Last Guinea

[LuckyLucy7]

I live on a ranch as a renter. Recently six of the ranchers chickens and the one surviving Guinea Fowl have refused to go back to the coop with the other birds and have started living in my backyard. I quickly got a small coop with a run for them to sleep in at night and they free range all day. The Guineas here in the past killed a chicken while in the large coop at night and attacked another who I have now pinning her down and pecking at her head. The one surviving Guinea seems to either not to be the aggressor or has lost its aggressive tendencies now that it is the lone Guinea. It will not go into the small coop and roosts on a 5 ft. fence at night. We put up a 2x4 across two trees close to the coop today to try to keep her closer to the middle of the yard, but she chose to sleep on the fence. I wish I could build a large run for them and that she would at least sleep in that, but this is not possible at this time. Do you think she will ever roost on the 2x4 in the tree? What else can I do to try to keep her safe? Every night I pray nothing attacks her in the middle of the night.

 

[Gill-b]

Is there any possibility to rehome the Guinea? The best thing for it would to be in a nice size flock of other Guineas.

 

[LuckyLucy7]

Is there any possibility to rehome the Guinea? The best thing for it would to be in a nice size flock of other Guineas.

I would love to, but the owner won't let me.

 

[Gill-b]

One thing I have noticed with our neighbourhood Guineas is that they do not like to have anything above their heads. The natural habitat of Guinea Fowl is to be in the open bush veld amoung low bush scrub, so I am assuming that the Guineas instinct is to be where they can keep an eye on the sky.

Perhaps your Guinea is preferring to sleep on the fence, where I am assuming that it has open sky above, to roosting in a tree which is under the cover of branches?

 

[Alicethewhiterabbit]

The only time my guineas did not roost in the coop was because there was a predator (weasel) who eventually got one of them and alerted me of the situation. I now trust their alarm calls as she is letting me know there is a predator around. Hope this helps.


I heard that male guineas can be dangerous to chickens. My girls are great with my chickens