell, then throw treats?
Thanks for all the help, I know absolutely NOTHING about guineas, but a lady I work with sometimes ordered 25, figured she would lose some, and hasn't lost any. My husband has been wanting to get them, as we are out in tick central, ha ha! I swear, he always grumping about the amount of chickens, but he is such an enabler! I thought we would get 2 or 3 guineas, he's the one that decided 6 was a good number!

 

[PeepsCA]

How in the world do you train them to come to a cowbell (or other noise)? Ring the bell, then throw treats?

Yep, try to always make the same call or same noise every time you feed them... and make extra trips to the pen just to bring them little bits of this and that (bugs, bread, veggies, millet... whatever they like) all thru the day, as often as you can. And each time try to go to a different spot of the pen so they learn to come running to you. Eventually they figure out that word or sound means HERE COMES THE FOOD GODDESS, ME FIRST ME FIRST!!! Plus it gets them used to you being close to them and not quite so skittish. I can usually eventually work up to going into their pen with them and getting them to eat out of my hand, but it takes a while for them to get that trusting.​

 

[livenwpeeps]

I train just like PeepsCa wrote and it works! However there are times, few and far between, that my birds act like they don't know what in the world a cow bell is after all that training. Those days I have to get the herding sticks and go get them. Then there are other days that they come running just because they see me come out the door.