So, I have had poultry for many, many years. Chickens, geese, turkeys, ducks and guineas. When we had guineas several years ago, I kept them in the coop with the chickens at night and everyone was free range during the day. The guineas got aggressive toward my chickens so I sold them.
This year, ticks are going to be ridiculously terrible. I free full-grown male guinea on craigslist and got him and bought 3 adult females at a swap meet, all on Saturday.
I put them all in the chicken coop and locked the chickens out for the day. When I put the chickens in that night, I saw my small Polish cross hen going after the guinea hens, but the male guinea was protecting them. I knew I should keep the guineas confined, but lwt them out yesterday morning. I saw my bantam cochin rooster trying to attack one of the guinea hens later that morning and went out and scared him away and shooed her down where her friends were. I didn't see any more scuffles yesterday. Last night, after chores, I went and made sure all 4 guineas were in the coop. Two hens were roosting in there with the chickens, the male and third female were close by. I caught the male and put him in the coop. Then I was trying to catch the hen and saw something hanging from kind of between her legs. Due to her flapping and flying around to avoid me, more stuff came out and when I caught her I saw it was her intestines!
I knew something had done this to her, and after researching it, realized it had to be The Gestapo, my beautiful partridge banty cochin! He's always trying to get ME, and my tom turkeys and whoever comes within range and is distracted by anything else. He's horrid, and I should have gotten rid of him a long time ago, but my ladies LOVE him!
Well, I put the sweet guinea out of her misery---I've never, ever had to do something like this before. My roo is locked up, probably going to be executed.....
At least it wasn't the male guinea he did that to. If anyone reading this is in Indiana, I'm looking for one or two guinea hens that are fairly cheap. These were $15 each. I can wait for the next swap meet, but that's a month away.
This year, ticks are going to be ridiculously terrible. I free full-grown male guinea on craigslist and got him and bought 3 adult females at a swap meet, all on Saturday.
I put them all in the chicken coop and locked the chickens out for the day. When I put the chickens in that night, I saw my small Polish cross hen going after the guinea hens, but the male guinea was protecting them. I knew I should keep the guineas confined, but lwt them out yesterday morning. I saw my bantam cochin rooster trying to attack one of the guinea hens later that morning and went out and scared him away and shooed her down where her friends were. I didn't see any more scuffles yesterday. Last night, after chores, I went and made sure all 4 guineas were in the coop. Two hens were roosting in there with the chickens, the male and third female were close by. I caught the male and put him in the coop. Then I was trying to catch the hen and saw something hanging from kind of between her legs. Due to her flapping and flying around to avoid me, more stuff came out and when I caught her I saw it was her intestines!
I knew something had done this to her, and after researching it, realized it had to be The Gestapo, my beautiful partridge banty cochin! He's always trying to get ME, and my tom turkeys and whoever comes within range and is distracted by anything else. He's horrid, and I should have gotten rid of him a long time ago, but my ladies LOVE him!
Well, I put the sweet guinea out of her misery---I've never, ever had to do something like this before. My roo is locked up, probably going to be executed.....
At least it wasn't the male guinea he did that to. If anyone reading this is in Indiana, I'm looking for one or two guinea hens that are fairly cheap. These were $15 each. I can wait for the next swap meet, but that's a month away.
