Fly prevention - guinea's arrived
- Thread starter Jessey
- Start date
Plenty of mealworms in a trail through the only half open door with 12ft of baler twine going around the corner for quick closure from out of sight ?
) and they didn’t come back until yesterday! But they’re now doing their normal and having a lovely time finding bugs to eat 
The Guineas have been out of sorts since release from their lockdown, it looks like the fox got one of them so the other 2 are even more wound up and now it looks like there a rat frequenting their feeder, any hints on dealing with the latter?
But how without killing the birds? I’m afraid I’ve rather resorted to poisoning the buggers for the last couple of years, I guess I could shut the Guineas out of the coop while I do
I don’t know if I could move their food far, they’re not the smartest, but it’s the time of year I can go back to just putting a little out once a day and they can find their own food the rest of the time. I’m sick of feeding the fat wood pigeons anyway 
I think I’m going to have to rehome the Guineas. Since the bird flu lockdown they’ve been extra noisy and fussy and then the fox got one which upset them even more and now a neighbour is complaining they’re hanging out at his house admiring themselves in the glass doors and pooping on the patio. He’s asked me to keep them locked up from now on, which just isn’t fair on them and prevents them doing the job I got them for.
My neighbour seems to have forgotten about his beef with the guineas, hurrah!
They are funny critters, I even saw them chase the fox away a few weeks ago! But what they are is expert insect eaters, Jess has spent the bulk of this summer without a fly rug on! for the first time in at least 10 years. Don't get me wrong she still needed fly spray twice a day, and her mask, but there have been significantly less bugs about this year which I like to think is the guineas at work.
They are funny critters, I even saw them chase the fox away a few weeks ago! But what they are is expert insect eaters, Jess has spent the bulk of this summer without a fly rug on! for the first time in at least 10 years. Don't get me wrong she still needed fly spray twice a day, and her mask, but there have been significantly less bugs about this year which I like to think is the guineas at work.
Theres only one downside. The ecologists will be complaining that there are less insects so the eco system is being upset.
I do worry a bit for the likes of dung beetles but they seem to have thrived this year so they’re obviously not impacting them. It’s a difficult balance, but the bats are still about so there’s plenty of something.
I can’t believe they’ve been with me nearly 3 years (pretty sure this is the original 2), they have done a corking job, Jess has had 2 summers without a fly rug (they needed them in early spring but not after)! Amazing really as the previous 17 years she’s had to be rugged one way or another year round!
They’re finally getting braver with me and will follow me to get their seed and today came within 20ft to hang out while I was sat having a coffee!
They’re finally getting braver with me and will follow me to get their seed and today came within 20ft to hang out while I was sat having a coffee!
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