Talk to Guinea Fowl — They Will Listen

The first flock of guinea fowl we had on our Tennessee farm consisted of mostly pearl guineas, with a few white guineas in the lot. Unfortunately, white poultry of any kind are usually the first to succumb to predation, and our white guineas were no exception.

The young guineas were supposed to spend nights safely inside the coop with the chickens. Instead, they insisted on sleeping perched along the wire that runs from a utility pole to the corner of our house roof.

That was not a safe place for young poultry, especially white ones. Overnight we began losing the white guineas, one by one. By the time most of the white guineas were gone, we spotted a great horned owl in the act.

Our woodshed was directly below the utility line where the guineas roosted. To entice the birds to roost under the shed’s roof, my husband Allan nailed a 2×4 under the shed roof, letting it stick out a few feet into the open.

At dusk, as the guineas were getting settled on the utility line, Allan went out and talked quietly to them, asking them to please come down and sleep in the woodshed. I thought he must be dreaming, but to my utter amazement, after a long while one guinea flew down from the utility line onto the woodshed roof, and then hopped onto the extended pole. Then another followed, until eventually they were all roosting on the extended pole.

The next evening, though, they were back on the utility wire. Allan went out and sternly said, “Get down!” And would you believe it — they did!

You might wonder — as I did — how sleeping out in the open on a pole was safer for the guineas than sleeping in the open on the utility line. Well, every couple of days Allan sawed a short piece off the end of the pole.

Eventually the perch was entirely under the woodshed roof, and all the guinea fowl were roosting on it. From then on we lost no more of those guineas to the great horned owl.