New Guinea Owner

[Isaac 0]

Hello, and Welcome to BYC!

 

[Flockincrazy]

We just moved onto our 40 acre dream mini ranch a month ago. We inherited 26 guinea fowl as well! As of yesterday morning, we now have 14 keets. This was a huge surprise, as the previous owners said that in their 6 years had only had 1 hatching of 3 keets. To say we are thrilled is an understatement!
My issue is that these are free-range birds. They have a wonderful coop that most go into at night. We close the door once it's dark and assume most are inside. But inevitably there are 2 or more on the driveway yelling at us in the morning.
I would love to have these new little ones safe in the coop at night. We've put up ramps going inside and outside of the coop. We're hoping that mom will lead them inside soon. I know it gets down in the high 50's at night. I'm in the Black Hill of South Dakota.
Any advise on leading them in? I did manage to pick one up today...but these are wild guineas. I would love to handle these new babies so they are more tame.

I'm really sorry I have never dealt with truly wild guineas before but if you can handle the babies without them freaking out keep doing it as for them all going in i would try putting some treats in the coop at dusk to entice everyone to go in sorry i can't help more but I hope this helps a little bit good luck

 

[chrissynemetz]

Welcome to BYC! It's nice to meet you! Good luck with your guineas!

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC. Here are some helpful links:

• Great go-to resource - Articles
• How to start a new thread
• Find other BYC members nearby using the links in my signature, below (turn your phone to landscape to see them).

Best wishes

Pork Pie

 

[Lilokieescorter]

Welcome to the Back Yard Chicken Coop! Grab a stoop & sit a while! I have 6 guenies & we got lucky with 3 F & 3
M! They're now going on 9 weeks old, boy were they messy a Tinies & still just as messy now! We're starting to set them up for eventually to free range.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

 

[Tre3hugger]

Hello and welcome!! As far as the guineas go...it is pretty difficult to create "handlable" guineas. However I would begin with the goal of being able to approach them without them panicking. This takes, TIME, REPETITION, and PATIENCE. Get yourself a high value treat like White Millet grain(guineas tend to love it.) or even some cracked corn. See how close you can get to them. Talk to them gently and maybe crouch low(they hate shdows from above.) If they start to spook, freeze/slowly back up a little bit and toss some food to distract them. Try this in the middle of the day when you are not trying to get them anywhere and you can all just hang and acclimate to each other. Once you got this relatively down(the guineas may even start coming to you when you go outside for yums) I would attempt to start herding them. Get two long light sticks(I use fencing T posts. Others use PVC pipes. Or branches.) Use these to extend your arms into a funnel and try to SLOWLY walk them where you want them to go towards their coop. Once they are used to the stick, try herding them toward/into their coop at night. Start well before dusk the first couple nights.

This all sounds relatively straight forward but guineas are hard to predict sometimes. I lost 5 of my guineas to night predators before I could get them to coop up at night, but yours seem already kind of coop trained so that is a good start. Just take your time and DON"T chase them they remember. It is easy to take 2 steps forward 1 back with them. But they are hilarious entertaining valuable tick eaters. Now that I have some, I never want to be without them!!
Good luck and keep us posted.

Come say hi on the guinea forum. SO MUCH INFO THERE.

 

[orloffer]

Welcome to BYC! There is so much to see, do, and learn here!

 

[MrsTush]

We just moved onto our 40 acre dream mini ranch a month ago. We inherited 26 guinea fowl as well! As of yesterday morning, we now have 14 keets. This was a huge surprise, as the previous owners said that in their 6 years had only had 1 hatching of 3 keets. To say we are thrilled is an understatement!
My issue is that these are free-range birds. They have a wonderful coop that most go into at night. We close the door once it's dark and assume most are inside. But inevitably there are 2 or more on the driveway yelling at us in the morning.
I would love to have these new little ones safe in the coop at night. We've put up ramps going inside and outside of the coop. We're hoping that mom will lead them inside soon. I know it gets down in the high 50's at night. I'm in the Black Hill of South Dakota.
Any advise on leading them in? I did manage to pick one up today...but these are wild guineas. I would love to handle these new babies so they are more tame.

Lots of guineas!!!

Despite tons of warnings I got guineas and I'm obsessed with them!!
I got them a day after they hatched and immediately handled them, talked to them and spent as much time as possible with them. Guineas are like cats..they love you on their terms.
The best thing I ever did was train them with a bell. I would give them meal worms but I always rang a little bell first.
When I want my guineas to come to me or their coop I just ring the bell and all of them come running. I usually don't need to now that they are grown but sometimes I'll have one or two that are still hanging out somewhere. Once they hear that bell they know it's worm time.
You can still bell train them when they're older it will just take time and lots of patience and repetition.
This is mine at about 2.5 months.