Ladder Type Roost for Guinea Fowl
Guinea fowl will roost inside a coop, a closed yard or in the trees. If you build them a roost, more than likely they will at least try it out, if not prefer it to the trees. Before you build your roost, decide where it will go and how big you can make it. If it will be inside or outside, or both. What building materials will you use.
We used 2x4 pine lumber to start with. The local lumber yard had them on sale for 99¢ each. However, on some of the guinea fowl forums I've read that you can use tree limbs as long as they are the right size diameter for the guinea fowl's feet. If you don't provide the correct size diameter you can cause problems for the roosting guinea fowl.
This Guinea fowl roost only has three roosts, but each is a full 8' in length, thus giving the Guinea fowl a full 24 linear feet of roosting on this unit. The supports on this Guinea fowl roost are made of 2"x4"s. They are notched so that the roosts fit snugly and do not need to be screwed into place – this makes for easier cleaning of the Guinea fowl coop. The Guinea fowl will roost on these supports, as well as the contoured roosts. Guinea fowl keets will start roosting on this size perch somewhere around 14-17 days of age. The Guinea fowl keets will use the lower roosts until they can fly up to the higher, 'more prestigious' roosts. For our 30 Guinea fowl, we have a total of 48 linear feet of roosting space.
Above: This is about 24' linear feet of roosting space for Guinea fowl. Despite the fact that Guinea fowl often roost sitting immediately next to one another – in fact they sometimes pack themselves together quite tightly – make sure you have plenty of roosting space for your Guinea fowl. They sometimes enjoy their privacy when roosting, and also like to fly from roost to roost. If you don't have enough roosting space for your Guinea fowl, fights may break out over possession of roosting space – especially high roosting space. Guinea fowl can hurt each other if left to fight.
To allow for cleaning up the Guinea fowl coop, these roosts are tightly fitted into the plywood supports that hold them, instead of being screwed or nailed in place permanently. When it's Guinea fowl coop cleaning time, we just lift the roosts out of their respective supports and stand them in a corner. This makes the floor more accessible and also facilitates moving about more easily. When the Guinea fowl coop is clean, we simply return the roosts to their respective supports.
Above is a picture of the Guinea fowl roost installed inside the converted camper. Guinea fowl love to roost – and the higher the better. Since not every bird can sit atop the highest roost, it's a good idea to have lower roosting available for your Guinea fowl. Younger Guinea fowl keets will also learn to jump and fly-up to roosts using the lower roosting perches. Guinea fowl will sit on top of anything that's elevated including shelves, ledges and table tops. If you're going to have a work table in your Guinea fowl coop, it should be one that retracts up against the wall when not in use. This is the only way to keep it free of Guinea fowl and their droppings.
Materials used to build the Guinea fowl roosts shown were were 3/8" plywood and 2x4x8's. The plywood was notched and attached to the 2"x4" supports to hold the individual roosts. This is an easy, relatively inexpensive way to add lots of roostinig for your Guinea fowl.