In your vegie gardenThank you all. I've let my hens out for today (They wait at the gate for me even with both seeds and pellets in their run) and I have my sister keeping an eye on the guinea's when I pop them away. They seem to be coping fine so far. I will leave them for a bit longer, thank you TarheelBirdy. And I'll clip just one wing each before letting them out as well, and hopefully they will be happy returning by the time the feathers grow back.
They found their way into my Veggie Garden. I'm fixing the door today.
Colourful: TarheelBirdy wrote good info about free-ranging.
At five months, (maybe sooner) they can eat Chicken Layer pellets (or crumble, but there is less waste with pellets) with 16% protein. I would strongly urge you NOT to clip their wings when you let them free-range - even one wing. They will be particularly vulnerable to predators if you do. Plus, it won't guarantee that they won't fly away anyway. Guineas are strong flyers. Besides, they can wander away on foot if they've a mind to and are not "home trained". If you take a little time to train them, and like Tarheelbirdy wrote, let one out at a time, then they'll come back to the coop/pen at dusk to roost for the night.
I train mine to come back to the coop by letting them out all at once about an hour before dusk, supervising where they go, and herding them back into the coop. But the concept is the same as what TarheelBirdy wrote.
When hormones kick in for the guineas and/or chickens, housing them together is more than likely going to cause aggression problems. Usually a large pen and a separate coop for them to roost in is enough. Sometimes there is one guinea that just won't "live and let live" no matter what you do, and can be re-homed or "re-purposed"
Edit: Did someone already answer these questions? My scroll bar thingy is acting funny and I don't see every post for some reason. Weird. Sorry if I'm repeating others.
. Peeps uses treats to call her flocks in, which is something I'd like to train mine to do - it sounds a LOT easier. But that's going to wait until spring. It's blasted cold here now!
MJ - I took the idea from Frits Farm. I think that's a good site to get info from. Letting a few out at a time is a perfectly good way to train, though, and I'll use that if I don't have a herding partner. TarheelBirdy, I use two, lightweight, six-foot sticks (old toe mould from a previous flooring project) to herd, holding one in each hand. The trick is to go slower than they go. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but the faster you go, the faster they go and then it becomes Keystone Cops with a crazy person chasing a bunch of birds around the woods with sticks, screaming. Two people herding works four times as well as one though. Stay about 10 feet away if you can and hold the sticks at their eye level. They get away from me sometimes, but I can reposition myself and get them back onto the path I want them to take.
Also, you only have to herd a few at a time. The others will follow - usually - most of the time - often enough....
