Large bird run done

[Mini Horses]

actually liked my Guineas. They were loud if something strange came but, day to day animals/people not so. They always made me shake my head at the fact that they would fly over a fence into another pasture BUT when they tried to come back, just ran up & down the fence line looking for a way through! Why not FLY BACK??? Never failed...I mean, there was a path from running the fence. Heck, the chickens don't do that!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Mine do.

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

actually liked my Guineas. They were loud if something strange came but, day to day animals/people not so. They always made me shake my head at the fact that they would fly over a fence into another pasture BUT when they tried to come back, just ran up & down the fence line looking for a way through! Why not FLY BACK??? Never failed...I mean, there was a path from running the fence. Heck, the chickens don't do that!

Same experience here on the flying and wearing a path along the fence. However, ours are always squawking. They'll fly over the fence and then walk the paths on our property in the trees and prairie just screeching the whole time.

They've even circled our house and stopped once they could see my wife through a window and stood there screeching at her for a while. I assume for food but maybe also just as a "LOOK!!! IT'S A THING!!!"

Getting them back into the chain link run at night is always the struggle as they can just fly over the whole thing if they remember that they can fly.

 

[CrealCritter]

Nice secure run - good work

 

[Lazy Gardener]

"LOOK!!! IT'S A THING!!!"
Getting them back into the chain link run at night is always the struggle as they can just fly over the whole thing if they remember that they can fly.

The noise you describe, as well as the difficulty managing them to lock them up at night is a nice reminder, "Why I don't have guineas!" I've always been enamored with the looks of them, and always secretly, perhaps not so secretly WANTED to have some. But, the noise, and the described stupid behaviors have thus far been a deterrent. Outside secure fencing, they'd not last a month here. They would just be expensive pred bait that would then provide positive reinforcement: "Hey everybody: the chow wagon is open with good eats @ "Chez Jardinier Paresseux".

 

[farmerjan]

Gunieas are really low on the brains ladder ..... I had some once, but they too wouldn't stay home and the neighbor hated them. Wonder why??????

They would roost on the board fence, top board, and the owls would pick them off one by one. Had a couple that wouldn't stay out of the road and actually become roadkill....And there is nothing more useless for setting on and hatching out eggs.....
Lay like the devil, but you had to incubate them and raise them in confined quarters, or there wouldn't be any. JUST PLAIN DUMB.
Best thing to say for them, they are great at eating bugs and will "de-tick" an area real well. And of course, let you know if something strange comes around.

 

[baymule]

I have a trio left out of 6. I call them the Looney Goonies. They roost on the ground or up in a big pine tree. Everything said, applies. They are DUMB, but enchanting. They usually don’t give me the time of day, but they will come beg for BOSS at the bird feeder. They stay around the Sheep barn, pop through the cow panels into pasture 1, pasture 3 and our yard. I want another flock for the horse barn.

I think the secret to keeping them around is to keep them cooped until they are adults. They won’t come back to the coop, but they stay around. At least mine did. I let them out too soon and 2 took off. 1 got his head bit off. I found eggs, a neighbor incubated them and now he has 5. Maybe we can load up the area with guineas and some will survive. LOL

 

[baymule]

I had to run outside in the dark to turn a cut off valve to a water faucet so it doesn't freeze tonight. There were the Looney Goonies, huddled up next to a cow panel at the sheep barn--because I didn't open the gate for them! To get out in the yard in the mornings, from the big tree they roost in, they have to pop through a cow panel, plus the very one they were huddled up against. It is a known fact, the holes in cow panels only open in one direction. I was going to catch them and put them over the fence, but they ran off, shrieking, in the darkness. Dummy Looney Goonies.

 

[flowerbug]

how do they compare to quail or bob whites?

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I had to run outside in the dark to turn a cut off valve to a water faucet so it doesn't freeze tonight. There were the Looney Goonies, huddled up next to a cow panel at the sheep barn--because I didn't open the gate for them! To get out in the yard in the mornings, from the big tree they roost in, they have to pop through a cow panel, plus the very one they were huddled up against. It is a known fact, the holes in cow panels only open in one direction. I was going to catch them and put them over the fence, but they ran off, shrieking, in the darkness. Dummy Looney Goonies.

Good thing my coffee cup is empty. Otherwise, there'd be coffee dripping down the monitor screen.