Sophia escaped with my babies

[melroseladi]

Oh if guineas could only stay little forever and not grow up into #**#*# adults. I have no clue how but Sophia managed to escape her pen taking the keets with her. I went out to let the chicks and guineas out of the coop and there goes Sophia walking behind the pen with her 6 keets in tow. Into the woods they went with the other 3 guineas hot on their trail. I took off into the woods to capture at least my buffs, no way was I letting her take off with them.

Now you have to picture a 57 year old woman running through the woods in her pj's, crawling through the underbrush with 4 guineas fighting her off. UGGGG...what a nightmare. Well I was able to capture my 2 buff and 2 pearls and she has 2 pearls with her out in the woods, and I am hoping for the best. I am hoping she brings them back to the pen to roost and I can snatch them up.

Oh, on an up note, I didn't find one tick on me after my escapade!

 

[PeepsCA]

I can just picture it, lol.

Glad you got most of the babies anyway, lol. Hope you get the other 2 tonight!
Yay, NO ticks! One of the best payoffs for owning these PITA birds!

 

[Evelle]

oh no that not good!! im sorry.
this is funny tho!!
the more i read about these birds the more im thinking that they arent the bird for me

 

[melroseladi]

Quote:
Oh they are a barrel of laughs, lol. I love my guineas!

 

[Evelle]

i also hear they are so much fun,... very comical.
but, i free range my birds ALL of them duck turkeys chickens and quail
and i hear they are hard to keep when they are free ranged. i just cant keep them in a cage i get to sad for them lol.
i really want them. really really bad. and tring to find more reasons to get them then not. but if they run away then it would just be a waste of time energy and money.
i love the way they look, and the sound, i love to hear loud birds its fun to hear. i have a lady who use to (not sure if she still does) who had them and i loved to watch them everytime i drove by.
i dont know i think i might just get two and see where that goes if i want more or not.

 

[melroseladi]

Quote:
I got mine as adults and followed the advice given to me on here and kept them penned until they knew where home is. I got a large heavy duty chain link dog kennel, put a dogloo dog house in it. That is where they stayed. I added the chicken coop to the end of the run for my chickens and the guineas started roosting in it but the hen lays and hatches in the dog house.

I do free range mine along side of my chickens. They wander around our 5 acres and our neighbors 10 acres but always come back to the pen at various times during the day. I give them treats in the pen at night and lock them in. Sometimes they opt not to come in for treats and will roost in a tree. I keep both gates to the pen open all day so the guineas and chickens come and go as they please.

I know it is taking a chance to free-range them but I live in the woods and do need them for tick control.

 

[Evelle]

OH that was another thing.. i have just a little over 5 acres but my neighbors and i live on the same side i live on the right edge of the property and they live on their left edge so we are pretty close to each other last year their dogs attacked all of my chicken and turkey ended up with 12 out of 20 hens and no turkeys well they did really well keeping the dog out of my yard so well that my chicken started going over there LOL silly girls. so i had to chace them back home. so thats another mark on my why i shouldnt have them

 

[melroseladi]

Could you run electric fence down that side of your property? That would keep your flock in and the neighbor dogs out or build your coop more away from your homesite and more in the middle of your property?

While my guineas do wander around most of their time is spent foraging closer to home.

 

[Evelle]

uhhhh not really right now, i bet i could clear out some of the trees its very heavyly wooded to keep noise (and privacy) from both sides down, for he has lots of partys and i have 3 kids. and also property is very heavy in trees havent really cleared them out. our backyard is acually national forest no one lives behind us. i only really have about 3 acres of clean clear land. im tring to find a way to put them farther in the oppisit direction snow is another horrable thing if the coop is to far from water and electricity they will freeze it was hard to keep the chickens coop warm and the water not freezing last year. i dont know i guess i could look at it and find some way to do that.
how high would it have to be i have large turkeys that jump on to my GMC Jimmy with a lift on it my chickens do the same. would i have to run two line one low and one higher? you think?
i really apprecate the help you acually make it sound like i might be able to do it i just need to put more work into into it. i dont mind that

 

[melroseladi]

There are some people on here with a lot more experience with it then I have but I also live in the woods with the only clearing right around our homesite.

What I have found is my guineas can fly out of my 6' pen but they rarely do. They have flown up over the house but they rarely do. A guinea will come upon a fence and just pace back and forth looking for a way out. They are known to fly over a fence and then pace on the other side of it not remembering they can fly back over the way they came.

Some people extend their fencing up using deer net which also help deter them from flying over. I think Peeps will tell you, train, train, train, and train some more. Start when they are very young, an option I didn't have with mine since they were adults when I got them.

You can always give it a try and if it doesn't work for you then you could re-home them. There are always people looking for guineas.

Gosh I shivered at the mention of snow, cold, and frozen water. I love Florida even though we have been terribly hot this summer.