Fly prevention - guinea's arrived

I forgot to update last weekend, I found the guinea's roost, they are going up in the laylandii by the gate :)
I also found out they have been spending quite a lot of time at my neighbour but ones garden with his chickens, I think they would like a bigger flock for security ;)
 
I honestly wasn’t expecting the Guineas to out wit the fox for long, but so far so good :) they come back for their tea in the evenings and are doing a pretty good job of turning the poo over on the track every day, and they root through the muck heap so hopefully doing their job
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I’ve got a couple more guineas arriving in the next couple of weeks (when they’re big enough) so I’ve decided the should get a permanent coop, mostly to keep their food dry, but the babies will stay in there for a while when they arrive and it will give me somewhere to shut any of them in should I need to.
The decision I need help with, location; currently the birds are fed and roost by Hanks hut, which is next to one of the main haying areas and the gate, which means I disturb them a lot and they scream and run away but it’s good having them there because they pick through the poo and hay to eat bugs and roost above the gate which is a good thing to put off nosey people in the evenings. So do I leave them there or build the coop more out of the way?
 
I’ve got a couple more guineas arriving in the next couple of weeks (when they’re big enough) so I’ve decided the should get a permanent coop, mostly to keep their food dry, but the babies will stay in there for a while when they arrive and it will give me somewhere to shut any of them in should I need to.
The decision I need help with, location; currently the birds are fed and roost by Hanks hut, which is next to one of the main haying areas and the gate, which means I disturb them a lot and they scream and run away but it’s good having them there because they pick through the poo and hay to eat bugs and roost above the gate which is a good thing to put off nosey people in the evenings. So do I leave them there or build the coop more out of the way?

Anything that keeps nosey folk out gets my vote! I'd probably leave things where they are now. It sounds like they are a big help.
 
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If they are eventually going to be out free with the other ones. I imagine theyll all pair up after some time, so the older ones will show the newer ones the ropes. Have they stopped roosting in the trees like they did initially, if so then they must surely like the roost. I guess you wont really know unless you build something else. Cant remember your set up but isnt your hank huts away from the curved shed. I would have thought by now that if they hwted it near the hank hut they might have gone into your curved shed to roost. Surely they are intelligent enough to decide there roost area and would find somewhere else if they were disturbed too much.
 
They still roost in the trees over the gate, Its just I disturb them if I’m going in/out after dark (They dive bomb out of the trees) and I’m thinking ahead to winter. They do go into the big barn but haven’t roosted in there that I know of.

They will all go loose together when the little ones are big enough, I think the adults will hang out around the babies when they arrive (they’ll have to stay in for a few weeks) as they like bigger flocks of their own kind apparently.

They will go where ever food is, including my neighbours chicken pen ? so I want to put a constant supply of food somewhere that the wild birds will be less inclined to pinch, the coop is for that not roosting though they can use it if the want to, they are often found in Hanks hut if there’s torrential rain but the boys are using it more this time of year so I’d like them to have their own undisturbed place.
 
The guinea house is next to the Hank hut, but is movable (with several people) if I decide it needs to
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and it got a coat of preserver today to camouflage it a bit
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I’m impressed they went in to eat on the first night, it took them a good 10 minutes just to get brave enough to eat from a new bowl last week so I thought they’d be more suspicious ?
 
Oops, did I not share the pics from when the keets (babies) arrived, well here they were on their first day
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And now they are in full adult feathers yesterday was their first night out with the adults :D
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I also seem to have 4 or 5 small brown birds occasionally following the adults around, it's possible one of them has laid and they are guineas, but it's also possible they are young pheasant's, I have only caught glimpses of them so far and not enough to tell for sure, so that will be fun watching over the next couple of months :D
 
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Sadly one of the guineas died today ☹️ 2 weeks ago something attacked them (a neighbour heard the kerfuffel but couldn’t see what) and in the following days this one was lethargic and was separate from the others more, then couldn’t roost so I caught it and one other in the coop. It was thin but I couldn’t find any injury but it did perk up, then last night was breathing a little heavy when I went in to feed it and a little less bright.
I had a good check after it died, nothing obvious but it was still very thin after 10 days of extra grub so I’m thinking it may have been attacked because it was sick already rather than the attack making it sick.
 
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The Guineas extension went on Sunday
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today’s challenge is to trap them in there ? for the last few months I’ve been starting a breeding colony of darkling beetles for mealworms ? I’ve taken my first harvest today, hoping that will be extra tempting for them ? wish me luck for successful dusk trapping
 
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They really are as dumb as a box of rocks! I managed to trap them all on the first try ? they went through into the run bit but I figured they’d go back into the coop and up onto the roosts when it got dark. Nope, just sat cowering. I shooed them towards the coop and they sat right next to the hatch in, but would not go in, normally you so much as look at them and they run for the hills. After 20 minutes of trying I had to dismantle the far end, crawl in and still they couldn’t figure it out, I shooed, guided and eventually shoved them through the hole one by one. The big male put up a fight though came at me all flapping, clawing and pecking ? I chose guineas because they didn’t need to be shut in and flapping birds scare me ? I think they can stay in the coop for a couple of days to settle down!
 
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They really are as dumb as a box of rocks! I managed to trap them all on the first try ? they went through into the run bit but I figured they’d go back into the coop and up onto the roosts when it got dark. Nope, just sat cowering. I shooed them towards the coop and they sat right next to the hatch in, but would not go in, normally you so much as look at them and they run for the hills. After 20 minutes of trying I had to dismantle the far end, crawl in and still they couldn’t figure it out, I shooed, guided and eventually shoved them through the hole one by one. The big male put up a fight though came at me all flapping, clawing and pecking ? I chose guineas because they didn’t need to be shut in and flapping birds scare me ? I think they can stay in the coop for a couple of days to settle down!
Well done with the flappy one!!!
 
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