Brood guineas under hen?

[Erinnlyn]

Hi All,
I want to see what you all think about this. I have a broody hen. I'm planning on getting her some day-old babies of some kind when it gets closer to her 21 day setting time. This idea just came to me -she's lowest in pecking order and the others are attacking her for acting weird (broody -& I will move her to her own space soon). I've heard guineas aren't easily intimidated. If I let her rear some keets, do you think they would stick with her and kind of protect her when they grow up? This was just a thought I had this morning -might be a bad idea, lol. Just tell me. I don't have any experience with guineas, only chickens!

Thanks!

 

[Theorrin]

guineas are.... finicky. ive had some that were raised by a hen and even still they decided to take over the roost and still picked on her. guineas are butcher than chickens and are worse when it comes to whos in charge. if chickens dont submit to Guinea they will force them to submit and will kill them.

 

[Erinnlyn]

Ah ok, great info to have. So are male guineas and worse than females if they are going to be aggressive? Do males try to fight roosters?
Thanks!

 

[R2elk]

Hi All,
I want to see what you all think about this. I have a broody hen. I'm planning on getting her some day-old babies of some kind when it gets closer to her 21 day setting time. This idea just came to me -she's lowest in pecking order and the others are attacking her for acting weird (broody -& I will move her to her own space soon). I've heard guineas aren't easily intimidated. If I let her rear some keets, do you think they would stick with her and kind of protect her when they grow up? This was just a thought I had this morning -might be a bad idea, lol. Just tell me. I don't have any experience with guineas, only chickens!

Thanks!

I do not recommend brooding guineas with a chicken. It causes them to become imprinted. The imprinting causes them to lose the ability to understand that chickens are not guineas.

Everything can seem fine right up until the first breeding season when the guinea's instincts kick in. Other poultry do not understand the races and chases and the attacks from behind along with the feather pulling and breaking. Other poultry do not know how to show submission in "guinea" their running from the attacks makes the guinea behavior worse.

The guineas can and do attack en masse.

Yes they will attack roosters but they will also attack hens too.

 

[Erinnlyn]

I do not recommend brooding guineas with a chicken. It causes them to become imprinted. The imprinting causes them to lose the ability to understand that chickens are not guineas.

Everything can seem fine right up until the first breeding season when the guinea's instincts kick in. Other poultry do not understand the races and chases and the attacks from behind along with the feather pulling and breaking. Other poultry do not know how to show submission in "guinea" their running from the attacks makes the guinea behavior worse.

The guineas can and do attack en masse.

Yes they will attack roosters but they will also attack hens too.

Thank you. Yes, I was just actually running a similar scenario through my head, when I realized the guineas might not know the differences they have with chickens when they mature. Thanks for helping me think it through!

 

[SamLockwood]

Hi All,
I want to see what you all think about this. I have a broody hen. I'm planning on getting her some day-old babies of some kind when it gets closer to her 21 day setting time. This idea just came to me -she's lowest in pecking order and the others are attacking her for acting weird (broody -& I will move her to her own space soon). I've heard guineas aren't easily intimidated. If I let her rear some keets, do you think they would stick with her and kind of protect her when they grow up? This was just a thought I had this morning -might be a bad idea, lol. Just tell me. I don't have any experience with guineas, only chickens!

Thanks!

I'm about a year into to my mixed-flock "experiment" in which I raised by chickens & guineas together and I haven't noticed the inter-species issues others have seemed to have had with them. However, I set up my coops & run with 3 (now 4) distinct sleeping areas with no line of sight to each other and I free range the birds all day. I think the reason they get along well is because they don't really spend that much time awake together: just a half hour or so at dusk and a couple hours after sunup. The rest of the time they're usually split between 2 and 6 smaller groups, sometimes a couple of yards from each other, other times 100 yards apart.

Even then, the guineas are still a bit of a handful as they aren't really domesticated and they tend towards "herd" behavior much more than chickens.

Plus, the one thing the articles don't really bring across is how loud they get when they're in "alarm mode": if you think roosters are too loud, your head will literally explode when you hear the amazing volume of buzz-saw noise that comes out of a neck that looks like a pipe-cleaner. And young guineas freak out over EVERYTHING, because a guinea's instincts tell them that anything that's unfamiliar is there to KILL THEM.

Even if you really want guineas for other reasons (mine have been great at keeping birds of prey at bay, which is what I got them for in the first place) raising a bunch of keets isn't going to help out your submissive hen in the long run. In fact, it may get worse for her as guineas are on average more pushy and aggressive than chickens. Animals don't really have a sense of "family" like humans do. When they grow up she'll be just another member of the flock and not "mommy" to them.

A much easier route would be give your broody girl some fertilized chicken eggs to hatch. She might develop a bit more backbone as her protective instincts kick for the chicks, and when they grow up the chickens aren't going to randomly form up like a biker gang and chase everyone else away from the dust bath or some choice treat they've found.

 

[Erinnlyn]

I'm about a year into to my mixed-flock "experiment" in which I raised by chickens & guineas together and I haven't noticed the inter-species issues others have seemed to have had with them. However, I set up my coops & run with 3 (now 4) distinct sleeping areas with no line of sight to each other and I free range the birds all day. I think the reason they get along well is because they don't really spend that much time awake together: just a half hour or so at dusk and a couple hours after sunup. The rest of the time they're usually split between 2 and 6 smaller groups, sometimes a couple of yards from each other, other times 100 yards apart.

Even then, the guineas are still a bit of a handful as they aren't really domesticated and they tend towards "herd" behavior much more than chickens.

Plus, the one thing the articles don't really bring across is how loud they get when they're in "alarm mode": if you think roosters are too loud, your head will literally explode when you hear the amazing volume of buzz-saw noise that comes out of a neck that looks like a pipe-cleaner. And young guineas freak out over EVERYTHING, because a guinea's instincts tell them that anything that's unfamiliar is there to KILL THEM.

Even if you really want guineas for other reasons (mine have been great at keeping birds of prey at bay, which is what I got them for in the first place) raising a bunch of keets isn't going to help out your submissive hen in the long run. In fact, it may get worse for her as guineas are on average more pushy and aggressive than chickens. Animals don't really have a sense of "family" like humans do. When they grow up she'll be just another member of the flock and not "mommy" to them.

A much easier route would be give your broody girl some fertilized chicken eggs to hatch. She might develop a bit more backbone as her protective instincts kick for the chicks, and when they grow up the chickens aren't going to randomly form up like a biker gang and chase everyone else away from the dust bath or some choice treat they've found.

Thank you for all the info! Yes, I think I'm going to pick up some day old pullets to put under her at night and hope that she actually wants to be a mama, and not just brood. Our eggs are fertilized, but I can't have any more roosters so I've been collecting eggs everyday. I'd have to have 30 more hens if I let her hatch and kept everyone, LOL. I plan on giving the pullets away to a friend so I'll be looking for babies that I won't be tempted to keep, although I probably will be anyway!