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I love my guineas and prefer them to my chickens. After reading "Gardening with Guineas" I decided that the trick is to get about a dozen at a time, preferably day olds, and then keep them penned up until they are about 2 to 4 months old. That way, they are bonded as a group and will watch each other's back in the yard, and will all come back to the same place to roost.
I have given guineas to friends in the past and the folks who were able to keep the young guineas at their house were the ones who kept them penned up at all times for at least 6 weeks. Then, the guineas knew where they were being fed and whose trees to roost in at dusk. The friends who let them roam after only a week or so lost their guineas to neighbors who also had guineas.
I just brought some guineas back to OKC last month, that a friend hatched out last spring. Her neighbor wanted guineas, but wouldn't keep them locked up for the 6 weeks, so the guineas kept migrating back to my friend's house.
Guineas rule! They will take on a rooster, a dog, a turkey - as a group. I love the way they eat bugs all the time and their noise in the evening is music to my ears.
All that said, I do have some that run up and down the fence all day long, trying to find their way back into the yard, because they don't remember that they flew over the fence. About dusk, they remember they have wings and back into the yard and onto the roost they go.
