Guineas: Tips to keep them around and alive withought cooping

[DaveMN]

i kept mine in the coop for about 4 weeks so they would learn that it was home. then let them out a couple of hours before dark so they could not go far.
The biggest thing i found to get them into the coop was to have a light on a timer so it would turn on a bit before sunset. then they would run across the yard (funny thing to see) and into the coop. otherwise they would roost on the roof or in a tree and be squawking at sunrise.

i never clipped the wings, they would fly across the field to my in-laws and then usually run back. i usually lost about 6 during the course of the summer and they roamed all day long and would come home at night. losing a few was ok since I put eggs in the bator to hatch out replacements.
a really good treat - millet and old oranges. the millet is like candy, mine would come up and eat it out of my hands, remember it is a treat and use sparingly and they will readily come for it.

by the way, I love guineas, bit noisy but so darn ugly they are cute.

 

[mooman]

Millet....good to know. I'm actually going to be planting a section of field in browntop millet as I am tired of looking at bare ground and brush.

 

[Becky89*]

I am scared to let mine out of the fence cause when they are in the fence they are calm and they come to me and listen, where if I let them out of the fence which I've only done once they fly up in a tree and they won't come to me unless I have corn or my fishing supply of night crawlers.

My two babies are nearing a year old and I handle them as much as possible, I don't know what to do.

I don't want to clip their wings incase the neighbors dog trys to attack them again.

 

[warcard]

Yes they will brood, but the problem is they won't move for anything and don't always pick the safest place to brood. We have lost at least two mothers sitting on eggs in the middle of a field to hawks. My husband was told that if they are sitting they won't move even if a raccoon walks right up to them.

 

[Becky89*]

That is true!! If you only have one female and she has a nest she won't even get up for food or water. I lost a hen that way because I was uneducated at the time and didn't know that was what had happened. :|

 

[GwenFarms]

It is possible for guineas to hatch on their own, but rare. They are just such goofy birds. All of them will lay in one nest alot of times. We pulled over a hundred eggs out of a nest a few days ago....this was one days eggs. There is no way a guinea can sit that.

On the rare occasion that a nest does get laid correctly and a hen goes broody when she hatches the keats scatter. They don't stay with mama like chicks will and all is quickly lost. The hen is too scatterbrained to keep all of them and you will only have one, or two keats that stay warm enough to live.

Be sure and use a quail waterer in your brooder, they will stay drier this way and for the first few days wall off the brooder so that they can't help, but find the heat lamp. After a few days they will have it figured out. I also don't like keeping keats on wire when they are very young. They do really good on a dirt floor. They are so messy with their water and such, the dirt helps keep them dry, which helps keep them healthy.

We only feed ours feed in their coop.
We close the doors to the coop when they are free ranging.
We open the doors when it is time for them to go in..about the same time every evening.
Most night they pour in after the food.
Then we shut the whole thing up and they are safe from predators. They like to roost really high, so they have a good survival rate when left without a coop.