Guineas in harsh winter environments - reader question

A reader emailed the following question to us

"Our neighbors have guniea hens and we have been thinking of getting some. However we live in Wisconsin and have cold winters. What would we have to do to protect these hens during the winter months? Could we let them out or would we have to keep them inside?"

I'm not that familiar with the weather in Wisconsin. I imagine it's a little more harsh than Pennsylvania. I'd check with people in your area if you can find anyone who has guineas.

Our birds are pretty wild and are not trained to live in a coop. If you can build a coop or avairy and get the birds to return to it each night, that would probably work. If you do a coop the problem is that you really need to be there each night to close it up. Otherwise a critter might get in for a late night guinea snack.

What we do is simply

• put a poultry waterer out that sits on an electric heater. You can probably purchase that at a feed store or over the internet.
• Make sure that the birds have plenty of food. We use layer pellets. We also have a regular bird feeder and they guineas (if you don't have too many of them) can scavenge what falls from the feeder.
• If we are going to be away for a while, I try to set up an automatic deer feeder loaded with layer pellets. that way, even if it snows, the feeder will dispense pellets regularly.
• The birds will usually stay in the tree until I plow at least part of the driveway. You just have to make sure that the birds dont' get in front of the snowblower.
• They can use a place where they can get in out of the snow and especially the icy rain. Our birds like to get under our picnic table. Keep in mind we have a small flock.

That pretty much takes care of it. There was one time when it was really nasty and the birds weren't doing too well. I was able to catch them by putting a towel over them. I put the tractor outside the shed with a tarp and let the birds sleep in the shed. You have to watch that they don't try to eat some of the stuff in the shed.

One goal would be to have at least a couple of birds survive the winter. The experience they pass on to the keets is invaluable in helping them survive.

Good luck...