Teaching Guinea fowl to roost in trees

[Wills Chooks]

I have got some 2 month old guinea fowl which I have had in a cage to get used to the area. I have been letting 2-3 out each day and have recently been letting them all out the whole time. My plan is for them to be wild but still staying in the area but they won’t fly into the trees at night, they just sit on the ground. I was wondering how to teach them to fly into the trees at night.
hopefully you guys have some soloutions.

Thanks Will

 

[mkeawsh]

They are going to do what they want. Can't teach them where to roost. My older ones roost in a tree when they feel like it. The rest of time they are on a beam in the barn. This is the way it has been for years. They decided. My younger ones, go into the flight cage at night and I close them in. If they decide to do something different, that's the way it will be.

 

[SueT]

It's hard to stop guineas from roosting in trees! I think yours will eventually do it on their own.
I had guineas for years, for tick control, and they always stayed around, in a 2-3 acre range, but roosted in trees, (sometimes in rafters of open barn, on roofs, etc.) If there was a predator attack, the survivors moved to a different tree. I lost 1-2 a year. I raised replacements each year.

 

[sunnie7]

I used to coop mine but then started leaving them out so I could use my coop for more chickens. Mine are also for rock control. They used to roost on the ground or in trees but now they roost under my kids playhouse which is perfect, they are pretty hidden under there but they make noises all night! Now if I could only figure out where they are laying eggs at . I started with 15 last summer and we are down to 6. We had a fox issue for a bit.

 

[mkeawsh]

I used to coop mine but then started leaving them out so I could use my coop for more chickens. Mine are also for rock control. They used to roost on the ground or in trees but now they roost under my kids playhouse which is perfect, they are pretty hidden under there but they make noises all night! Now if I could only figure out where they are laying eggs at . I started with 15 last summer and we are down to 6. We had a fox issue for a bit.
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I have them for tick control and with all the wooded acreage, I usually don't find eggs unless they lay in the cage before I open it in the morning. I have over 70 chickens and with all being hens except for 7, eggs are not in short supply.

 

[mkeawsh]

They free-range with the guineas.

 

[sunnie7]

I have them for tick control and with all the wooded acreage, I usually don't find eggs unless they lay in the cage before I open it in the morning. I have over 70 chickens and with all being hens except for 7, eggs are not in short supply.

I thinking about attempting to get them back into the coop with food one evening and locking them in there a day or two and seeing if they will lay eggs in there. I’d like to get my flock back up to 15 or so because I’ve already had 5 ticks on me. DH had RMSF last year and is still having issues from it and we have 3 kids so it’s pretty scary. My one and only complaint with my guineas is them getting onto my front porch and pooping on it I’ve tried spraying them with the hose and running them off flapping an umbrella but it doesn’t work.

 

[mkeawsh]

I thinking about attempting to get them back into the coop with food one evening and locking them in there a day or two and seeing if they will lay eggs in there. I’d like to get my flock back up to 15 or so because I’ve already had 5 ticks on me. DH had RMSF last year and is still having issues from it and we have 3 kids so it’s pretty scary. My one and only complaint with my guineas is them getting onto my front porch and pooping on it I’ve tried spraying them with the hose and running them off flapping an umbrella but it doesn’t work.

LOLOL. I gave up long ago trying to keep the chickens and guineas off of our 3 porches. Have a looooong hose that is always used. I find chicken poo to be a lot worse than guinea. Chicken poo smells, guinea poo definitely not as bad.

 

[Wills Chooks]

thank you everyone. I think I will just try letting them roost in the hen house for a bit and see if they eventually want to roost.

Thanks Will

 

[Wills Chooks]

An update on the Guineas.

I put them in the big chicken coop with some high rafters to roost on. At first they just sat on the ground so I would put them up myself. I also tried putting two of them up and leaving a torch on for a few minutes and the others would just fly up themselves, they just wouldn’t learn to go up earlier so they could see (That’s what the torch is for). Until 2 days ago they started going up by them selves.
I don’t really know what the next step is to getting them into the trees but a good outcome so far.

Will