Now that winter is over its time to release the guinea fowl so they can free range all summer. I also walk around so you can catch up with some of my other birds. Still lots of work to be done with pens.
I doubt you see this 2 Years later but how do guinea affect sparrows? like do you not have them around at all anymore or do they just not land and eat food because the guineas will chase them off?
These guys are funny to watch very territorial too Theyre originally from Africa. So they know how to flee from perditors more so than chickens or ducks. 😊
I love them. (Some people don’t!) I’ve raised and free ranged them before. They seem to have about two brain cells each and you need a flock to eventually get some sense of order and the ability to form one communal thought.
That is so true. You definitely need a flock for them to survive, I hatch some but also the adult hens hatch some but we take the young off them ASAP so they hopefully survive,if we leave them to raise them we loose nearly all of the Keets.
Hopefully the Guineas will be eating ticks. Ducks are for their eggs, great for baking, chickens and turkeys for meat and eggs, geese for my pets and peafowl for garden pets.
The guinea coop was 10 x 10 but we have just extended it so I can keep smaller ones next to the adults the when they are use to living in the coop and older then I can open a door inside so they can mix, the inside divide is mesh panels with a door. The extension I think is 6 x 10. Hope this helps.
Excellent documentary. Could you tell me that as a group in their coop with doors open at night (in my case) and a large orchard, will they be able to defend themselves at nights if a fox or a bobcat come by. Will they be able to fly on the trees, etc.? I don't want to confine them, yet do not want to lose them.
You could leave it open but with mine over 3/4 of them go inside in the evening and the others roost high in trees. I close the door to keep the ones inside safe. The others do well in the trees, owls are my biggest nightmare as they can get them from the trees and kill them. Once it’s night they don’t move so if a predator got in to the coop it would probably decimate them. They defend themselves well through a day but not so much at night. Hope this helps.
Mine have nests all over our farm, they eventually turn up with Keets or we find empty nests with 30+ eggs in them, i leave them until end of summer then remove the eggs. All the others still prefer to sleep in the coop at night. I leave it up to them what they do until the snow comes then they go inside for the winter where they are protected from the elements and predators.
Yes they return every night and roost in their coop. A few roost in a tree next to the coop but as it gets colder they all go inside. I live in Saskatchewan, Canada.
No, they free range all summer and go in to their coop every night… totally their choice , sit on nests and hatch out their own keets and then when the snow starts they go back in their coop for the winter.
This is only their sleeping hut for those who want to go in at night, they free range over 165 acres which I am sure for the birds I have is ample space. Their winter accommodation is much bigger and we are also enlarging their summer sleeping hut this year.
I moved them to their summer hut before I took this video so they could know where their food and water is before they free range so they never have to go hungry or thirsty.
