Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[postalpoultry]

I am pretty sure my birds would strip the wire off the poles and sell it with the copper wire they get from stealing telephone lines.

witty and a master carpenter!!


you have to much land anyway would cost a fortune!!!! I just think it's funny it worked in reverse too

 

[charid]

well I think your pen looks great! It will certainly sacrifice until they get alittle bigger and thats all you where tryin for so GOOD JOB!  By the way I know this sounds insane but  I was having an issue with neighborhood dogs and I had ENOUGH so I laid out about $500 and surrounded this place with 42" tall welded wire a couple of years ago the holes are 3 and 4 inches wide so guinea or chickens ect could go through it if they wanted but for some reason nobody does!!! I'm not sure if I have super smart birds that know they are safe or if I have super dumb birds LOL but it works for me

Thank you. Trust me nothing sounds insane to me when it comes to the birds. My coop only cost $320. Would have been closer to $270 but I just had to bury a foundation for the egg stealing diggers. Now thats crazy cause I could have just used an apron like before but nooooooo.

Duluthralphie your birds are proof that guineas are smart. If they can strip and sell wire they can go to school and get a job, help out with chores around the homestead and become better more productive members of society (with the right kind of support anyway)...

 

[duluthralphie]

Thank you. Trust me nothing sounds insane to me when it comes to the birds. My coop only cost $320. Would have been closer to $270 but I just had to bury a foundation for the egg stealing diggers. Now thats crazy cause I could have just used an apron like before but nooooooo.

Duluthralphie your birds are proof that guineas are smart. If they can strip and sell wire they can go to school and get a job, help out with chores around the homestead and become better more productive members of society (with the right kind of support anyway)...

I try to help them, I buy them books, they eat the pages..

I get them Tutors, they kidnap them and hold them for ransom..

I send them to church and they come back drunk on communion wine.

I have given up on them. I just am out of ideas.

 

[charid]

I try to help them, I buy them books, they eat the pages..

I get them Tutors, they kidnap them and hold them for ransom..

I send them to church and they come back drunk on communion wine. 

I have given up on them.  I just am out of ideas.

Dr. Phil could probably help you with that.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Quote:
Dig. So, how long would you recommend for a first-time guinea keeper (4+ years with chickens and long years of experience with animal companions), on 29 acres but the house and barn are pretty close to a fairly busy country road (sometimes speeding vehicles), incubator hatched group with no adults or family already? Need to make every effort to avoid the guineas going to the neighbors' houses across the street.

I believe I'd heard 12 weeks and was setting things up for that.

--V

 

[duluthralphie]

Dig. So, how long would you recommend for a first-time guinea keeper (4+ years with chickens and long years of experience with animal companions), on 29 acres but the house and barn are pretty close to a fairly busy country road (sometimes speeding vehicles), incubator hatched group with no adults or family already? Need to make every effort to avoid the guineas going to the neighbors' houses across the street.

I believe I'd heard 12 weeks and was setting things up for that.

--V

I think 12 weeks would even bond a group of adults to the coop/area. I would limit their internet access so they are forced to break ties completely with their old gang members.

I only have 13 acres left but am surrounded by thousands of acres of Federal land, I am about 250-300 ft back from the road with the house the coop is further back and the guineas still get out on the road. I have way too many speeding vehicles here too. As I said before I think some people think it is fun to hit them, I have no idea what is wrong with their heads, but I know I have seen them swerve to try and hit squirrels. ( I wonder what a squirrel did to them to make it worth risking and accident of ticket to kill one)... I know they do not do it for the roadkill, I have never seen one stop and pick up the perfectly good food. I have to bring them up here for the DDW to fix for us...

The other good thing about 12 weeks is the time of the year we are in. In 12 weeks we will be a barren waste land again. It will be sub zero temps and there will most likely be a few feet of snow cover making travel less interesting to them.

 

[duluthralphie]

I just went down and emptied the hatching tray.

38 keets so far. mostly pearl a few whites and pied. 38 keets in one tray is a lot. Some of them were impatient to get out. A few come with prison tattoos already. I have 39 more to go.

 

[perchie.girl]

I just went down and emptied the hatching tray.

38 keets so far. mostly pearl a few whites and pied. 38 keets in one tray is a lot. Some of them were impatient to get out. A few come with prison tattoos already. I have 39 more to go.

Wow what kind of Incubator do you have Ralphie? Mine will hold forty if I stuff every egg cup...

I have a Hovabator 1588 non digital

I want to build one of @Sally Sunshine s cabinets.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Quote:
Thank you for info. Yeah, I don't get it about people being cruel but they sure do exhibit it regularly. The front of our house is maybe 100 ft from road, guinea coop will be about 350-400 ft back. We've changed our minds about the design for our coop and instead of the cattle-panel hoop house we will make it more like Charid's-- stick built. We don't get snow here and 12 weeks away, or October, will be lovely weather, we'll leave the sides open (half-inch hardware cloth) and just attach clear tarps if we need rain or wind protection, can always add removable sidings if needed for winter (extremely mild). We know they will appreciate it being airy.

@charid

 

[Victoria-nola]

I need help. This morning I changed the keets' water, using one of the fountains that fits on a quart mason jar, using glass jars. I changed it for a jar that had labels on it, not realizing. The keets got all freaked out about the labels and stopped drinking water, terrified. I changed it back to fresh water in the old jar with no labels, and I dipped Number 1's beak in it. I thought they started drinking after that and I've been checking on them all day (which is tough because they freak out when I check on them), but now I'm worried that at least some of them are getting dehydrated. Several of them are opening their beaks and stretching their necks out forward and then closing their beaks-- a gesture of thirst if I ever saw one, but maybe it's something else. They are outside on the porch, been in the shade all day except for early morning when some sun hits the porch, but it's been above 90F most of the day. I have a fan going on the porch. Is that bad, is that contributing to dehydration?

What should I do?