Guinea talk.

[GlennLee]

Well Spiderman and Mary Jane took a trip to walmart in the truck. My husband didn't tell me about it until the next day. He said they were very calm and good and he only had a problem with Mary Jane when he shifted the gears on the floor Mary Jane would peck him. Can you imagine peoples faces if they saw two guineas in the truck.

He should have taken them inside because our Walmart anything goes. They would fit right in with the crowd.

Okay, so I have trouble getting my dog to go for a ride in the car and you have your guineas going to Walmart! That is hysterical. Your husband is brave to try that alone. I think Mary Jane just wanted to learn to drive. I'll bet you could work with them to pass the driver's permit test. They are amazing!

 

[GlennLee]

Hi. The way we've set it up, it is ideal for hot/humid climates with mild winters. I had originally thought I would put up tarp sidewalls for the winter, but it hasn't turned out to be necessary. We had a hard freeze couple days last week and the guineas were fine up in the arch where it's protected. If the weather stayed freezing or that harsh, would be looking at doing sidewalls (most of the time when people make these hoop-coop designs in snow country, they totally cover them with a big opaque tarp and sometimes even add some kind of insulation). What works for us is that guineas really love to roost high, so by giving them that option, they like their coop, which can be a real issue with these birds. It was also simple enough for us to build ourselves, although we did have a very knowledgeable builder spearhead this one. We love using the cattle panels because they are wonderfully adaptable and can always be broken back down to panels and re-used for something else. And we love the curved arch created, as a shape and a space in the landscape, it's just delightful.


TARP: it's called a "Clear Tarp", lots of tarp places on the online carry them-- you have to shop carefully because some of them seem to have low prices but very high shipping, and shipping is expensive, so it pays to look at the total cost. This tarp was about $100 (total) for 20-ft x 12-ft or so. It's made of HEAVY clear poly, with nylon cord reinforcement in a grid pattern throughout, and the company I bought from has grommets every 18" instead of the standard 36" for same price. And it's UV protected. It makes it soooo nice inside. Here's a better photo so you can see:

It reminds me of the "chunnels" the farmers use here like a greenhouse to start crops early. It also has the look of some domes I've seen at botanical gardens. Just stunning! Thank you for all the details on the design and building. I appreciate your willingness to share - you never know when something like this might come in handy. My guineas would love to be up there, but I'd have to provide graduated steps for them since they only hop and don't fly. Silly birds!!!

 

[GlennLee]

Awesome idea on the straw tunnels....I'm going to have to try that!
I was wondering if your French Guineas are in these pictures or your videos that you posted? I've never seen French Guineas and I'm curious how much bigger they are than the typical guinea.

You would probably have good luck with the straw tunnels, Rhea. Your guineas are already laying in wheelbarrows and let you move their nests. It's also helped to create some safe places for a quick getaway when being picked (or pecked) on!

Yes and yes... on the pictures and videos. The differences are subtle and it's easier to tell when you see the two varieties together, but the vidoes with "Newbies" in the title are of the regulars or I guess "domestics" as they are called. The 3rd video of all of them chilling on the floor of the barn starts with a pan of the French Guineas and then the domestics are the last 4 on the floor. There is a male French hanging out on part of the straw bale. Both the domestics and French are of the pearled variety, but the French are a bit bigger, they don't fly well - preferring to hop up on things and sometimes gliding down. And for me they are MUCH quieter. Again, I don't know if it's because I raised the French from keets and the domestics were integrated when they were about 4 months old, or if there are truly differences because of the variety.

In the pictures, the four domestics are on the straw bales (there's one French joining them in the first pic). The domestics tend to go higher, have more energy, and like to pace the bales and along the roost. They would also roost on the crossbeams if we hadn't blocked them. My French just look up from down below and if you could read their minds I think they would be saying, "What are you? Crazy? Get down from there!"

I just found a site that sells Lavender French Guineas, but you have to buy 30 keets! I didn't want to commit to that many and am hoping to have my own French pearled keets here before too long. Perhaps if I had some of the neighbors sharing them, I would purchase them in another year. The hatchery isn't selling eggs at this point, but they are planning to make them available in a couple of years, so I might just wait it out and purchase eggs.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Thank you for your kind words, GlennLee. Yes, this construction can be used for a lot of different applications, with various types of tarp/coverings depending on use, and without the hardware cloth, which is a big part of the expense for the predator-proof version. We will probably wind up using this construction for our "high tunnels" as they are also known, for protected growing all year round. Here where we are, we often get too much rain all at once, so having some control over amount of water received actually helps a lot for vegetable gardening.

I'm planning to add some of the straw-bale caves you invented to the back (behind the camera in this pic). We also have another coop, which was the guineas' intermediate home, that is a 6-ft high arch and too small for the whole flock but I think they may be checking it out for roosting. I'm going to add straw bales to that one also:



This construction is just the arch part without the vertical base of the other one.

 

[MartinsPoultry]

Hey guys and gals, Christy here posting an update.
James and I had gotten two new older chickens they are doing well but one is in the house to heal up from being rooster plucked.

I had noticed over the previous days Delta had been really picking at her feet, so i brought her in to wash her feet in the tub and this silly girl laid in the warm water and took a bath. So right now she is being held while warming up and drying off

 

[mommaguinea]

white millet too!

 

[GlennLee]

Hey guys and gals, Christy here posting an update.
James and I had gotten two new older chickens they are doing well but one is in the house to heal up from being rooster plucked.

I had noticed over the previous days Delta had been really picking at her feet, so i brought her in to wash her feet in the tub and this silly girl laid in the warm water and took a bath. So right now she is being held while warming up and drying off

Thanks for the update, Christy... good to hear from you. Sorry about all the plucking going on there. How cute that Delta enjoyed having her feet washed and more! You have a spa just like Patty does for Mary Jane. She's a lucky girl and I'm sure she enjoys being cuddled in a nice fluffy towel.

 

[GlennLee]

white millet too!

Is your avatar a Bronze? Love the color.

 

[mommaguinea]

Yes- although not one of mine when I chose the photo- I do have them in my mixed flock- they are beautiful

 

[MartinsPoultry]

Thanks for the update, Christy... good to hear from you. Sorry about all the plucking going on there. How cute that Delta enjoyed having her feet washed and more! You have a spa just like Patty does for Mary Jane. She's a lucky girl and I'm sure she enjoys being cuddled in a nice fluffy towel.

She did enjoy it as well as a heating pad on low to help warm her up. After about an hour of being held in the towel and heating pad she was still a little damp so I carried her to the bathroom and persisted on blow drying her on low to help fluff up the downy that were still wet before releasing her the the coop. She didn't fight at all more or less slept on my lap when I was holding her. Only fight she did put up is when I went to take her out of the luke warm tub she pecked at my hand. I checked over her freshly clean toes and no cuts, scrapes or wounds that I could tell, so maybe the caked on poo was bugging her. Not everyone gets spoiled enough to come in the house for a bath.