How to keep Guineas from going over the fence....Happy Halloween! =}

[BennieAnTheJets]

I finally got all mine sleeping in the house again and the younger set of guineas who are constantly molting apparently as I can not keep their wings clipped for more than a week at a time have taken to sleeping in the tree on the limb above the house. They've taken the young turkeys to the dark side as well. I foresee me out in the wet/cold very soon with some scissors...

Good try with the spooky flags though. lol

Uh-oh!!! I would break them of that ASAP - like not let them sleep there one more night - can you get a fishing net to get them down after dark? I got a big one from Walmart in the fishing/outdoors department - the one with the big holes in the mesh did not work and I almost broke a neck sticking through that one before I ran back and got one with a finer mesh. They have both at Walmart, at ours anyway. You want a big open loop but fine mesh on the catcher fabric.

I am not much for clipping wings anyway since they need them to evade predators and for general wellbeing, I think, but I would try to get their little feathered tushes back in the coop before they establish that habit. The owls are already licking their lips, well... sorta.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Uh-oh!!! I would break them of that ASAP - like not let them sleep there one more night - can you get a fishing net to get them down after dark? I got a big one from Walmart in the fishing/outdoors department - the one with the big holes in the mesh did not work and I almost broke a neck sticking through that one before I ran back and got one with a finer mesh. They have both at Walmart, at ours anyway. You want a big open loop but fine mesh on the catcher fabric.

I am not much for clipping wings anyway since they need them to evade predators and for general wellbeing, I think, but I would try to get their little feathered tushes back in the coop before they establish that habit. The owls are already licking their lips, well... sorta.

It was pouring and forty degrees last night so I did not go out there to wrangle them. But yes I do have a large net that works pretty well for snatching up wayward guineas. I've also become fairly adept at using the hose to get them down.

As far as clipping wings, generally I find that doing it once or twice is sufficient to teach them in the pen is better than out of the pen. Once their wings grow back in they've forgotten all about jumping over fences. Which would be why the older hens are sleeping in the coop with the older turkeys and the youngsters are the ones who are having flashbacks to being free in the old country. lol

 

[ColtHandorf]

Any luck figuring out a way to keep the wayward guineas where they belong? I clipped wings last night and got everyone out of the tree and in the house before the big thunderstorm came through. We'll see what they do today at bed time.

 

[BennieAnTheJets]

Any luck figuring out a way to keep the wayward guineas where they belong?

House arrest! Eh, coop arrest.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Well I'm happy to report mine are sleeping indoors. Rain, forty degree temperatures, and wing clipping seems to have done the trick. Even the two young turkeys have given up on the tree.