Wondering if guineas will work for me

[Chicky_Baby]

My property is divided into multiple parcels. The one where my house is located is only 2 and 1/2 acres. On one side is a large farm with cattle - nice people and I like having the cattle nearby but where cattle graze they poop so we have fly issues. I also have pigs, chickens and goats so I contribute to the problem. Other than myself and the cattle farmer nobody else has livestock however there is one awful old lady who I have had to take to court multiple times because her dogs kill my livestock and dig in my garden incessantly. As you can imagine we are not on good terms. My problem is that I am worried that if I get guineas the birds will fly from my yard to her yard. She has a grounds crew come in 2 or 3 times a month to keep her lawn looking so manicured that it is almost sterile and I can't imagine it would be very interesting to them but at the same time after having taken her to court multiple times I would like to spare myself the embarassment of having given her an excuse to turn the tables on me. With the delicious fly infested manure spread over many acres of land to my left and my own fly / insect paradise awaiting them do you think they would have any interest in her plasticy yard?

Edited to add that she has multiple dogs that run loose in her yard while my yard and the cattle farmers yard are both fenced with electric fencing.

 

[Aj1911]

mine dont go off my 2 and a half acres at all and it has trees on the border, just keep them locked in a pen for the first 6-8 months so they have an idea where they need to be

other wise if you have a fence they should be fine, there is an off chance if something spooks them they will fly over it

 

[PeepsCA]

Even if her yard is "almost sterile" but it's green with plants and flowers during times when everything is dry and boring everywhere else they will most likely head for her yard. I've had pretty decent success with training my Guineas to stay away from certain areas tho...

If you can keep your land and other areas that are OK for them to frequent interesting to them with mirrors for them, hanging bird feeders that supply the Guineas with spillage for treats, areas to dust bathe etc AND be sure to build their coop/run as far away as possible from the area where your property meets her property, and maybe even put up a few tall posts with a couple strands of regular wire up above the top of the existing fence between her yard and yours that (and I'm sure she'd LOVE this) you could hang ribbons of the shiny bird tape, CDs, or different shiny objects etc that you can change out frequently on the fence and top wires to spook the Guineas away from that area, then these things may all help keep them out of her yard. You could also put up a couple of the motion detector sprinklers that will blast the birds anytime they go near her land. At least if you do things like this she'll hopefully see you are making an honest effort to keep them out of her yard and not just letting them run amuck... but with people like her there may be no appeasing her, no matter what you do.

I agree that the Guineas need to be penned up in a coop and covered run for a while (I don't know about 6-8 months tho). I usually keep mine locked in from 6 weeks old (when they're done being raised in a brooder) up until they are 12 weeks old, then I start letting them have some supervised free range time in the late afternoons, gradually allowing them out longer and longer until I can just open the run in the morning, call them to come in at night before dark and shut them in so they are safe from predators. But I have to work with them every day for a while, herding/luring them back into the pen with a routine evening treat, basically babysitting them plus shooing/harrassing them away from areas they are not allowed to go on a consistent basis and it eventually pays off, they learn the routine.

So I think if you try some (or all) of the above suggestions and correct your Guineas for heading her direction on a consistent basis, they will eventually get the hint that they are not allowed there... but you have to be consistent. If you aren't consistent, you probably won't have much success. The sprinklers work really well for times that you can't be out there keeping an eye on them, especially if you can move them around to different spots and keep the birds guessing, lol.

Good luck!

 

[Chicky_Baby]

Thank you both for your help. I am begining to feel more positive about this. My yard is full of fruit trees, bushes and flowers as well as the garden while she has no plants what so ever and the grass is really short most of the time. Kind of like astroturf. I guess that would translate into boring to a bird, fingers crossed. So should I wait for next year to get chicks or can I train adults to stay put just as easily?

 

[robin416]

Quote:
Guineas spend the majority of their time out in the open so her yard would actually be more interesting to them than yours with all of the trees.

As long as she will not contain her dogs they will be over at your place taking whatever bird they can catch. Either she does something about the dogs or I wouldn't recommend having Guineas unless you can find a way to keep her dogs out.

 

[melroseladi]

I am on 5 acres, the property north of me is 10 acres, uninhabited, the property behind me is 10 acres with a family living there, to the south of me is a property of 5 acres with people living there, to the west is a total of about 20 plus acres partly inhabited. My guineas cover it all, mostly by foot. I would say that 95 percent of all the property is woods with a few clearings for the homestead. I haven't figured out a way to keep them on my property short of keeping them penned up which pretty much defeats their purpose.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
Keets IMO, are easier to train than re-training adults. Keets are for sale all over right now... you won't have to wait for next year if you decide to buy keets (unless you can't find anyone to supply you with keets in your area). Try looking on your local craigslist, online. You can also place a "keets wanted" ad there too.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
My Guineas stay home... I'm on 10+ fenced & cross fenced acres, the fences are only 4' tall goat/sheep fencing and a couple strands of hotwire. My breeding flock stays in my 4 acre goat pasture, the other flock (my full time free rangers) stays in my 6 acre horse pasture and the driveway area. My gates are always kept closed, so ground predators and stray dogs do not get in. Neither flock flies outside my fence line. The free rangers NEVER go up in the goat pasture, and the free rangers do not allow the breeding flock to be on their side of the fence or in the driveway area (that's THEIR turf, they were here first, lol). They will harass all the occasional birds from the breeding flock that fly over into the driveway area (or jump down off the top of their covered run) until they either fly back over the fence into the goat pasture or I go out there and herd the defiant Guinea back in.

I seriously doubt I'm the only Guinea owner that has achieved the feat of keeping Guineas home, lol. If one is persistent/consistent enough (and if you have a helpful flock of Guinea bullies to assist you, lol) training Guineas to stay home can be done, especially when you start with keets and continually work on ingraining it into their hollow little heads that they need to stay inside the fence. I realize not everyone can do that, but it can be done.

Since your guineas are already grown and they already know that they have the freedom of all that acreage, you probably won't ever keep them home... I'd say the best you can do is keep an eye on them during the day and consistently call them back to you for treats when ever they go too far, so they get in the habit of not ranging as far. But even that may not work, if they are set in their ways

I set my Guineas' ways for them, before they got the chance to do it themselves, lol. It's definitely easier to create/form good habits from the start than it is to try and change bad habits that have already formed

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

My guineas roam fairly far away from their coop, but the they never get off our property ( it would be kind of hard to since we have a section!

)

~Aspen

 

[cgmccary]

Do not count on them to stay put & not wander. I have 6.5 acres and there is about 50 acres of woods across the road, and I have two neighbors with about 3 acres each and dense forest behind me for miles. My Guineas cover at least 20 acres. I cannot control anywhere they go. I find it unbelievable how far I see them out (such as way off in the woods). They do come home before dusk and most of the time, they all go in the coop at night with the chickens. I have found I cannot even keep them out of the road or out of the dense forest across the street or my neighbors yards. They have even embarrassed me a couple of times by sending up there loud chorus of alarms in the neighbors yard directed at them when they come out of their homes. It only takes a few to create quite a ruckus.

Fluffy Puffy: My guineas roam fairly far away from their coop, but the they never get off our property ( it would be kind of hard to since we have a section! )

Wow, yes that is a big chunk of property. I used to know this but how many acres is in a Section?​