How to get Guineas to go in to the coop at night?

[ms4runr]

That's a shame about not being able to free range your Guineas... even just short periods of supervised free ranging makes for much happier birds, so hopefully you'll get something worked out. Supposedly free ranging a big Tom (Turkey) with a flock of Guineas (and/or chickens) helps deter the hawks. I have Toms free ranging with some of my Guineas, but I don't have a significant enough hawk issue to have been able to prove or disprove that theory (yet)... but my Toms are always watching the sky and hissing or letting off an effective warning call when they see anything above. Sometimes all I see is a tiny tiny dot way way up in the sky, but the Toms (and the Turkey Hens) are instantly honed in on whatever is up there (even if it's a jet 10,000+ ft up lol). The Guineas usually chime in with their screeching alarm call a split second later and everyone scatters for tree cover.

This is very interesting. We have lots of hawks here. They did not bother the guineas last year, but I did not have chickens then and am planning on letting the hens go broody. I think I'll get a Tom just in case. Does it matter what age he is to try and bring him in with 3 hens, 2 roosters (one is a banty on his way out) and 4 guineas?

 

[PeepsCA]

I don't know if age matters as far as sky danger awareness as far as Turkeys go... my Turkeys were only about 3-3 1/2 months old when they first started free ranging, and were effectively sky watching. If you get a Turkey that's young tho, it should bond with your flock easier, without any issues.