My guineas came back!!

This is my third attempt with these blasted birds (tried 2 other times over the last couple of years)... they are probably close to 3 months old and have been in the coop for 6 weeks. I let them out Friday for the first time. They actually were trying to get into the chicken run :roll: . They didn't come back that night, and found one dead in the yard :evil: . Next day DH's aunt saw them going across the road :wall: . Last night? Still no sign of them. Went out today and couldn't hear them anywhere either. Dagnabit :angry: . I wrote them off at that point - either to the woods across the road, to dogs, or some other critter... figured they were as good as gone. Tonight we come home around 7 and are heading into the house and I hear something.

Is that what I think it is??

*backup a few steps and peek around the corner of the house*

All 3 that I have left are back!!! :happy2: :up: And in the hoop coop on their roosts no less!

So now I am trying to decide to let them back out tomorrow after being MIA for 2 days, or pen them up for a couple more weeks??

I started with 6 this time - 3 pearl and 3 white. I lost two of the white ones all of a sudden a few weeks ago - they were old enough to be feathered out so not sure what happened. Found one dead, then hours later noticed the other fluffed up. It was gone shortly after. The third was doing fine, just smaller than the other 3. Going by the feathers in the yard my guess is a dog (now the question is, was it one of ours, or the 2 that come visiting often enough they are starting to think this is their house :x ). So now I have 3 pearl, which is OK. I like the polka dotted feathers :lol:

They do better with chickens to copy and will warn about danger around your chicken flock but overall they are frustrating and repeatedly have to be reminded about going in the coop. We fed the great horned owl population for years and eventually had quite a gathering around our house every night. :lol:

My dad had guineas for a while while I was growing up. I often wondered how they are not extinct. Eventually they all got ran over (and his barn isn't very close to the road). Every great once in a great while a chicken would get run over but the guineas? It was like they had no sense of danger at all. They wouldn't even try to get out of the road when a car came.

I am NOT a fan of the Guineas..... So, I'm sorry......... to hear that they came back....

They are great to eat, but alive I find them the most annoying sounding birds ....
(secretly jealous that you can tolerate them...lol)

SarniaTricia":1qdjrkcu said:

I am NOT a fan of the Guineas..... So, I'm sorry......... to hear that they came back....

They are great to eat, but alive I find them the most annoying sounding birds ....
(secretly jealous that you can tolerate them...lol)

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I know I'm odd when it comes to that, but I kinda like their noises. The one I had last year was constantly... clucking? I didn't realize how much so until the silence was so obvious after it was killed. This batch have only recently started alarming, so who knows if they are just a bit on the quieter side, or if they are only just getting started. I remember the first time I heard a guinea it was as I was being woke up by it's squawking outside the window when I was in my teens :x :lol: Still not sure if I have males or females... really hoping for a mix. Not that I have high hopes of them actually surviving long enough for eggs or anything :roll: <br /><br /> __________ Mon Sep 12, 2016 1:34 pm __________ <br /><br />

alforddm":1qdjrkcu said:

My dad had guineas for a while while I was growing up. I often wondered how they are not extinct. Eventually they all got ran over (and his barn isn't very close to the road). Every great once in a great while a chicken would get run over but the guineas? It was like they had no sense of danger at all. They wouldn't even try to get out of the road when a car came.

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Yeah... their coop is at the back of the acre lot they are on. WAY back. On the property line. The chickens would rarely make it that far out, but they were there on the first day :roll:

I was reading one lady's description about how they are the smartest birds, etc. and I kept thinking "do whaaaat?" Smart is not at all on my list of describing words for them.

Guineas don't raise their own young well in most of the US. First they try to nest in some hidden location outside the coop and likely get eaten. Then they drag their keets through water puddles and wet grass without keeping them warm or protecting them from danger. You might get a couple survivors every few clutches if you are lucky. It's better to put the eggs under a chicken and raise them as chickens. They survive a lot better and they learn better behavior for staying home, coop sleeping, and laying. It can be hard to move them from coop to coop though. They need locked up for weeks to recognize a new home and if you have wilder guineas they may take to copying them so it all the improvements by having chicken parents are undone. They are very evolved to their dry african grass habitat and don't adapt well despite surviving temps here.

akane":1phnkm2e said:

Guineas don't raise their own young well in most of the US. First they try to nest in some hidden location outside the coop and likely get eaten. Then they drag their keets through water puddles and wet grass without keeping them warm or protecting them from danger. You might get a couple survivors every few clutches if you are lucky. It's better to put the eggs under a chicken and raise them as chickens. They survive a lot better and they learn better behavior for staying home, coop sleeping, and laying. It can be hard to move them from coop to coop though. They need locked up for weeks to recognize a new home and if you have wilder guineas they may take to copying them so it all the improvements by having chicken parents are undone. They are very evolved to their dry african grass habitat and don't adapt well despite surviving temps here.

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I definitely plan on using a broody chicken hen for egg hatching - I always have a couple determined ones each year! I wanted to slip these chicks under one of the hens, but of course, Murphy's Law, as soon as I got them my one broody hen at the time decided to take a break for a week or so - here we are a couple months later and she's still on the nest :roll: