reading time: 6 Session minutes
Audrey Stallsmith She uses her expertise to handle housing guineas and keep them happy.
Like rowdy teens, Guineas are boisterous and have a tendency to roam, so they definitely have the potential to cause trouble with your neighbours. Of course, you may be able to convince the people nearby that tick control is worth it.
However, that notion probably won’t fly once the birds start shrieking in a dripping chorus under those neighbors’ windows at 6 a.m. I can also imagine a guinea, startled by a dog, flapping on the hood of a prized antique car, then lounging and pooping his way up into the its shiny roof. Suddenly, your risk of contracting Lyme disease wouldn’t seem so significant.
Here are a few things to consider when housing your Guinean to keep them healthy and happy, and how to manage them when they are cuddling and fed.
Teamed can mean tickled
You could of course eliminate some of the problems that genes can cause in the neighborhood environment by keeping the birds cooped up all the time, but that would defeat the purpose of their existence. Also, guinea pigs love to run, and most chicken runs won’t even be long enough to give them a sprint. And unless your barn is soundproofed, they won’t be eliminated All of problems.
Therefore, I would only recommend Guinea to people who are beyond ranting from any neighbours. Fortunately, we live in a remote, dead-end location ourselves. The only time we ever kept them in a coop was when we fenced off a corner of an old corn-bed with chicken wire. We used that well-ventilated enclosure to confine a herd of hunters for a few weeks in the summer until they were old enough to be released, and that worked really well for them.
Keep the kitties happy until they fly into the coop
If I remember correctly, we allowed those birds–that have been brooded and kept indoors for the first six weeks–to keep their lamp on for a while, because they consider her to be their mother. We also provided them with perches that weren’t too high, as guineas are prone to foot injuries, and we didn’t want the little ones to hurt themselves. When mature, it can fly up and down from high places without any problem.
The little guinea seemed to take no interest in the coops, perhaps because they had always been confined, and the new space was much larger than the previous crates and cages had been. After they were released, I suspect they would have hated being sent back to their former “bed”.
Although they returned to that building, they wisely learned to perch on a crossbeam directly under the roof instead of in their old barn. High perches protect them from foxes and wolves. Other predators, such as raccoons, opossums, minks, and anglers, can climb, but these heights tend to discourage them, especially if there is any danger of them getting caught in the stockyard below.
Shared accommodation
Unfortunately, the crib didn’t work out well for the wild turkey we tried to put together with the keets. If you think the guinea is excessive, rest assured that it is impressive and collected when compared to a wild turkey. One of these made a frantic escape, and another died—apparently of shock because the genes paid little attention to it—before we gave ourselves over to putting the remainder of the seminarians into a separate pen. And so we learned that mixing species is not a good idea unless those species are bred together from broken eggs or shortly thereafter.
My sister’s purchased pups grew up with chicks and would follow the chickens to the coop at night to perch under them. She admits that Guineas are always the last to enter, and she’s had to be strict with them a time or two, but they’ve developed a habit of “coming home to roost”. If you intend to get your gene kit during the day and return to the coop at night, as she does, first keep her in that enclosure between two weeks and a month until he considers it home.
After my sister gave us four of those genies, I knew that trying to lock them in for that long of a footprint wouldn’t work when they were already used to being out all day every day. Unfortunately, the weekend I was kept caged in was rainy, so I had to cover that cage most of the time anyway.
The genes we already had “talked” a bit with the new arrivals while they were still in prison, but we persistently ignored them after that. My hopes for a “welcome wagon” of some kind weren’t justified.
New babies on the roost
In fact, when we released the hunters into the barn, our free duck promptly chased them off the premises. I could not find the new arrivals that night, so I suppose they camped in a precarious spot in the weeds. They actually moved into the barn the next night. One evening, I actually came across one of them perched on a pig’s back. When that mother got up, the guinea then ran into the corner of the pen and snuggled up with the pigs.
It wasn’t ideal, but our pigs are used to birds of all kinds coming and going and generally don’t pay attention to them. Also, I thought a predator wouldn’t get to a guinea there without Mama Big Boar having something to say about it.
Although it took the newcomers a few days to figure things out, sometimes a couple of them would make it in the tributaries of the barn opposite where the other guineas congregate. But they often stayed with the chickens on a pipeline that was no longer in use above the pig pens, though I had hoped they would eventually “rise in the world.” For a week or so all the new genies continued to hover faithfully after the white rooster during daylight hours and seemed to adjust quite well. As I mentioned in a previous article, his breeding with other species tends to give keets identity issues!
In the end, we notice that the rooster only has two fairies left, so what happened to the others remains a mystery. Since we saw no sign of blood or feathers to indicate a predator, the two missing people may have finally had enough of the duck or rooster and are trying their own version of The amazing trip Back to my sister’s house.
rooted facts
We have learned from bitter experience that if some of our birds are completely free and others are not, it will be difficult to keep “nots” confined, even if only at night. After purchasing heavy breed kittens late last year, we kept them in a coop over the winter and started letting them in during the spring day.
For a while, they return to their pen at night and lay their eggs in the nest boxes there. Eventually, they begin to like to stay in the coop for the night, as do cocks, baby chickens, ducks, and guineas. Although I originally made an effort to round up the larger chickens and put them back in the coop – or simply take them in and carry Bring them back – they have learned to evade me. They usually can do this by sitting in the back of the pig pen or somewhere else where it would be very difficult for me to reach them.
These days, when I want to collect eggs, I have to climb a rickety ladder into a thatched loft to find their nests. The dog waits anxiously at the bottom of the stairs, probably ready to run for help if I fall, though I suspect she’s actually watching me break an egg instead of my leg.
With superior flying abilities, guineas are better at dribbling than chickens. Teaching them “where home is” doesn’t guarantee that they’ll go back to that cozy barn forever, but at least they’ll lay their eggs in firma’s land!
Hints for keeping a nocturnal guinea pig happy:
- At about 6 weeks of age, switch the keets from 28 percent turkey protein to 18 percent protein poultry feed. Crumbs work better than pellets for them. (We actually feed our domestic pigs, which are also high in protein.) Guineas will need to have water available to them at all times, too.
- If raised with chickens, keep all poultry in the same coop. Otherwise, some birds may pick on other birds, although you can’t always predict which one will be the aggressor. Nowadays Peking ducks chase guineas – who can easily evade them by flying – but in the past we had ducks chasing the Pekingese.
- Although guineas retire early, it is still a good idea to bring light into their enclosure at that time, as they may be reluctant to enter if they cannot look for beasts under the roost. You can safely turn off this light as soon as it is in.
- Finally, if you give your guinea a bedtime treat, such as millet or mealworms, it will give them an incentive to come home through curfew instead of hanging out in the trees with all their wild friends.
Audrey is the author of a book I will say thyme A series of gardening-related mysteries, one of which received a starred review in Booklist Another of the best selections from Romantic times. Her e-book of country comics is titled Love and the other madman. She lives on a small farm in western Pennsylvania.