What to do with guineas...

[Harmony Fowl]

Mine are also pretty dumb. I have a chain link pen they love to get into, but the gate is on the opposite side from their home. They walk around the pen to get into it, then can't figure out why they can't walk straight through the chain link to take the shortest route back to the chicken run again. Mine do go out, forage in the tall grass and woods and come back, but I didn't let them out till around six weeks old and then they had chicken peers and an entire chicken flock to follow. I hope yours make it back okay. I've heard letting some out and keeping some back will get the free ones to come back to their flockmates, but I'm pretty new to guineas as well.

 

[guinealeghorn]

Sorry I didn't see this earlier! did they ever come back?

 

[BantammChick]

Thank you everyone for responding. The guineas came back. And now they roost in the yard (shed or chicken coop). They are so cute.

 

[Naomithewolf]

We bought 5 guineas from our co-op about 4 years ago. They'd all roost on the top of our swingset in the back yard. Slowly though, one by one, they got picked off by coyotes. All but one. They lived just long enough for the single female we had to lay her first egg (its shell was so hard I threw it on the ground thinking it was one of the fake eggs we have and it didn't crack). But we still have that single one and I believe the secret to it is letting him sleep in our garage and closing the door at night until we get up in the morning. He's very lonely and chases cars because of the reflections but he protects us from the mean rooster and, though he occasionally charges at visitors, he has never hurt anyone nor behaved aggressively to one of us. He constantly sings songs and follows us everywhere. I cannot say I've had much luck with guineas but I can say I had a whole lot of luck with one.

Here are some pictures of him doing what he normally does: zooming around and being beautiful.

 

[Guinea girl 123]

at one month old they could of gotten eaten we always have trouble keeping ours alive when they reproduce during summer. If they weren’t able to fly and roost somewhere high chances are high that something got them

 

[Naomithewolf]

at one month old they could of gotten eaten we always have trouble keeping ours alive when they reproduce during summer. If they weren’t able to fly and roost somewhere high chances are high that something got them

Mine definitely did get eaten by the coyotes. They were over a month old though. I found the issue is that the moment the sun starts to rise the guineas would become active and fly down from the safe top of the swingset. The coyotes would hunt them right as the sun started rising and they would simply run circles around the chicken coop instead of flying up somewhere safe. We combat this with our last guinea by shutting him in the garage until we get up in the morning after the sun rises lol. They all had access to the swingset but they for some reason would not fly up when they were being chased.

 

[Ghosty]

Pretty pics Naomithewolf!