Broody male guineas?

[Blw18]

So we’ve had a single population of guineas on our farm for around 16 years now. They’re almost fully feral and take 100% care of themselves on their own. During the day I never see them and at night they fly into the top of an oak tree at the edge of my yard to roost. This past year, a coyote found that the guinea hens are easy targets when they’re on their nest and reduced my flock down to 4 males and a single female. This year she made a nest and hatched two chicks. She was pushed off of her nest by some dogs and abandoned the rest before they could hatch. Anyways, she came back to the house to roost and has been injured really bad somehow. She could barely walk and her keets weren’t with her but a single male was. Upon closer inspection, one male stands and guards the injured hen, chasing me and whatever comes close, and the other three have adopted the keets and lead them around all day while the lone rooster and the hen rest. They sit on them to keep them warm, protect them, feed them, etc. and take turns sitting on them overnight on the ground. I knew the males were always protective of keets but I had no idea they’d do this. And these roosters are all between 6 and 8 years old and most DEFINITELY male. Some probably older than that. Is this normal? I’m grateful for it but I’ve just never seen this happen.

 

[R2elk]

So we’ve had a single population of guineas on our farm for around 16 years now. They’re almost fully feral and take 100% care of themselves on their own. During the day I never see them and at night they fly into the top of an oak tree at the edge of my yard to roost. This past year, a coyote found that the guinea hens are easy targets when they’re on their nest and reduced my flock down to 4 males and a single female. This year she made a nest and hatched two chicks. She was pushed off of her nest by some dogs and abandoned the rest before they could hatch. Anyways, she came back to the house to roost and has been injured really bad somehow. She could barely walk and her keets weren’t with her but a single male was. Upon closer inspection, one male stands and guards the injured hen, chasing me and whatever comes close, and the other three have adopted the keets and lead them around all day while the lone rooster and the hen rest. They sit on them to keep them warm, protect them, feed them, etc. and take turns sitting on them overnight on the ground. I knew the males were always protective of keets but I had no idea they’d do this. And these roosters are all between 6 and 8 years old and most DEFINITELY male. Some probably older than that. Is this normal? I’m grateful for it but I’ve just never seen this happen.

In a perfect world, the whole flock can participate i raising keets. That includes the males. Your flock appears to not be influenced too much by domestication. In this case it appears to be normal guinea behavior.

 

[Blw18]

Yeah they certainly are about as wild as it gets. They just kind of live out in the woods and pastures and have nothing to do with me and never even come around at feeding time. When we first brought guineas to the farm years ago we just let them go free-range and they did really well. The whole flock has always just taken care of the keets but the mother was always present. I found the flock this morning and she’s nowhere to be found so I think she might have died. The two keets were following along in the center of the males and they wouldn’t let me get close to the babies without trying to chase me away.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Yeah they certainly are about as wild as it gets. They just kind of live out in the woods and pastures and have nothing to do with me and never even come around at feeding time. When we first brought guineas to the farm years ago we just let them go free-range and they did really well. The whole flock has always just taken care of the keets but the mother was always present. I found the flock this morning and she’s nowhere to be found so I think she might have died. The two keets were following along in the center of the males and they wouldn’t let me get close to the babies without trying to chase me away.

Awww, sad to hear that you lost your lone hen! I hope that your keets do well.

 

[Blw18]

Thank you! I saw this this morning out in the pasture and they seemed to be doing fine.