More guinea trials

[Akane]

So after putting her in the bantam coop for a few days to collect eggs I decided to let the coral blue and bantams out in the little temporary pen for the day. The others in the big coop were locked up because the hens had decided to lay eggs with the guineas in some unknown location amongst a bunch of junk and thorn bushes. My neighbor said the guinea cock had been quite violent to the chickens lately and was very concerned so I agreed it would be a good idea to lock him up until spring breeding season calms down a little. I gathered him up and temporarily put him in a dog crate until I get a pen built for him. I decided with only 1 guinea hen left in the big coop and the chickens having already laid their eggs in the nestboxes again that I would open the big coop for awhile. So I left everyone happily (except the guinea cock) enjoying the sunshine.

I went out well before dark to lock them up and found my blue guinea hen from the bantam coop in a tree. I scared her down but she flew the length of the yard to an old building. I followed her and she went right in front of the big coop that she's spent the past 4-6months in. She could have gone in there but nope. She heads in to the junk pile and that's where I lost her. I searched, I called, I threw down sunflower seeds, and finally I banged around in there trying to scare her out until it was dark enough I was at risk of breaking an ankle. I left the nearby big coop door open and went back to the bantam coop to settle them and the guinea cock in for the night. When I went back to close the big coop I found no guineas.

Now I have one guinea cock in a dog crate and 2 hens who knows where and whether they'll be alive tomorrow morning.

Definitely clipping wings on this next batch. I managed to convince my landlord to let me have a bantam pen so maybe a guinea pen will happen in the near future. Otherwise when we get our own place at least the majority of those buggers are getting their own roofed run. I like them, I like to watch them, I like the bugs they eat, I like the colors, I like the noises, I love keets, but I do not like chasing them down, losing them to predators constantly, and having to go on an easter egg hunt or lock everyone up in a coop every time I want guinea eggs.

 

[MuranoFarms]

Wow! What an ordeal!

I hope your girls are ok this morning!

I'm with you on the egg hunt! I just can't keep doing it. Mine probably travel over at least 5 acres a day...most of it wooded. Even when I don't need the eggs, I don't want them laying in the woods! I'm afraid some predator will find the eggs and keep coming back for more.

I never tried clipping their wings. I'm sure somebody will be along with more experience on that.

 

[Akane]

I made a thread on wing clipping and never got any responses. So I made a thread on guinea fowl international boards and got told to spend time I don't have training my guineas to come to a certain treat instead. Still no answers on the effectiveness of wing clipping.

 

[Akane]

Well coral blue hen seems to be gone. It rained the all the next day after that night so I hoped she'd just holed up and would be back but then coyotes ran through the yard yesterday evening. There are feathers all over. Both guinea and chicken. Everyone is accounted for except for the coral blue that's been missing and there is a dead japanese bantam roo. So I'm down to 1 pair of royal purple guineas and 4 eggs I collected. The royal purple hen hasn't been giving me any eggs so I guess I will set 4 eggs and then some chicken eggs a week later to try to get them to hatch at once.

 

[Akane]

Now they have my chickens on their side.

Ever since I cleaned the nest boxes I haven't gotten any eggs unless I keep the chickens in until late afternoon. Then suddenly I get a half dozen eggs every day. As soon as they are let out earlier, no eggs. I think they are laying where ever those guineas are. With 80acres, several bramble patches, and a pile of junk I'm not sure I can find their nest. I guess tomorrow is partially devoted to guinea nest hunting and destruction.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I'm so sorry!!!

 

[Friend2Fowl]

Quote:
Wing clipping probably wouldn't work too well, the feathers would grow back relatively fast. If you really want them to be more controlable, you could pinion them. Guineas are too dumb to fly if something is after them anyway, so the need for wings is really nonexistent

Otherwise, you can tame them with white millet, I'm sure that would work to get them to come to you. Guineas are weird, i don't think anyone can really figure them out.

 

[greathorse]

I think within the "no answer" lies the real answer, No one really knows the answer. Guinea fowl are very good flyers. I would not clip their wings as it is one of the ways for them to avoid predators.

I think you have two choices, one is to coop the guinea so they cant get out, two is to have plenty of them around so that when the dumber or less fortunate get eaten you still have some left.

These birds have a brain of their own and are about as unpredictable as they get.

I had a whole gaggle of them heading to the barn every night for weeks, one night they decided for an unknown reason that this was no longer a good idea and they began roosting in the trees.. I left them to their own devices and some were eaten and some survived.

When my cock began chasing every chicken I had and pecking the crap out of them I gave them to my friend. I find that the first season they are quite predictable and not aggresive, the second season is when they begin to be trouble.

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Finally I dont think clipping their wings is a good idea, coop them so they cannot escape or leave them alone and take what you get.

 

[lorad]

I have my five shut in the coop with fenced and covered run until I have enough eggs to hatch. With 3 roosters I'd expect more picking on the chickens I have them closed in with, but the Brahmas are at least twice their size. It's like the guineas "choose to ignore them" or I'm just lucky. We had an owl come through almost nightly and pick off someone (chicken or guinea) last summer- after a few night strikes the guineas decided to stay in at night at least long enough for me to get them shut in!

Lora

 

[Akane]

I have 4 eggs in the bator and I'm getting 18 pied but I may only keep hens and they may go in with my bantams who are going to have a run. The cock is in a dog crate and going to be penned for the next month. If he fails to behave after that and keeps trying to kill roosters and leading the flock off in to the middle of nowhere we are having roast guinea. I did clip one of the guinea cocks wings and it's made a huge difference. He can't fly in on the roosters anymore, roost in trees, or fly away from me when I'm trying to catch him or herd him somewhere. He just jumps, flaps, goes flop, and then runs. Still he was harassing my chickens to the point they won't go in their coop to lay eggs and the roosters all hurry the flock to shelter so the guinea can't ambush them. More guineas would probably help the situation but it will be many months before my others are big enough to put with the adult birds.

I did also ask about getting the new keets pinioned since the guinea farm does that for all of their birds I thought they might do it for mine but again no answer so for now I'm going with wing clipping. Far more of my guineas get killed because they can fly and roost in trees than because they are stuck on the ground. My chickens do fine not being able to fly in to trees. Aside from the occasional dog attack but that's still killed far fewer birds than owls and nighttime predators. The coral blue is dead mostly because she could fly. She tried to roost in a tree, she flew away from me across the whole yard, she flew past the coop door instead of running inside, she tried to fly in to the junk pile, and then she got eaten because I couldn't find her to put her away. If she couldn't fly she would have had no choice but to roost with the chickens in the bantam coop instead of the nearby tree. She wouldn't have been able to fly away from me past the door of the other coop. She might have gone in if she was on the ground instead. I would not have fallen so far behind if she wasn't flying and would have at least seen where she went.