Guinea Fowl Care: Housing and Winter Survival
Keeping Guinea Fowl Safe from Hungry Predators and Frigid Temps in Winter
Reading Time: 7 minutes
By Jeannette Ferguson, Guinea Fowl Breeders Association (GFBA) President
Photographs by members of the GFBA Guinea fowl that are trained to roost inside a shelter at night will outlive those that roost in trees. Guinea fowl have been reported to have lived to be 17 years or older, but unfortunately, more lose their lives to predators than to old age. In the winter, guinea fowl care is important to shield your flock from dangerous temperatures and hungry predators. Guineas are unable to see in the dark and are easy pickings as a nighttime snack for predators on the prowl. Being high up in a tree is no safer than being broody on an outdoor nest. Hawks, owls, and raccoons are common everywhere and once they find an easy meal, you can bet they will return nightly until their food source is gone.
If you live in an area where winter temperatures drop below freezing, guinea fowl can get frostbite and lose toes, or worse. Sure, some may manage to survive in the worst conditions and the most frigid of nights, but that does not mean that the birds were comfortable, that they were not stressed, and that they should be left outdoors to fend for themselves. Flock owners should be responsible and provide proper guinea fowl care via housing (just as they do for their dogs, barn cats, and other farm animals). Guineas are capable of being trained and should be trained to roost inside.
Guinea Fowl Care: Housing
When it comes to guinea fowl care, housing need not be elaborate. Housing can be anything from an old outhouse for a few guineas or a shed to a corner of the barn or garage or a converted trailer. What is important is that housing provides a place for guineas to roost in that is dry, draft-free and predator proof. Ventilation, roosting bars, adequate space for the number of birds kept and the type bedding used as well as keeping unfrozen water and feed available 24/7 are important factors to keeping your flock healthy and safe while confined.
While a guinea house may seem huge for the beginner with guinea keets kept in a small brooder or holding pen inside the adult guinea house, they grow up really fast and as adults need three to four sq. ft. of space per bird. Keep in mind that guineas in colder areas of the U.S. and abroad may very well need to be confined to the inside of their shelter for weeks at a time during the coldest days of winter, especially during ice storms, deep snows, and blizzards. Guinea fowl care tip: To prevent stress and pecking from boredom and to provide comfort for the birds enclosed, four sq. ft. per bird is best. When calculating space per bird, do take into consideration any space provided by nesting boxes, roosting bars, and shelving. A shelter such as a shed instead of a barn with a high roof will also hold in some body heat and the interior of the building will be much more comfortable than the frigid temperatures outdoors.
Roosting bars should be provided for guinea fowl. Guineas fluff their feathers to allow air in to help cool their bodies during the summer and to allow the warm air from their body heat to warm their legs and feet during the winter. If a guinea is forced to sleep on the cold ground or on litter, it cannot fluff up the feathers to cover the feet that can actually freeze in temperatures of 10F or less. Guineas roosting in trees are also subjected to strong winds that can ruffle their feathers, allowing body heat to escape rather than to keep them warm and cozy. Small tree branches, 2×4’s on edge or cut in half make good roosting bars. While it is not necessary to put up nesting boxes for guineas, when stuffed with loose straw to provide a wild-like hiding place, a guinea hen will often use or share a nesting box to lay eggs (during laying season) or to bed down overnight on a cold winter night.
Ventilation helps to allow moisture as well as fumes from ammonia and odors to escape through vents in the eaves or through exhaust fans installed in the roof or by windows that can be opened slightly—taking care that the air exchange does not create drafts in the roosting area. All openings should be covered securely with quarter inch welded wire fencing to keep rats, mice, mink, snakes and other small predators out. Double wood walls (without insulation) will help hold in some heat. Insulating an unheated building can actually hold moisture in. Dampness can cause respiratory problems and increase the risk of disease. Parasites can multiply rapidly in damp bedding. Remove any bedding that gets wet from water spills and keep the bedding as dry as possible.
While straw tends to hold in moisture and takes much longer to dry out, a bag or two of compressed wood shavings for animal bedding is really nice to use and clean up is a breeze. Loose bedding is not as likely to grow mold and mildew. Droppings from guinea fowl are much drier than those from chickens and ventilation is not as great a problem when guineas are housed alone.
Electricity inside the shelter makes life easier on both the owner and the flock. Being able to provide a 5-watt nightlight to help guineas see at night and a brighter light so we can see at night or to see to clean the coop or for our flock when confined on darker, gloomy winter days is one thing, but to be able to provide a water base heater that will keep their water from freezing in the winter is a real blessing. For the owner, this means fewer trips hauling water, no time spent breaking ice, and a continuous supply of water for our flock. Drinking water is actually more important than food. Guineas can survive longer without food than they can without water. Even ice cold water actually helps to maintain the body temperature in our guinea fowl during winter. Please do not assume the birds can eat snow in place of drinking water. It takes a lot of snow eating to be equivalent to drinking water.
