All the guineas in the entire world share one brain cell. I honestly don't know how they survive in the wilds of Africa because they are dumber than dirt. They're kinda like chickens would be like if chickens took amphetamines. They have the attention span of gnats.
Guineas go where they want to go, which is often down the road. Mine have been found, in trouble, 1/2 mile down a busy FM road from our house despite having 30 acres to roam on between our place and our neighbor's. Guineas can figure out how to get inside an enclosed area yet get stuck because they are too stupid to go out the way they got in. They will run along a fence line for hours because they are too stupid to realize that they can just fly over the fence. They have a herd mentality and when they get distracted or frightened, which is often, the whole group just starts running willy nilly, not paying attention to where they are going or where they are at. This is how they can get so far away from home before they realize it. The roof of a two story house is not too high for guineas to figure out how to get up there and perch.
As our guineas got older, they did decrease how often and how far they roamed. I'm not sure if this was because they finally figured out where food, water, and safety was at, or if they just suddenly did not feel the need to roam quite so far. I decided to try to train them some and at dusk I started calling them and throwing out dried mealworms. Now they are waiting for me at sunset to come throw them mealworms, so this has helped get them to stay close to the house in the evening. Our guineas have a coop that they go into for the night. Most of the time they go in voluntarily without us trying to chase them inside, but it has to be quite dark before all of them are inside, so these days we can't shut the door on their coop until about 9:30 - 10 pm because there is usually at least one, if not three stragglers, that are still running around outside or perched on the coop roof as long as it is still light enough to see without a flashlight.
We tried to use our regular chicken nipple waterers with the guineas - didn't work. They would forget how to use the nipples and would go thirsty with 5 gallons of water hanging over their heads - with water even dripping from the nipples. So we had to go with open bowls and open trough waterers for them.
I hate guineas while they are young and in the brooder. They are like roaches, scurrying around in a constant panic. Very annoying. And when they are small, it is very difficult to catch them to be able to move them or to get them out so you can clean in the brooder. Once they are old enough to go to the pasture, I don't mind them and enjoy them, even though are burnt out light bulbs in the brain department. Our guineas get along with chickens, turkeys, donkeys, and cats.
Guineas are bug eating fools, more so than any of our chickens.
We have a chihuahua who we think is on his way out. I'll miss him a lot even though he still is the out escapingist dog I have ever had. Bad hips, nearly blind, and three teeth, yet he gets out of a yard that my 1 year old puppy cannot.
I really hope the transition goes smoothly for you.
