Training Guineas to Coop

[Rose66]

My plan for my future guineas is to have just a coop, no pen, and they will free-range during the day. I'd like to have my coop door about 6 feet off the ground at the top of the coop to help keep predators out at night but how would I train the guinea's to enter the door that high up? Also, will the guineas learn not to touch the hot wire that I plan to put around the chicken run for predator control? Thanks!

 

[robin416]

I have found having the outside pen has been a huge plus for me. Low birds can be a challenge to get in at the same time the main flock goes in. Many times they will get to the door and the flock leader will chase them back out again. By having a pen after getting the main part of the flock up you can leave the pen door open until the low bird goes in on its own. BTW, a pen with a wire or other top is recommended.

Another plus to a pen is weather. If there's snow on the ground you can open their coop door but leave the pen door closed to keep them from taking to the trees. Guineas hate snow.

If your buildings are secure predators should not be a problem for them once they are up for the night. Since moving my Guineas to the bigger building I've never had a predator problem. I've never had a problem in my chickens coops either.

Using hot wire during the day is probably not the best idea. Guineas vision is not the greatest and could be a problem for them even being able to see it.

 

[MuranoFarms]

I would start with a split door. You know...the kind that you can just open the top, or the bottom half. Actually, you could just build the bottom half....you'll need to open it so you can go in and out anyway. Leave the whole thing open for awhile, then start closing the bottom periodically. They'll figure it out.

 

[Rose66]

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That makes good sense.

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My job requires me to leave home each morning before daylight and most days I don't get home until dark so I do not want to put a top on the guinea pen. That way they can fly out of the pen during the day without me having to open a door on the run. I will invest in an automatic door closer for the coop.

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We only have snow where I live maybe once every 2-3 years and even then maybe 1"-2" so that would not really be a big consideration for me.

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I plan on making my coop as predator proof as possible but who knows.....

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I thought they had good vision during the day. Otherwise why does everyone say they are great at spotting hawks and such?

Thanks!

 

[Rose66]

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That's a good thought. Thanks!

 

[robin416]

They don't see hawks or smaller birds that easily as evidenced by what happened here yesterday. I had just let some chickens out after the rain quit, as I walked around the coop a hawk swooped down towards the Guineas that were near by. But when the hawk saw me it changed direction and headed for the nearest tree. The Guineas never knew it was there. Yet it flew just five or six feet over top several.

A hot wire just by the fact that it is so thin and colorless would be a problem for them to see when they go about some of their Guinea wildness.

You misunderstood, the pen door and coop door would remain open during the day. That way they can come and go as they please. The low birds can sneak in for food and water. There have been reports of unitimidated hawks flying in to outside pens without wire tops and a couple even entering a coop after a bird. If there is a pen with a wire top they are less likely to fly in to the coop.

 

[Rose66]

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I gotcha but since my job requires me to leave home each morning before daylight and most days not get home until dark, I would have to open the run door before daylight and close it after dark. That would allow coyotes, foxes, dogs, and any other land predator to access the run so that would not be good. There are more land predators than flying predators here so I'd be better off taking my chances with no top on the pen rather than leaving the run door open all day long. The low ranking guineas would still be able to fly into the coop for food and water during the day as well as they would be better protected from land predators after dark if the dominant guinea wouldn't let them in the coop for some reason.

 

[perchie.girl]

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I have seen covered runs attached to coops with a Guinea door up on top above the run cover. The trouble with your schedual.... (I read the posts on this first page) ... the trouble with your schedule is you will be home after they have gone to roost. Most likely they will start roosting on top of the run or in a tree if its close by.

I had the same schedule as yours... 60 mile one way commute to work. My guineas gave up the coop for the tree.

My next flock is going to have a very big run and a very big coop. I do want to free range but It will be on days where I can ""escort and count beaks"" and offer bribes to come in in the form of Tasty treats.

 

[david's grammy]

I have about 70 adult guineas in a coop with a large pen that has roosts...I call them the guineas' jungle gyms. The jungle gyms keep them up off the wet ground when it rains or snows. My stay in through the winter I start turning them out in the early spring until late fall.They free range during the day, but I make them coop up every night, because I live very far from any where and there are lots of coons, coyotes, etc. These are all guineas that I raised from the egg. I never turn the new ones out until the next season, for they need time to grow and to learn about cooping up. How I accomplish the cooping up , which is vary time consuming at first and must be done everyday to train the bird. I have a net to catch them with, but I just tap the net on the wood of their pen and kind of push the young ones into the coop. As they grow , they learn to coop up to the sound of the tapping. You must stay with this even thought the winter.By spring , when you turn them out for the day, they will coop back up to the tapping sound......it is great fun to watch 70 guineas come a runnin'. If you ever let them start roasting in the trees, you will fight a losing battle to get them to coop up ever again. I do not want mine to roost out, because the coons pick them off. I have 20 in a coop with no pen and they go in every nite... I turn these out some through the winter, cause they are easy to coop back up.The guineas will NOT go into the wrong coop and there is no changing their coop, so the babies have to be added to the different coops through out the summer. If you accidentally put one in the wrong coop, it will not stay or will not go into the coop, but stay in the pen, flying at the side to get out...Guineas are really very smart...much smarter than chicken... I have another coop with a pen with jungle gyms which is my nursery. I have about 20 adults in there to keep watch and not let a bullsnake get to the babies. The babies I hatch inside in an incubator and at 1 week, they go outside to the nursery into a horse tank with a 1 or 2 100 watt lights on them ...just depending on outside temp and the number of keets. I have hatched 40 so far this spring The horse tank is covered with screen with a sheet over that to keep adult birds from pooping on the babies.... two of my hens just stay in the coop and watch the babies...they could go out into the pen, but chose not to. When the keets start to fly out as i lift the screen, they are big enough to take off the screen and be in the tank or out in the coop...their choice...My birds are all under a year old, so the hatch rate has not been as good as it will be by the end of the summer. Some hens are not even laying yet. i have 5 hens setting on a community nest in one of the coops and those should start to hatch soon. If I can caught them I will put them in the nursery, cause this is one of the coops I turn out everyday. I hope you enjoy raising guineas as much as I do...GOOD LUCK...

 

[chloebetsychicks]

a couple of quick thoughts here after having guineas for a couple of years. We have ours trained to roost with the chickens and they are all together in the pen until let out in the afternoon and closed up at night. It took time but they learned to go in at night...eventually. Occasionally they will still roost outdoors and last week one got taken from a nest where she was setting on a bunch of eggs right by the front door! Last year one nested outside the pen with no problems. Also guineas do not understand fencing or pens. They get "stuck" outside of fences even if they flew over it to get to the other side. They will freak out for hours on end trying to get through the fence instead of back over. Also, my neighbors had their chicken run uncovered and a hawk decimated their flock. We also had our pen uncovered for a while until a raccoon got in one night.