Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[SunHwaKwon]

Anyone have any ideas on how to get Guinea fowl to perch in trees at night. I'm trying to train my guineas to live out in an old oak tree at night (my only predator is the red fox) but they don't want to go up, they all stand outside the run at the bottom of the tree and wait to be let in, there are some chickens mixed in with them and the chickens all go into the tree but the guineas don't, at all, they will still be down when it's almost pitch black so I end up having to let them in the run. Any ideas on how to solve this???

No sorry. I had the opposite problem. Guineas are an owl delicacy

 

[duluthralphie]

Anyone have any ideas on how to get Guinea fowl to perch in trees at night. I'm trying to train my guineas to live out in an old oak tree at night (my only predator is the red fox) but they don't want to go up, they all stand outside the run at the bottom of the tree and wait to be let in, there are some chickens mixed in with them and the chickens all go into the tree but the guineas don't, at all, they will still be down when it's almost pitch black so I end up having to let them in the run. Any ideas on how to solve this???

Really???


You cannot get your guineas to roost in a tree?


Really???


Come on you're pulling our leg aren't you?




really???





My guineas had to be trained to NOT roost in trees. Guineas love trees. They refused to leave the trees. I had to chase them out of the trees, throw rocks at them, call them 4 letter names to get them to stop roosting in the trees. Every new batch I mix in goes to the trees. Even the "trained" ones will go to the trees some times.


I think you should start breeding yours and advertising them as NON-Tree roosting Guineas, You would get rich....


I found a new way for a guinea to commit suicide today. I was using the brush hog in some 6 ft tall ragweed, My wife had walked infront to try and chase any birds incase there were some in it. I saw this girl run at the last second. It must have been close because there were about 4 feathers off its back laying there.
I back up thinking I might have gotten others, but instead I found a nest of 9 eggs. I doubt she was sitting on 9 eggs, but they are in the incubator now.

Long story made short Guineas are stupid and I am incubating about a week after I shut them all down.

 

[charid]

@duluthralphie could you just throw the eggs under another hen?

I@Nickeyo very unusual. My birds didn't roost in a tree until the oldest went up. After that I could never get them down and that's why all of my first batch is dead. Chose the oak with the coons in it. Smh. Maybe sit one of them on the lowest branch. Got to do this before dark though. He will go higher and the rest will follow.

 

[duluthralphie]

@duluthralphie could you just throw the eggs under another hen?

I@Nickeyo very unusual. My birds didn't roost in a tree until the oldest went up. After that I could never get them down and that's why all of my first batch is dead. Chose the oak with the coons in it. Smh. Maybe sit one of them on the lowest branch. Got to do this before dark though. He will go higher and the rest will follow.

I don't have a hen that is broody, that I know of....


Maybe the way to get your guineas to roost is to tell them NOT to roost in trees and go into the coop every night. It might work.

 

[charid]

Honestly if they have a coop why wouldn't you want to keep them in it? I have 18 babies and there is a good chance that by next spring I will have zero once again. When I said I was fed up with losing birds, I didn't mean emotionally (except for baby that is an exception). No. I meant in terms of time intensive labor. Hatching eggs. Brooder time. Integrating with any surviving flock. Coop training. Then still having to buy new birds and then that's 8 weeks of acclimating for them. Locked up in a coop until they rehome....no. I don't have the time for all that anymore. They make their own babies next year and replenish themselves or I am done with them next spring. I have to brush hog the pasture just for them. The tree line is so dense the coyotes just use it like a highway, get down in the hay where the bird trail sticks out like a sore thumb and pick them off one by one on the edge. I can't understand how they have made it so far in life. Think they would go extinct like the do do bird.

 

[perchie.girl]

Anyone have any ideas on how to get Guinea fowl to perch in trees at night. I'm trying to train my guineas to live out in an old oak tree at night (my only predator is the red fox) but they don't want to go up, they all stand outside the run at the bottom of the tree and wait to be let in, there are some chickens mixed in with them and the chickens all go into the tree but the guineas don't, at all, they will still be down when it's almost pitch black so I end up having to let them in the run. Any ideas on how to solve this???

I understand you are in England and your predators are different from here. But you DO have owls Owls love guinea... Best to fox proof your coop with an apron to protect against diggers. I believe you also have weasels and or stoats? The only prefentative against stoats is hardware cloth not chicken wire.

http://www.wildlifebritain.com/stoatorweasel.php

A stoat can get through anything it can get its head through....

Keep em roosting in the coop if you can,

deb

 

[Tikkijane]

Anyone have any ideas on how to get Guinea fowl to perch in trees at night. I'm trying to train my guineas to live out in an old oak tree at night (my only predator is the red fox) but they don't want to go up, they all stand outside the run at the bottom of the tree and wait to be let in, there are some chickens mixed in with them and the chickens all go into the tree but the guineas don't, at all, they will still be down when it's almost pitch black so I end up having to let them in the run. Any ideas on how to solve this???

No owls? They are safer inside.

 

[Tikkijane]

Really???


You cannot get your guineas to roost in a tree?


Really???


Come on you're pulling our leg aren't you?




really???





My guineas had to be trained to NOT roost in trees. Guineas love trees. They refused to leave the trees. I had to chase them out of the trees, throw rocks at them, call them 4 letter names to get them to stop roosting in the trees.  Every new batch I mix in goes to the trees. Even the "trained" ones will go to the trees some times.


I think you should start breeding yours and advertising them as NON-Tree roosting Guineas, You would get rich....


I found a new way for a guinea to commit suicide today.  I was using the brush hog in some 6 ft tall ragweed, My wife had walked infront to try and chase any birds incase there were some in it. I saw this girl run at the last second.  It must have been close because there were about 4 feathers off its back laying there. 
I back up thinking I might have gotten others, but instead I found a nest of 9 eggs.   I doubt she was sitting on 9 eggs, but they are in the incubator now.

Long story made short Guineas are stupid and I am incubating about a week after I shut them all down.

I almost got one of my girls with the riding mower a few weeks ago. I was literally right on top of her. Freaked me out! And it was a nest of at least 20 eggs. Too late to stop. She came racing out at the last minute- from UNDER the mower. We put some tree branches back over, but she completely abandoned that nest. No idea how long she was on it.

 

[duluthralphie]

I almost got one of my girls with the riding mower a few weeks ago. I was literally right on top of her. Freaked me out! And it was a nest of at least 20 eggs. Too late to stop. She came racing out at the last minute- from UNDER the mower. We put some tree branches back over, but she completely abandoned that nest. No idea how long she was on it.

The eggs/nest was completely under the brush hog, I had denuded the area of any protection so I knew she would never come back which is why I fired up an incubator. I put them in a foam one, so who knows if any will hatch. I did not want to go to all the bother of starting a large one just for 9 eggs.

It is amazing how well they blend into the grass, isn't it?

 

[Tikkijane]

The eggs/nest was completely under the brush hog, I had denuded the area of any protection so I knew she would never come back which is why I fired up an incubator. I put them in a foam one, so who knows if any will hatch.  I did not want to go to all the bother of  starting a large one just for 9 eggs.

It is amazing how well they blend into the grass, isn't it?

Yep. If none of my guineas hatch out soon, I'll try to find a nest and get the eggs under a broody chicken. Usually once the nest is discovered, they won't get back on it, ime. But I still love them.