Will free-range guineas survive deer dog season?

[Pearl Grey]

Hi, everyone. I want to try raising some guineas this year, but I'm not sure they'll survive deer season.
Two days every week, from late October until early January, the local hunt club runs a pack of deer dogs. I don't allow them to hunt my farm, but a pack of dogs is no respecter of property lines, so the dogs wind up here anyway.
The first year, I lost probably a half-dozen hens. Then I got smart and got the hunt club to notify me of their hunting days (OK, really, I tracked them down one rainy morning when I was overrun with hounds and late to work as a result and gave the president a piece of my mind but he and I wound up being friends anyway). Now I keep the girls in the chicken house on those days, and haven't lost a bird since except to hawks.
I've heard guineas won't go in a chicken house at night, and prefer to roost in the trees. That's fine by me, but I don't know if they'll survive deer season if I can't shut them up on hunting days.
Some people have told me guineas are a lot better at self-preservation than laying hens. They can fly better, for sure. You can hear the pack coming a mile away, so would they fly up in the trees and keep themselves safe?
My feed store is getting the next batch of keets on Friday. What say y'all? Would my guineas stand a chance of surviving deer dog season?
TIA.

 

[SueT]

I don't know about dealing with dogs, but I never lost a free ranging guinea in the daytime. They are good at evading predators when they are awake....They can fly up on top of buildings easily, into trees....I'd say go for it.

 

[SueT]

I forgot to say, welcome to BYC!

 

[Pearl Grey]

Thanks, SueT!

 

[R2elk]

I don't know about dealing with dogs, but I never lost a free ranging guinea in the daytime. They are good at evading predators when they are awake....They can fly up on top of buildings easily, into trees....I'd say go for it.

You have been very fortunate. There are many people that lose free ranging guineas during the daytime to a number of different predators from fox, dogs, hawks, etc.

 

[SueT]

Okay, well, @Pearl Grey , there you have another side to the story. It's always a risk.....and you will have the dogs coming.

 

[Albanydog]

All our birds free range on about 4 acres of land during the daytime. We have ducks, geese, 4 Guinea fowl, and are down to about 100 chickens in 2 different coops. We got our Guineas as keets and raised them in a small building we use for raising chicks and caring for any injured or sick birds, we call it the "hospital". As soon as the Guineas and what ever chicks were were raising that year got old enough we put them into one of the adult coops, so they were raised with chickens from day one. The chickens and the guineas all return to the coops at dusk and we shut them in for the night. I guess our Guineas were easily trained by following what the chickens do?

 

[Pearl Grey]

Thanks y'all for your replies. But I've been reading more in this forum and don't want to risk my chickens being bullied by guineas. I guess I'll go get more pullets. But thanks for all the information. Better to know ahead of time guineas probably aren't for me!

 

[rum3002576]

I haven't had a problem yet with my guineas bullying my chickens. It's actually the other way around for me , my little cochin rooster is always going after the guineas when they get close to his hens.

 

[Pearl Grey]

Thanks, rum. Do yours free-range? I wonder if, given the opportunity, the two groups wouldn't just leave each other alone?