Gail Damerow Offers Tips on How to Keep Guineas Home

Most definitely. After a move, they need to be confined a lot longer before they catch onto where “home” is. Chickens need only 3 or 4 days of confinement. With guineas, on the other hand, a lot of people keep them in for a good 6 weeks.

And then you can let them out?

Not exactly. At least not all at once. Another difference between guineas and chickens is that guineas move together as a group. If one takes a notion to fly into the sunset, they’ll all go with.

So how do you deal with that?

After the period of confinement, let out only one guinea. It won’t go far without its pals. At night it will want to roost with the rest of the gang inside the coop. After a day or two, let out two, and so forth.

By the time you let them all out at once, they will have become used to returning to the coop at night. They have learned by then that the coop represents food, water, and a safe place to roost.

And speaking of roosting, guinea fowl feel safest on a perch that’s high off the ground. That’s why they like to roost in trees. When you provide high perches inside the coop, they feel safer than on low perches. And they are less likely to seek a high roosting place outside.