Although the common helmeted guinea fowl originate from Africa, they are pretty tough birds and do not require a heated coop. Some owners do prefer to give their birds the option of getting under a heat lamp when temperatures drop to the single digits. If you choose to do the same, make absolutely certain that the light is securely fastened high off the bedding material and that both the light bulb and your guineas are protected by a shield. f the guinea house is large enough, it can be partitioned with a room for food storage and a brooder and with storage areas for bedding and hay or straw. The storage area can come in handy should the size of your flock increase and additional housing space be Yes, guinea fowl do like to get out for some exercise and fresh air even in the winter. On a snowy, but calm day when there are no weather warnings or hazardous conditions, let them out! Prepare to help first-timers back into the henhouse at night. Some may freak out at their first snow, but as you can see in the pictures, they will get used to it, walk on it, and enjoy finding many seeds and such along fence rows and on the undersides of grasses that protrude through the snow. An attached poultry yard can be covered in the winter and an occasional flake from a bale of alfalfa hay will provide needed. some greens and tiny insects to peck at while outdoors getting some fresh air and sunshine.
For details about training and raising guinea fowl from egg through adult, you can get your own copy of the book “Gardening with Guineas: A Step by Step Guide to Raising Guinea Fowl on a Small Scale.” For details about the Guinea Fowl Breeders Association, please visit the GFBA website.
Originally published in Backyard Poultry October / November 2007 and regularly vetted for accuracy.
Very useful as I’m a new owner of 4 8-10 week old keets.
Update: I lost a male when they were about 5 months old. I now think an Easter Egger cockerel may have killed him, the keets and my chicks were raised together until they were 7 months old. That guinea was also mean towards the pullets. At 7 months I moved the young chickens into the main flock as the pullets were now laying. The only female guinea and pullets shared the same nesting box when housed together.
Back in June I had to move a momma duck, her eggs and newly hatched ducklings into the back section of the guinea’s coop. After a couple weeks the 7 ducklings and momma needed more room to move so I opened the door between the rooms so the duck family could go outside. At first the guineas kept their distance but after a few days, they were laying near them in the pen. They would gather around the ducklings with momma if they heard a hawk or the guard dogs alerted. Once the ducklings were 4 months they with momma were put back in the main flock pen. The ducklings I kept still go back and lay next to the guineas fence. They all still remember each other. Back in August, sadly I found my only female dead in her favorite corner of their pen. She had been eating some scratch a couple hours earlier and seemed fine but I noticed her last 2 eggs were abnormal in shape and size, much thinner too. She had just come off of a 2 week period of not laying so I wasn’t too concerned. I miss her, she would even let me hold her at times.
WHAT A WINTER STORM ELLIOTT WAS!
I still have the 2 surviving males, they’re in a fully enclosed pen with private coop. They definitely don’t like snow and will fly from one perch to another to avoid it. With winter storm Elliott I doubled the plastic around the coop, they had nice deep straw inside. I hung the feeder in the corner and put a heated 5 quart water bowl up on cinder blocks for them so they didn’t need to go outside. The nights it was calling for -40 windchill, I did put a heat lamp up as I was worried about them being only them 2 in a 6×8 coop. For the first time ever, I even locked all 44 chickens up in the main coop (10×12), 18 were moved temporarily to it. My coops were built with alcoves for waterers accessible from inside coops and outside pen so I blocked the outside entrance, keeping the chickens fully inside. My ducks have a large coop as well but refused to go inside except my female Mallard, she did at night. The other 20 ducks slept outside using the coop as a wind block and to my relief, all survived without any problems the frigid cold and winds.
I was thinking about installing an automatic coop door up high where the vent is and adding a perch on the inside and the outside. My Guneas are at the back of the chicken coop with a door between the two coops and Gladys the turkey stands in the doorway scaring the guineas from entering. Will they fit and use it?
I just had a polish hen hatch and raise 11 keets out of 26 eggs. They are in their own coop with the hen and have been loose on the property. She wanted to go in the chicken coop to lay an egg, but I don’t want the keets to become used to going in the wrong coop. I also have 3 adult guineas 2 hens and a cock who free range and sleep under the run in up in the rafter. One of the hens is setting on eggs in the chicken coop, but mostly at night and sometimes she doesnt. I want to move her and the eggs into the guinea coop once they start to hatch and hopefully get all the guineas in 1 coop. Is this a pipe dream or do y’all think it’s doable? If so how do I proceed?
As long as the hen has access to the chicken coop, I’m not sure there’s a way to keep her and the keets out. That said, the keets probably won’t linger long.
As far as moving the broody guinea hen, unfortunately, guinea hens are notoriously bad mothers, so moving her isn’t likely a good idea unless you have an incubator as a back up. She may not take to the new area at all and may leave the nest completely. Even if she stays with it, or you leave her where she is, she’s likely to leave behind eggs that could still hatch and any babies that can’t keep up with her.
Years ago I had guinea keets and raised them with my baby chicken. They stayed with the chickens for several months. Then something started taking them. After that we butchered what were still there. My younger brother did fly tying so he helped with butchering and eating.
Now this spring I started hatching chickens so I could sell my incubators. I bought several keets. The first 6 were added to a set of fresh hatched chicks. Then I purchased 7 lavender keets and added them to another batch of chicks. The two groups still stay together and everyone sleeps in the chicken house. I have lost some of the teenagers both chickens and guineas. I live in the country and everyone gets let out in the morning and locked up at night. There are hawks, eagles and numerous 4 legged critters who enjoy eating fowl.
I know when guinea hens hatch babies here in Oklahoma you have to keep them confined until the keets are older or they will drown from the dew on the grass. Still love to hear the guineas talk and chatter. Will have to watch for eggs this spring and hatch them with some chicken eggs to keep them staying in the hen house.