New Plan... Guinea shelter in the tree line?

[jnafouse]

Since it sounds like hatching eggs under our chickens won't work due to size of coop, I'm looking at alternate plans. We have a long and nicely thick tree line through the middle of our property and I'm wondering if building a shelter along its edge would work. It could be a south facing shelter bordering our yard, and my idea is to make it open upward so they could roost in the trees, but with some sort of gate or electrified netting on the south side to keep out night predators. If we raised them to think of it as home base, would they go in there at night? Or would the gate/netting be worthless because they likely would roost wherever the heck they wanted to?

I'm partly thinking I'd like to have a spot where they'd at least have a higher likelihood of laying their eggs so we can gather them more easily.

 

[PeepsCA]

I don't know what the predator load for your area is, but Guineas roosting in the trees are still predator bait. Coons and bobcats climb, Owls swoop down for the kill... etc, GUineas are blind in the dark, and they really need to be adequately protected from predation while they sleep if your plan is to maintain a flock on your property.

So your prefered spot might be a good/safe place for a Guinea coop, but I'd still condition them to return to their coop each night to keep them alive, and during the breeding season keep them in each day until you get eggs from the Hens (or most of them) before letting them out to free range if you really want keets/eggs.

Eggs (and Hens) in nests out in the bushes/woods are taken quickly unless you have Fort Knox fencing and a good LGD or 2 (skunks, foxes, opossums, snakes etc like to raid nests).