Freedom for the guinea

The guinea are suppose to be able to fly.  They are suppose to fly out of the kennel during the day to search for bugs, and then come back to the coop at night for safety.  This is what I read, so this is what I've been going off.

They had flown to the top of the kennel a few times, and a couple of them did get out of the kennel and wander around.  They are like pack animals though, so they stay near each other even if that means they're all huddled near the fence - some inside the kennel and some outside. 

There are some guinea in front of the kennel - outside it - and the rest are inside it on the other side of the fence.

The problem was, they didn't seem to understand that they needed to FLY up to the top of the kennel to get back inside where the others were.  On those days, we would be out in the dark catching them and putting them back inside the kennel or the coop.

Today I opened the kennel door and was able to get all the guinea to go out the door so they could wander around.  One chicken managed to get out too.  The darn bird was not working with me to go back inside - and since I was working alone I had to try to keep the chickens inside, while also trying to leave the door open and scare the chicken back in with them.  Wasn't easy so I left her outside for a few hours and then went back to try again. 

When I went back out this afternoon to try to get the chicken inside and to refill the water for everyone (heat advisory today) I had more luck.  The goats seem to think it's interesting to go inside the kennel. 





Luckily Carrie and Kelly decided they wanted to hang out near the door and this helped to get the bird to go inside rather than running past the door again.

 

I took some pictures and video of the guinea, I was trying to get video of them making all their noise but it seems like every time I pressed record they would get quiet.

I will admit, I am nervous about them coming back tonight.  They aren't going far from the kennel, but I don't think they're going to want to go back inside on their own and since all 8 are out they have less reason to stick near the coop.  We will see.

On a better note - here are the tomatoes that I picked from the garden today and yesterday :)

Update the next day: It only took 10 minutes (at the most) to get the birds back into the kennel yesterday evening.  With Jeremiah standing by the open gate posing like a linebacker I scooted the birds around the kennel towards the opening.  It was only a minute of hesitation on their part, wondering if they should run around him or straight away from the kennel, and then they all filed into the coop.  Today I was only able to usher 5 of them out of the kennel and one chicken got out too.  When will they learn to fly?