Guineas snow and trees

[Smkry]

Our 4 older guineas have been up in trees for 3 nights now. We recently had snow and I think the snow has scared them. Normally we do not get much snow in southern KY. Luckily the 16 younger ones are locked in coop. We were surprised that the snow freaked them out. We’ve tried clearing snow away from coop door area, clinging food container, leaving cracked corn out, and talking to them. We have raised all from Keets and they are trained to go into coop at night. I hate not being able to get them out of trees and am worried they will starve to death. Hate to lose them! Any one have any suggestions? Night time temps have been in teens and low 20s. Thanks

 

[R2elk]

Our 4 older guineas have been up in trees for 3 nights now. We recently had snow and I think the snow has scared them. Normally we do not get much snow in southern KY. Luckily the 16 younger ones are locked in coop. We were surprised that the snow freaked them out. We’ve tried clearing snow away from coop door area, clinging food container, leaving cracked corn out, and talking to them. We have raised all from Keets and they are trained to go into coop at night. I hate not being able to get them out of trees and am worried they will starve to death. Hate to lose them! Any one have any suggestions? Night time temps have been in teens and low 20s. Thanks

Had the same happen here the first time my guineas saw snow. They took to the trees and refused to come down. I spread hay on the ground to give them a landing strip. Once they had a non-white area on the ground they started coming down.

Years later now, they are fine with snow.

 

[Smkry]

Had the same happen here the first time my guineas saw snow. They took to the trees and refused to come down. I spread hay on the ground to give them a landing strip. Once they had a non-white area on the ground they started coming down.

Years later now, they are fine with snow.

Thanks Bob. Heading out now to put some hay down. Hope it works!

 

[Smkry]

We finally had some sunshine today. Temps still in 20s. Day five with no food/water. I have been watching them eat snow and peck at bark for bugs. The 4 flew to the other side of our property and hung out by garden shed. We were able to net one And get him into coop. Later the other 3 flew back by coop and one went in. Only 2 more to catch. Tonight temps in single digits so hope we can get them in! Crazy birds but we love um!

 

[R2elk]

We finally had some sunshine today. Temps still in 20s. Day five with no food/water. I have been watching them eat snow and peck at bark for bugs. The 4 flew to the other side of our property and hung out by garden shed. We were able to net one And get him into coop. Later the other 3 flew back by coop and one went in. Only 2 more to catch. Tonight temps in single digits so hope we can get them in! Crazy birds but we love um!

Good luck.

 

[osukrazykate]

Oh my I hope you were able to catch them.

We finally had some sunshine today. Temps still in 20s. Day five with no food/water. I have been watching them eat snow and peck at bark for bugs. The 4 flew to the other side of our property and hung out by garden shed. We were able to net one And get him into coop. Later the other 3 flew back by coop and one went in. Only 2 more to catch. Tonight temps in single digits so hope we can get them in! Crazy birds but we love b

 

[50-45-1]

Every winter I have a few do this.
I did have one die a few years ago at about day 6 as nothing I did would bring him down.
Things I do are shovel or snow plow a large area, put hay straw or wood ashes over it. Leaving the door open so they can see there flock mates inside the coop has also worked .
I had 3 stay in the tree 2 nights ago.
I talked to them about the great horned owl that patrols the area every night, but they didn't listen. Luckily all three were still alive the next morning and decided to fo inside before the next nightfall.
Good luck!

 

[osukrazykate]

I had gotten some grown guineas many years ago when we lived on the edge of town. I had them cooped up for a bit to get them used to their new home with my chickens. When I finally let them free range that night they flew up to the trees and I was never able to get them down. It was during the summer/fall time so there was no snow. They were there a couple of nights or so and then eventually all disappeared. I'm going to go with they decided to live more in the countryside (trying to think positive, but know full well they are not that smart for living in the wild and owls love to pick them off). I couldn't find anything on the internet back then about how to get them out of the trees. Since they were a bit loud I didn't worry about getting anymore as we had close enough neighbors.
Now we are in the middle of nowhere on acreage with only the local cows and area wildlife to hear, I'd like to get some as I have read they have ferocious appetites for ticks and are great sound alarms for the flock to protect from predators such as hawks.
However, I am really strongly considering to either hatching eggs / buying keets so that they grow up with my flock and hopefully prevent them from flying off. Hatching sounds good to me as I love the hatching egg process (I get probably more excited than the kids each time we candle an egg and see them starting to develop to lockdown and seeing them finally hatch) and we have another young child who has never seen it yet. So it would be a great science experiment for him to get to watch the process.

 

[Smkry]

Thank you all for input. The 2 remain outside, it is now day 7. We have tried all suggestions and have tried to talk them down as well. lol Nothing seems to work. At least last night was in low 20s and temps are improving. Yesterday they flew from tree and to tree and continue to do so. I figure that is a good sign. We have 18 more cooped up and are scared to let them out with the snow on the ground. Luckily we have a good size coop with 2 sections so we are able to leave the door open to one side of the coop for the 2 rebels to join their flock. If we have enough snow melt today, we may let a few of the others out and see what happens.
Well as I was typing this, I heard my husband yelling for me from outside-the 2 finally came down and made it into coop. YAY!!! I guess they decided it was time to join the rest of their gang. SOOO grateful!!!!

 

[50-45-1]

Awesome news!