New Member with 7 Guinea Fowl!

[shannon0716]

Hello I'm new to BYC, and currently have 7 guinea fowl that are almost 8 weeks old. We put them in their coop almost 4 weeks ago and they roam in their run all day and we put them back in the coop and shut the coop door at night. They just started roosting on a roosting bar in the coop and have certainly found their voices!

So far we have really enjoyed having them. We bought them for tick and mosquito control and hope they help decrease the population of both!

Any advice you have for a new Guinea owner would be wonderful. Right now my only dilemma is what to do to keep their run clean and dry the best way that I can, and at what age they can start learning how to roam our 3 acre yard (we have 10 acres of woods behind us as well). I'm hoping we have a successful adventure with them!! My husband worked hard on their coop and did a fantastic job!

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Welcome to BYC!

Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Best wishes to you, your family and guineas. Yes, they sure keep those bugs away!

I've never raised guineas so I'm not much help there but I've attached two links about guineas you should check out.

Great job on the coop and cute picture!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/45/guinea-fowl
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/312682/raising-guinea-fowl-101

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC!

Very nice coop!! Mountain Peeps has left you with the link to our Guinea Fowl forums. You can ask all kinds of questions there, share pics and stories about your birds. Have you considered using sand in your coop and run? It stays dry even when wet, easy to clean and maintain, no smells, no flies, and the birds love to scratch around and bathe in it. Here is a thread on sand if you need more info on it...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/444759/got-sand-you-should

Enjoy your new babies and welcome to our flock!

 

[drumstick diva]

If there are a lot of predators in your area you need more than chicken wire for your run. Anything can tear through it (except chickens). 1/2" hardware cloth securely affixed to a frame will keep most preds at bay., and prevent raccoons from grabbing body parts thru the fence and biting them off. They are horrific predators.

A cover of some sort on the run will prevent predation by air (hawks). I'm not a bug lover so I hope your flock gobbles them up.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC!

 

[shannon0716]

Thank you, everyone!

Today I sprinkled some sand and DE around in their run, and got them two new feeders since they are getting so big!

They are scared of their new feeders and won't come our quite yet haha