Oh Good Lord, they can fly.

[perchie.girl]

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If they are egg eating that often starts with not enough protein in the diet. Definitely build a separate coop for them. They definitely do much better with a larger flock. At least ten to start. I hope this go round goes better for you.... I love my guineas.

 

[hennypenny99]

I love my guineas too. They are so noisy. I have only had them a couple of weeks but just yesterday I was laying outside on the trampoline listening to their "music". I am worried I may have just one female and 7 males though. They are about 6 weeks old but only one of them makes that call that I was told the females make. I was told you could sex them buy the waddles too. The males hang straight down and the females curve around by their face. Well their waddles are becoming more defigned and it definately looks like I have more males than I need. Got to get more girls.

 

[perchie.girl]

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You will be OK. I had one female with about six last time and she kind of ruled the hen house. The boys did their thing chasing each other. Too funny. The more the better even if the flock is unbalanced. I think....

 

[1MrsMagoo]

When my French guineas started flying, they couldn't fly as high or as far as the regular guineas. One had no judgment of distance and always flew too low: One day he landed in the dog yard with our two Golden Retrievers. Luckily I was home and rescued him from the dogs trying to include him in their puppy games (they think everything is a game of fetch or tag). He ended up in the hospital pen for a couple weeks and has a permanent limp from his ordeal. However, he is now the best flier I have: Flies the highest, longest, and has the most accurate landings. Guess one bad landing in enemy territory was enough for him.

So, as others have suggested...it could just be an inexperience thing. All guineas become more confident fliers with age from what I have seen. However, they don't appear to be the quickest to make decisions and may not think of flying out of trouble as a first....second...third...twenty-seventh....thought either.

 

[wahoowifeandmom]

My guineas are about 3 wks old and while they do stretch and preen their wings, they seem to have no desire to fly. The really strange thing is that our kids seem to have made pets out of them.

 

[gambler]

Well the I'm cute flying lessons have paid off. All of the guineas can now fly up on top of the six foot fence and usually on the first try.
Boy they are ugly birds, but I don't tell them that.

 

[perchie.girl]

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Pterodactyl stage..... LOL. Glad the flying lessons worked. I know that they need to be really fit in order to fly well... not overweght... yata yata.

My eight week old Keets dont fly either. they are just now learning to hop up onto a low perch. I think we may be in the same boat here. My youngsters were too long in a brooder cage.... sigh. I am hoping to correct this with my other batch of keets by moving them into the coop much much sooner. They are going to be four weeks old the end of this week.

 

[PeepsCA]

I'd just be sure and provide them several perches at different heights that they can gradually work up to using, they will soon be jumping from one to the other, or straight to the highest roost. And even fighting for the best seat in the house eventually lol. It's instinctual for them to want to be up high where it's safe (in their mind anyway)... but they have to be able to see to get up on the roosts or they will just stay on the floor. Sometimes a nightlight on in the coop helps if they aren't up roosting by the time it's dark. They aren't the brainiest of birds sometimes ...

 

[perchie.girl]

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Right now I have one perch that goes from a bench to the top of their brooder cage. Next time I go up there I am taking the cage out. And put the mirror next to the perch. Last time I had keets I instinctively put in a ladder for them to find their way up to the perch. The nice part about these dog kennel panels is a two by three board slips into the chain link and is held snugly in place so I can put perches anywhere. I think a nice long mirror along one perch would be a good start.

 

[PeepsCA]

Good idea for perches

And the mirror will lure them to the perch.

I used recycled poles from one of those cheap tent carport/canopies for perches in my converted dog kennel pen. There were already holes drilled in the ends of the poles and they just happen to be the perfect lengths, so I just zip tied them puppies in 3 corners, spiraled grip tape around each pole (so they have some traction) and the keets were all over them in no time. If I have that pen in use during the winter I'll have to swap out the poles for 2"x3"s tho, I wouldn't wanna perch on icy cold metal if I were a Guinea, lol.