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

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Well, I kept them locked up for about a week and the day I let them out they ended up at the neighbor's again. I guess guineas just don't like being in a flock as small as 5 birds...but I'm a bit surprised that the neighbor's big flock of 30-35 birds were so accepting. I went over to find them...and there they were (he doesn't have any Royal Purple and even though they harass the little pearl it sticks with them even at the neighbor's). Anyhow, I ran by on Sunday morning but the neighbor wasn't at home. I was heading out of town that day for a week. I found my birds but couldn't round them up in the front yard and didn't want to be running around in his barn and field uninvited. I'll just have to go back after vacation. My new plan will be to lock them up until my keets are big enough to put in the loft (I have to fix up an adjoining area so they can be separated yet seen for a while before I put them all together). Hopefully once we have a flock of 46 these 5 will stick around and help keep the new birds out of trouble watching for hawks and dogs instead of rejoining the neighbor's flock.
 
i have a flock of 7 but theres no neighbors flock to run to. mine been acting weird since its turned a little cold. staying real close to me and begging for some thing. wish i knew what
 
As an update my guineas have been a lot harder to try and catch now that they've been caught once before. Trying to heard them into the old coop like we did last time did not work at all. They just flew up onto the roof of the old coop. My neighbor had been out of town and so had I and then a string of incidents kept us from trying to catch them again for quite a while. Today he came over with my guineas in a cage and I put them back up in the loft of the barn and locked them in. The neighbor had been feeding them in an open cage (about 3'x3' and 6' long). He skipped the feeding last night and when he threw scratch in there this morning mine were the first to barrel in and he closed the door on them. I have the loft in the barn divided into two sections with the adults on one side and my 40 younger birds on the other. I'll keep them apart for a few weeks and then try putting them together as one flock. When I'm ready to try letting them out again (maybe in a few months) I'll try and keep a few of the older adults locked in the one side of the loft as an incentive for the others to return. Hopefully having a larger flock will keep my guineas at home. My fear is that one day they take the whole flock of 46 birds over to live at the neighbor's.
 
I tried to put the adults with the young guineas today. I only let two of the adults into the area with the younger ones and they pretty much just started pecking them at random. I know some of that has to go on, but I shoed them back over to the other side and closed the adjoining door on them. I'll give it another week. When these adults were young (but maybe not quite as young) they were down to 6 and I added two adults with no aggression but the new guineas were the intruders. This time the young guineas are in the side of the coop that the adults originally lived in. I don't know if it is territory or if 5 is not as eager to join a flock as two would be. The older birds might also still see themselves as being part of a much larger flock (the neighbor's) and not feel as compelled to join a different large flock.
 
After the first week I tried to let two of the adult guineas mix with the younger birds to see how they would do. I thought maybe one week was sufficient to make them feel as if they were all part of the same flock (instead of the two recommended for chickens) since guineas seem to be less aggressive than chickens and seem to want to be part of a flock more. Well, they pretty much just walked over and started pecking the little ones that cowered in the corner. I don't know if this is somewhat normal (establishing a pecking order) but I herded the adults back to their side and shut the little door to keep them separate for another week. I'll try and put them back together this week and assume that whatever happens is what is supposed to happen. Some of the younger birds are getting pretty darn big but some (the same age) are still quite small. The Jumbo/French that are six weeks old are mostly taller (and much more stocky) than the Royal Purple and Violet keets that are two months old.
 
they do have a pecking order and if no blood is drawn i would maybe just watch . sometimes guineas are so protective of their own young they can actually kill them thinking they are protecting.
 
Yesterday I opened the little door that connect the older adult guineas from the smaller 7 week and 9 week keets a few inches to try and let the adults poke their heads in and look around. They have mesh in between the two sides on the top half, but I thought this would be a nice step in the right direction. The door is a piece of plywood that slides in a channel...but it barely slides. It takes a lot of force and wiggling to get the door to budge so I thought it would be impossible for the guineas to move at all. Well, the door did not appear to have been budged yet there was an adult guinea on the same side as the smaller birds. They must be able to squeeze through some smaller spaces than I thought (my daughter suggested that they must be mostly feathers and in a way she might be right). All was calm and the birds milled around as if nothing was unusual. I pulled the door the rest of the way open and after awhile I left to do a few chores. The birds stayed divided for a while but when I checked back an hour or so later they were all mixed and milling about peacefully. There might have been some serious pecking going on for a while at first but none that I saw.
 
thats great! bet your glad huh? took a long time but better safe than sorry
thumbsup.gif
 

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