Guineas "stolen" by neighbor's flock...

[Granny Hatchet]

job well done

 

[1876 Farm]

may i ask, what you are feeding? since cold weather came and the bugs are gone my guineas keep begging and i am their best friend. i have increased protein and gave everything i can think off. any suggestions?

Guineas love wild bird seed, actually my chickens do too. We have a feed spreader, like the type people use to attract the deer, inside the yard near their coop. It goes off every night, right before dark. Helps to bring back the Guineas into the yard and then they go into the coop each night.

When we walk into the yard, we will grab a handful of wild bird seed and toss it to the Guineas, this helps the Guineas with being familiar to humans.. otherwise they may run from us

We also have a wild bird feed block in the coop ,to encourage the Guineas to go into the coop.

And finally you should feed your Guineas turkey feed vs. chicken feed. It's higher in protein and more fits the diet of these "wild" birds.

Enjoy your Guineas they make for a lively yard.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i increased the feed to 26 % , millet, corn, scratch and mealworms they are still not happy birds.

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I finally got a good count of my guineas. It turns out that I still have 41. I started with 41 young birds and 5 older birds...so I've lost a total of 5. One escaped from my hands when I was trying to move them from the hatcher into the barn and it just ran away. One drowned in the waterer because I had my dad water them while I was out of town and he forgot to put the top back on. One was a runt with bad legs that a hawk got. So...really I've only lost two others. I remember the night that 10 slept out on the power line going to the barn. There was another one that ran off into the woods that I couldn't catch. I'll bet that's one of the two. There was another instance when a bunch tried to roost on the step-perches that I had built going up to the loft. When I herded them into the barn one seemed to "disappear". I thought that either it had already run into the barn or flown up to the loft but it might have run off into the bamboo, the woods, or the blueberries and then been taken that night by predators. Either way, I have far more than I thought and so have lost far fewer than I thought. I've had them do a fair job of roosting in the barn at night as long as I round them up and herd them in the right direction. It might not actually be necessary but they sure seem clueless as the sun starts to set. I still have a few birds that don't like to leave the barn (all but one are the Jumbo/French that stay in there). It really seems like maybe the Jumbo/French might have had some of their natural guinea sense bread out of them since they are the ones that run off when they are startled and don't seem to call out to re-join the flock. They seem more likely to stay in the barn. They definitely are slower to roost but that might be because they don't fly very well and really seem to struggle to get up there. It will be interesting to see if their differences become more or less pronounced as they mature.

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I lost at least 13 birds today. All the birds are missing (I called the neighbor and some of them have shown up over there) but I found 13 dead birds. Whatever killed them didn't eat any of them...so it is almost certainly a dog. I'm so sad, mad, and downright irritated.

 

[memphis]

Oh no! I feel so bad for you! Any idea who's dog it was?

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I don't know who's dog it was, but one neighbor appeared to be talking loudly to his dog and I know that is the dog that had killed a few of the other neighbor's guineas. The other neighbor told the guy to keep his dog up or he'd shoot it. I wonder if the dog got out. If so, I'd actually be relieved because he usually is good about keeping it up and now knows that he has yet another neighbor that has poultry and he knows how ******-off I am about losing my birds. In the future, that would probably be the last local dog that I'd have to worry about.

 

[1876 Farm]

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i would be knocking on his door and telling him he owes you compensation .tell him that he already knew his dog was vicious because it had happened before. it was on your property? im so sorry.

. think i would call animal control and tell them about a vicious dog at large at the least

 

[memphis]

Well I sorry for what happened. I've been following your adventures with the birds.