Tee Pee Hide for Guinea Fowl
Guinea fowl hens prefer to lay their eggs in a private, secluded area outside the Guinea coop. Even if you have nesting boxes in your Guinea coop, they still prefer a hidden, private place in which to lay their eggs and go broody. Also, we have an abundance of birds of prey around our place, including eagles. Hawks, falcons, owls and eagles all love a fresh Guinea fowl meal. Because of these things, we decided to come up with something our Guinea fowl could use for egg laying and protection while free-ranging on our farm. We used scraps of lumber to build these tee-pee (A-frame) style hides, so expense in this project was not a factor. You can usually get free scrap lumber suitable for such projects at construction sites - just be sure to ask which pile of scraps is destined to be trashed or burned.
Here is a Tee Pee type hide made from 1/4" remnant plywood and 2"x4" scraps. Each 2"x4" is 24" long on the long side of the 2-45° angles. The plywood is attached with 1" furniture staples. Not shown is the 2"x2" spine in the roof's apex - which adds substantial strength to the structures. It's not necessary to take the roof sides all the way to the ground.
I placed this tee-pee Guinea hide under an old Juniper tree. This hide is only about 50' from my garden. On the other side of the fence is a 100', steep hill covered with pine trees that birds of prey like to sit in.
Closeup of the hide under the juniper tree. These Guinea hides, which have been treated with water proofing, should last 15-20 years. We check these daily for eggs. Guinea eggs are about 1/2 the size of chicken eggs and are quite tasty!
We have tons of wild Yucca and scrub brush. I placed this tee pee Guinea hide near all the natural hiding spots in this area. Not only Guinea fowl, but the prairie grouse and hens should also enjoy the tee pee Guinea hides on our farm. Both ends of the Guinea hides are left open for easy acces - and escape! If a Guinea fowl gets trapped inside of one of the hides by a hungry, swooping bird of prey, the dogs quickly go to the rescue. Even the largest of eagles wants nothing to do with two 100+ pound dogs. This year we intend to add some more Guinea hides.