I messed up

[Mirrormasc09]

When I initially bought my flock of guineas I started with 22, I had an overly curious dog who slaughtered 4 after they were successfully released, and then an additional 3 over a 2 week span. (Said dog was rehomed after multiple attempts at keeping her in a yard etc... I don’t personally like chains)

I now only have a remaining 10 (maybe 11 if my broody hen hunch is accurate). They’re happy and great layers but I can no longer get them to roost in a coop, they prefer the tree outside the coop. I’d really like to get my birds to roost in a coop at night due to an abundance of predators in Texas, only so much our Anatolian Shepard can do for me. And with a new batch of guineas starting to hatch I’m considering a crazy idea.

Is it worth while and ok to take my completely free range guineas and keep them cooped until the new hatchings can be integrated with their parents and hopefully start over with training them to roost in a coop? Or will they run for the hills when I rerelease them?

P.S. crazy excited about my pipping keets tonight.

I’m sorry for the long read, thank you in advance.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

When I initially bought my flock of guineas I started with 22, I had an overly curious dog who slaughtered 4 after they were successfully released, and then an additional 3 over a 2 week span. (Said dog was rehomed after multiple attempts at keeping her in a yard etc... I don’t personally like chains)

I now only have a remaining 10 (maybe 11 if my broody hen hunch is accurate). They’re happy and great layers but I can no longer get them to roost in a coop, they prefer the tree outside the coop. I’d really like to get my birds to roost in a coop at night due to an abundance of predators in Texas, only so much our Anatolian Shepard can do for me. And with a new batch of guineas starting to hatch I’m considering a crazy idea.

Is it worth while and ok to take my completely free range guineas and keep them cooped until the new hatchings can be integrated with their parents and hopefully start over with training them to roost in a coop? Or will they run for the hills when I rerelease them?

P.S. crazy excited about my pipping keets tonight.

I’m sorry for the long read, thank you in advance.

Sounds like you’ve been through a lot with your guineas! That’s really cool that you have a livestock guardian dog. Is she good with the birds? I recently moved my 2 year olds to a new coop and did that by putting electric netting and an overhead net on top of that (pic attached). I locked them in for six weeks and only now are they getting let out for part of the day. We also integrated last summers babies with their parents (the two year old flock). Honestly, we’ve had so much difficulty integrating them. They were introduced to each other last fall and locked up together for those six weeks, and the males are ganging up on and bullying my older male, who started off chasing all of the younger males. I would be worried about introducing the young ones in a fenced area, since there’s not enough room for the young ones to escape the older ones.

 

[Mirrormasc09]

Sounds like you’ve been through a lot with your guineas! That’s really cool that you have a livestock guardian dog. Is she good with the birds? I recently moved my 2 year olds to a new coop and did that by putting electric netting and an overhead net on top of that (pic attached). I locked them in for six weeks and only now are they getting let out for part of the day. We also integrated last summers babies with their parents (the two year old flock). Honestly, we’ve had so much difficulty integrating them. They were introduced to each other last fall and locked up together for those six weeks, and the males are ganging up on and bullying my older male, who started off chasing all of the younger males. I would be worried about introducing the young ones in a fenced area, since there’s not enough room for the young ones to escape the older ones.

It’s been an adventure with my flock, but I’m in love with their noisy selves. Keets are my favorite of all the baby birds lol I may have to settle with 2 flocks or keep only enough for breeding.

Question. My flock of all pearl guineas have been throwing a few all white/silver babies. And are feathering out with silver. Are these still considered pearls?

 

[R2elk]

It’s been an adventure with my flock, but I’m in love with their noisy selves. Keets are my favorite of all the baby birds lol I may have to settle with 2 flocks or keep only enough for breeding.

Question. My flock of all pearl guineas have been throwing a few all white/silver babies. And are feathering out with silver. Are these still considered pearls?

Pearl Grays having both the dominant gray color gene and the dominant full dotting can be hiding all kinds of hidden recessive genes.

Your different color offspring are still helmeted guinea fowl but are not Pearl Grays. Pictures would help us in trying to determine what color the keets are.

 

[Mirrormasc09]

Pearl Grays having both the dominant gray color gene and the dominant full dotting can be hiding all kinds of hidden recessive genes.

Your different color offspring are still helmeted guinea fowl but are not Pearl Grays. Pictures would help us in trying to determine what color the keets are.

Don’t mind that carpet, it’s an old farm house I use for incubators and storage lol

 

[Mirrormasc09]

Don’t mind that carpet, it’s an old farm house I use for incubators and storage lol

I’ll get a pic of the keet in the morning it’s feathers are coming in that same shade at about 4 weeks old it’s also considerably smaller than its hatch mates.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

That looks like a Navajo wool rug. Can you get a better picture of it?

 

[R2elk]

Don’t mind that carpet, it’s an old farm house I use for incubators and storage lol

That keet is a Lavender. At least one Pearl Gray hen and one Pearl Gray cock needs to be carrying the recessive blue color gene for Pearl Grays to create a Lavender. The Lavender will be fully dotted like your Pearl Grays are.

 

[Mirrormasc09]

That looks like a Navajo wool rug. Can you get a better picture of it?

Unexpected but when I get off of work I’ll do so lol

 

[Mirrormasc09]

That keet is a Lavender. At least one Pearl Gray hen and one Pearl Gray cock needs to be carrying the recessive blue color gene for Pearl Grays to create a Lavender. The Lavender will be fully dotted like your Pearl Grays are.

Awesome, it does have a pretty blue to it now. I’m praying more like it hatch