My experience with guinea fowl is very different to this! perhaps because I live in NSW Australia, with a very different climate to that you describe and more similar to their native African climate. 3 months ago I inherited a breeding trio of guineas. I would guess they were a few years old and had been kept in very confined conditions - unable to fly and with not a lot of room to roam. After keeping them in my much larger chook pen for 3 weeks they were released (we live on a 3000 acre farm). They have stayed around our garden, complete with 3 working dogs and a cat, usually returning home in the evenings, if not to the chook pen to the trees above it. I have never locked them up since their release. They started laying in a nest in the chook pen a few weeks after being released and when one became broody we stopped collecting the eggs. After about 4 weeks on the nest (with frequent visits from the male) she successfully hatched 11 of the 12 eggs. Unfortunately she lost 3 keets in the nest. Two in the first couple of days and 1 towards the end of the 4 day hatching. The 9 surviving keets have been lovingly cared for and tended by all three adults (male and 2 females) beautifully. I would say they are excellent parents and incredibly protective, to my 11 year old daughter's horror - she was attacked by one of the females when she approached a keet that we though had been left behind on the first day they were taken out of the nest. After 1 week out of the nest, the adults and keets wander the garden and paddocks, coming very close to the house and dogs and generally feeding and pecking their way around. The adults and keets range a surprisingly long way from the pen, but always return at night. I still don't lock them in, but do leave out food and water which I think feeds the sparrows more than the guineas. They are lovely birds and I marvel at their natural instinct and ability to adapt so well to the domestic situation. They will never be as domesticated as a chicken, but they provide much enjoyment and aesthetic to my garden!
