Need simple house for my new guinea fowl

[Fishkeeper]

@Topgum, hopefully they'll come back, but that was why you were supposed to keep them contained. They might not know where to come back to. Did the previous owner train them to come to any sort of call?

 

[perchie.girl]

Thanks all. The little fellas have flown off. Yes, even with clipped wings they managed to fly about 20’ high and hop from tree to house and so on. Hopefully they return to food and shelter.

so sorry.... It takes a long time to get them to fix in on a new location as home. Six weeks minimum in No flight containment.

They are Pretty wild by nature and for the most part will survive living off bugs grass seeds and lizards. Unless you have snow on the ground... They will also eat cat foood and dog food given the opportunity.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

You have Stotes though right? I have seen videos of them hunting.... pretty Deft predators.

deb

We have three cats and two dogs, only time I see them is when they’re dead on my doorstep. Haven’t seen a stoat in years.

 

[Ghosty]

Better to start with keets. Get em young, and imprint them with their home early. I had good luck letting my keets start free ranging around 5 weeks. 4 weeks in the brooder, a week confined in the coop and run. Then leave the door open and they will gradually increase their range from home. You will have to assist them into the coop on some nights as they get older, or let them roost in a tree, or get a 20' pole to get them down. If you keep at it, they will come around. One bad night outside can change their minds quick. I have two game hens that I got at 6 months that I got to go in the coop, then one night of the door being closed, they couldn't get in, and they were back to the tree again. Once it got cold, though, they came around. I found them roosting on the tops of the chairs on the porch when the cold snap hit in October. I picked em up, put em in the coop, and there they have gone every night since. I've left the door shut once or twice on accident since then, and they take to the trees for the night. The next night though, they are back in the coop.

 

[50-45-1]

The ONE best piece of advice i can give you and almost all of the situations i see on this site is build a secure coop of sufficient size, Before you get your flock.
Guineas are roosting birds, the higher the better. They would never be happy in a crate on the ground as a home.
I would build your structure, then get some keets. If they are raised there, they will be more likely to view it as home.
Guineas range farther than chickens and as you have discoverd fly very well. If you have close neighbors make sure they will not object to guinea visits and also the noise that guineas will bring. They are LOUD!
I once had a group of six guineas go walk about and i never saw them again. Last sighted 2 miles from my house.

 

[Ghosty]

Ya, coop first. I ruined my first flock of guineas by getting them too old and keeping them penned too long in my shop while I was building my coop. They were flighty and nervous even for guineas, and were scared of me, alarming any time I came around. My second flock was self assured by 5 weeks, and very friendly. They have to have the outdoors and be acclimated early.

 

[woodmort]

Letting them roost in trees is a good way to feed the predators especially big owls.

Yup, I've lost a bunch like that--there appears there is a horned owl and fisher in our area as they disappear without a trace. I've sort of trained mine to come in at night by giving them a little scratch grain before I lock them up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Often when it doesn't I'm down a bird the next morning. I suspect a guinea's method of escaping predators is basically hoping they get the other guy.

 

[50-45-1]

Yaa...kind of like, i dont have to outrun the bear, i just have to outrun you!

 

[Topgum]

I managed to catch the little screwballs! Received word from a neighbor that they had been loitering about a chicken coop in someone’s backyard. I ordered a cheap bird net from Amazon. We draped it over a fence. Trapped them when they walked through the gate. The Grate Guinea Takedown! Awesome video btw

Now that the two have been captured I’m completing the new coop. Hope to be using it tomorrow. I started out with intentions of building a simple coop but this thing has turned out to be a real “Coop DeVille”

 

[Topgum]

Here’s a couple pics of the new house. I’ve posted more and a details of the construction in the Coop and Run forum.