I just received my flock of guineas. They are so cute. I have never raised them before, and outside of keeping them warm fed and safe in the brooder, I don't know much about raising them. My goal is to let them free range to get some of the 5 gazillion ticks down here in Southern Illinois. If someone out there has some experience with them, please let me know.
What would you like to know? [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
How do you get them to come to roost in the guinea house rather than in the trees? If they don't I am afraid the predators will get them in pretty short order. We have lots of hawks, and racoons, and who knows what out there. Thank you for any help you can provide.
I only owned a couple of guineas, and I never could get them to stay out of the trees. I figured if they would rather be up there, then they must feel safer, so I just let them stay up there. Now for the bad part. I guess they would still be up there but we had a bit of a confrontation one day the guineas and I. One of them jumped down on my head from said tree and acting reflexively, I snatched him up and wrung his neck. Then the other one came after me and he went pretty much the same way, and we had guinea and dumplings for supper that night. I haven't owned anymore since then, I can't say I have a 'bad taste for them in my mouth' because actually they tasted pretty good. Now before you go getting all mad at me, remember they started it. All I did was go out there to feed.
...acting reflexively, I snatched him up and wrung his neck...
Wow, Cindi!!! Pretty tough relexes you've got there!!! [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] You must have had some kind of killer martial arts training!!! I hope your kids know enough never to sneak up on you, or you'll beat them to a pulp!!! [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]
Rich
"What a long strange trip it's been."
They can be conditioned to come in at night but you need the right setup. Keep them penned up inside untill they are half growed and they will become familiar with their inside home. Before you let them out make an enclosure of chicken netting with a top so they can't fly out and have a door leading to it that you can open and close. You can open the door during the day and let them outside to get used to the outdoors, at night when they go back in close the door so no predators come in. After two or three weeks of this you should be able to take down the enclosure and let them free range, they should go back in at dusk and again close the door for the night. I at one time had a flock of close to seventy-five free ranging guineas and most roosted in trees, I lost almost the whole flock to a Great Horned Owl. Good luck. Al
That's the first and last time I ever did that with fowl. I do however have another story that I would have to tell you in private and knowing you the way I think I do, it would kill ya my kindhearted friend.
Airedale,
You are on" the money" they have to be conditioned,mine do pretty good going in the chicken house during the winter,but during milder weather they pretty much opt to roost in the trees.They are somewhat smarter than a chicken(that is not giving them much credit though).
I never had a gunea attack me.........or land on me...had an old rooster frequently flog me when I was a child [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] .Dad was changing tires on the truck rims and had a tire pump at hand,and thumped the old rooster so bad he ran under the shed and died. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
My FIL had a rooster once that took a dislike to one of the grandkids. The kid couldn't leave the house in any direction that the rooster didn't come after him.
One day FIL got enough of it and caught the rooster in mid-flog and wrung his neck first one way and then the other and then he repeated the process, and tossed the bird in a bush. The next morning the rooster was up and about like nothing ever happened, except for the fact that he spent all his time looking at his left foot. No more floggings, tho. A peacock, will kill you if they get a chance.
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