Neighboring Flock

[Flowerchik]

I do not have guineas yet, my neighbor does. Is there anything other than all day confinement that I can do to assure that my flock would not make his property their home? His flock does visit my yard on a regular basis.

 

[dlg4742]

I would say keep them locked up in a coop for a week then they should always come home to their own coop at night. They kind of stick to their own group.

 

[Darkjeweler]

You might want to consider banding yours as well. Colored zip ties work.

 

[Flowerchik]

Thanks, good idea about the banding. I am sure we will end up with some of the same varieties. It will be good just in case they do decide to mingle(or whatever guineas do when they end up in the same place). Maybe at first I will be able to handle them like I do my chickens. They stay in a run most of the morning, but in the afternoons I turn them out to wander the yard. I may try that with the guineas after a week of confinement, until they seem to get the hang of where home is.

 

[zazouse]

I raise my keets in movable brooders on the ground, i have learned threw the years that where ever i place the brooder pen is the area they return to all their lives when it is time to roost.
I raised some in the pen by the green house and now the trees by the green house are full of guineas at night.
I raised some in the green house and at night i have a green house full.
I raised some by the barn and they all come back to roost in the trees by the barn.

In the daytime they mingle but at night they go back to where they were raised so i think they will return where they were raised.

I do not know how this would work if the guineas were already grown, common sense tells me they may not return if they mingle with other guineas because in a sense they have lost their first home and may not understand that their new home is permanent unless penned for a very long time, so i would go with babies if you have an option.

 

[allidew2]

From what I've learned on BYC, it will take way longer than a week's confinement for the guineas to learn where 'home' is, especially if you get them when they are full grown. But, even if you get them as babies, you don't want to let them out that soon either, as they will run off and not come back. It takes training and time to 'imprint' their little pea brains as to where the safety of 'home' is.

 

[Flowerchik]

I will get babies. I would probably be to scared to let them out right at first anyway, so chances are they would stay in the run for a while, definitely until I think they are big enough to have a chance to survive outside of the run. I get a laugh out of the pea brained thing. I would get so frustrated with my chickens when I first started letting them out. They would just run back and forth beside the run instead of just walking in the door, silly birds! Thank goodness they finally got the hang of it.

My neighbor's guineas roost in a tree. We have a lot of really big trees so if some reason I can't get them in a run in the evenings they will have somewhere to go. Their run will be near trees, so it sounds like they may make that their home. I think I do need to go ahead and prepare myself to lose some. It sounds like that is just part of having free ranging guineas. How many would you suggest I start with?