posted 7 years ago
I've given (most of) this advice elsewhere. I'll repeat it here.
Guineas like to roost high, so I'd build the coop as tall as possible. A perch height of 6' wouldn't be unwarranted. Higher would be better. (Mine roost at about 8'.) This makes the high roosting spots of trees less enticing, when they can roost under cover but still up high.
Keep them contained for a few weeks, at least, when starting out. I brood mine for 4-5 weeks, then move them to their permanent shelter (a coop on the back of the barn) where they are locked in for 10-14 days. Here they are fed and watered, and thus learn that this is where food and water is. They also learn that this is where they sleep. I imagine a stationary structure helps a great deal in this regard--more on that in a bit.
Don't keep feed in front of them all the time. Be sure they're hungry in the evening, and feed them in the evening. This teaches them that it's a good thing to head back home as it gets late, because there will be food there. (I laxed a bit this year, and failed to do this regularly from the start. The result was that a large number of guineas wandered off and never came back; there was no incentive. This was likely compounded by the fact that they broke into smallish groups of 10-20, instead of staying in one big group.) Then putting them up for the night can be as simple as putting feed in the feeders, stepping back, and ushering the birds in. (They may not all want to go in, at least not yet, but can be convinced with a little gentle shooing.)
If it were me, I'd skip the trailer idea and build a stationary coop. I'd rather gather and spread manured bedding from less than twenty guineas than mess with moving a trailer around. Because they wander so far, and so willingly, a portable shelter isn't likely to result in the guineas exploring new areas as a result of the shelter having been moved. About the only potential benefit, it seems to me, is that you can apply manure to specific spots without the work of picking up a manure fork (but with the work of relocating the trailer), but with no more than 20 birds, the amount of manure deposited is going to be negligible anyway. Because it can be difficult to get guineas roosting where you want them to in the first place, I think you're only complicating the matter by moving exactly where you want them to roost. Make a stationary shelter, and I'd guess you've got a greater chance of making it through the winter still with guineas.