New owner of 8 guinea fowl - I need some advice

[wyoDreamer]

Well, DH only counted 7 guinea in the coop the other night. Hopefully she is sitting on a nest. The random eggs scattered throughout the yard have stopped, so maybe. The neighbors must be used to them, they were in across the road and decided they had to get beck into the yard because a pickup truck was coming. The lady stopped and waited for all 7 to cross in front of her, and she was smiling the whole time.

 

[wyoDreamer]

So DH called this morning and was watching a whitetail in the area near the driveway where I would like to eventually plant a garden. She was hanging around for a while. He went to town and bought a line trimmer to catch up with the lawn care. When he got back from town and started working around the barn he heard a ruckus and watched the doe chase the white guinea out of the field. ha, ha she must have a new fawn hidden in that tall grass somewhere.

On the guinea front, we are down to 6 guinea in the coop at night.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Well, it has been 20 days since the first guinea disappeared. The random eggs in the yard stopped at that time, and I knew she had a nest started somewhere, just never had tome to look for it.
How long does it take for guinea eggs to hatch?

 

[R2elk]

Well, it has been 20 days since the first guinea disappeared. The random eggs in the yard stopped at that time, and I knew she had a nest started somewhere, just never had tome to look for it.
How long does it take for guinea eggs to hatch?

Normally guinea eggs take 26 to 28 days to hatch.

 

[margaret8]

Okay, the backstory:  Dh and I are buying a place and the current owners have guinea fowl there.  DH saw them when he looking at the place for purchase.  He opened the door to the coop, saw the birds inside and shut the door again real quick.  He was quite proud that he knew they were guinea fowl!    When we were negotiating on our purchase of the place, we were asked if we would like to have them.  We figured - why not!  It will be nice to have them around for pest control since we are moving to an area with massive amounts of wood ticks and Lyme Disease.  I am going to get chickens eventually anyway.

So now - reality is sinking in, and we close on the place next week.  AND I do not know how to care for guinea fowl!
I am not sure of the ratio of male and female.  All I know is that there are 8 of them and they are currently cooped up.
I believe they have been cooped most of the winter, so they should be coop trained - right?

My plan is to let them out in the morning, leave them out during the daytime, put feed out in the coop at night and hope that they will come back to the coop in the evening so I can close them up for safety overnight.

Do I have a snowball chance of this plan working?

I plan on getting game bird feed for them.

That's what I do with mine! I've lost one to a coyote. That was areal learning experience. I haven't lost anymore.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Sorry to revisit this thread but I have another question.

How much should I feed for each guinea in the coop? is a 1/4 cup enough or too much.
The previous owner left a note telling me to mix chicken feed pellets and scratch 50/50 but didn't say how much to feed them.

and

Do I feed more during really cold weather? It is 5 degrees out this morning (-15 with windchill) and we are going to have colder days yet to come this winter. I have been treating them with white millet and sunflower seeds...

 

[Percheron chick]

Is the feed cleaned up or is there still some leftover? 1/4C each is probably pretty close but in this cold weather I would always want a little left over in the feeder JIK. Any reason to not just fill the feeder? My chickens and guineas eat about double in the winter over summer rates. Part of that is the cold and part is there isn't as much to eat free ranging.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I don't want to just fill the feeder because the chipmunks, mice, groundhogs, and coons like to help themselves. The concrete floor in the coop is cracked around the edges with a 1" gap, so the mice have quite a system of tunnels into the place. I have chased 3 chipmunks and numerous wild birds out of the coop in the last week. We managed to get rid of the coons and groundhogs for now, but I don't want to tempt any back by leaving a full feeder hanging in there. During the summer, the groundhog helped itself during the day and the coons would show up at dusk. If we were late to close the coop door, they would empty the feeder and toss around the 5 gallon bucket until it opened and then help themselves to that food also. The roosts for the guineas are about 6-7 feet up, so they are pretty safe from the coons at least.

There are some pellets left on the floor, but not a trace of corn or scratch grains any where, lol! When I go to feed, it there are a lot of pellets on the floor I don't fill the feeder until later so they will clean it up. I also give them a handful of dried meal worms about once a week.

I just want to make sure that they are getting enough to eat during the winter months. I think that they feathered back really nice after their molt, nice glossy feathers so I guess I am not doing too bad.

 

[margaret8]

During the winter you will find that the guinias eat more. They keep warm that way I just got through putting some next hatch out in the coop. They eat a lot more!

 

[Trefoil]

Coons can climb so sooner or later you are probably going to lose guineas to them. Your best bet is to line their pen with 1/2" hardware cloth or 1/4" would keep out the squirrels and everything else that was drawn by the feed or birds. From the wall overlap a foot or two on the floor to cover the gap and then bed over it. If you can convince them to lay in the coop your hens will be a lot safer when they decide to brood them.