Who here has less than 1 acre and neighbors?

[NicInNC]

I was just wondering who all here has guineas and lives on less than 1 acre with neighbors close by. What are some problems you've run into with your neighbors? Do any of them complain about your guineas? Do you keep them in a run that they can't get out of?

 

[satay]

I live on 5 acres and my neighbours have guineas. They are extreelemly noisy. They get into my yard early hours of the morning and make a huge ruckas.I would be thinking on such small acreage I would not get them unless you check with the neigbours first to see whether they mind and yes if you do get them keep them penned.

 

[flgardengirl]

I am on 3 1/2 acres. We have nieghbors on two sides (not real close) and mostly woods behind us. We already have a bunch of noisy roosters that start crowing @ 6 am.
I just got 5 baby guineas...stay tuned

 

[alabama49]

If you don't keep them penned up they will go on walk-about and visit neighbors within a mile of you. We have 13 acres and my guineas have visited neighbors on each side of us, behind us and across the road from us. They go into their yards and discuss things and squawk if the neighbors startle them. They usually don't visit too long before they move on the the next one. But they pretty much do this on a daily basis. It gets to be a routine for them I think.

 

[ranit]

Yes they tend to wander if not kept penned up. We have 2 acres but ours love to cross the road and visit the neighbors. I think the neighbors grain bins are part of the attraction even though they get scratch at home. The house across the road is a farmer's "old home place" and three different members of the family have lived there at different times. Luckily everytime someone new moves in and we ask them if the guineas bother them they say they don't mind. Our main problem with this is they don't always have sense enough to get out of the road when a car is coming.

 

[J3172]

I live on a half acre and had 4 guineas, if i let them out of there run they would for the most part sit on top of it and discuss the what the daily plan was then would visit the people next door. I found if you keep them in a run, and you have it so they can see anyone or thing they stay quite for the most part.

 

[Doodle_Doo]

i do

i have them in my backyard but penned up..
i talked with my neighbors if it was fine all said good
as long as they didnt jump over and do damages or that they
wouldnt be responsible if any were killed by dogs..

 

[flgardengirl]

I do have to worry about stray dogs here. We have had lots of dogs come into our yard. I only let my chickens free range while I can watch them so it will prob be the same with the guineas. I would like them to be able to free range at least a little so they can eat the ticks etc. If they go back into the wooded area it will be really hard to catch them though. I have taken the keets outside a few times with the baby chickens that they are with and they sure love it outside. They flew out of thier little penned in area a few times when I first put them in there but they ran round and round it trying to get back in lol. They spent about 3 hrs in there after that and did not fly out again.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

My yard is maybe 1.5 acres and is only halfway fenced in, so I would like to finish fencing and clip the left wing of each of my guineas before they are full grown.
I can't see that my neighbors will have a problem with my guineas, because they love my eggs and I always have their little girl, but a dog might show up or a guinea might go for a walk and never return and such.

 

[laturcotte1]

I only had one barred rock hen left, her name is Chicken and decided to purchase her a family. I bought 2 guinea fowl 3 BR hens and 1 BR rooster. They have all been locked in the pen for about 1 month together for a few reasons. I needed to socialize them, Chicken wanted to kill them all at first and I needed the newbies to get use to their surroundings, especially the guineas. This week I've just started to let them out. It is hysterical to watch. Chicken, who has become mama hen tries to keep everyone by the run door and when one gets past her she runs frantically to herd it back to the flock. They are just beginning to understand what's she's doing and is sort of cooperating. When I see they are beginning to scatter and she is panicking I help her out a little. But the guineas are funny they don't go far from the rooster, they love their rooster and where he goes they go. The rooster Stuart is more independant and will wander. The guineas will do one of those, "where did he go, where did he go" and run yelling their heads off back into the run. Then mama hen has to chase the rooster while one of the hens will wander in the opposite direction. She is doing a wonderful job but she nearly had a heart attack when the guineas decided to fly to the top of the coop. She ran and paced back a forth not knowing what to do. Finally, with a little coaxing with food they came down and belined for the pen, Chicken gathered everyone else and to her great pleasure I locked them in. This all happened in a matter of 30 minutes, I'm was exhausted. So out the door I go today to spend another hour or so with them, hope mama hen is up to the exercise.

We live in the woods and have plenty of foxes, hawks and owls. We've taught our chickens to come when I shake a can of bird seeds and call "keets, keets, keets" and I ALWAYS feed them. While training them in use mealworms. But the more I do it the less mealworms I have to use, they never know when they are going to get the worms and always come running. I'm hoping this will work for the guineas as well.