Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[Sydney65]

You could give them a drop of liquid complex vit B per day as an energy boost. That would help improve their appetite and get them moving around. I got it in the vitamin/pharmacy section at a meijers grocery store, gave let the keet pull it off of the dropper rather than squirting it. Keet survived.
Conversely, if they are staggering with wet stools, I'd give corid, as the stress could have led to coccidiosis. In that case, avoid vit b, as it feeds the protazoa.
As for never having them before, your life just became far more entertaining. There's nothing I enjoy more than the time I spend with my quirky birds.

 

[Folly's place]

Most of them are up, eating and drinking. and they now have chick sized grit. I doubt that losses are over, I'll be more positive in another week about that.
Pictures later! The white keets have pale markings on their heads, is that white, or another color?
Mary

 

[R2elk]

Most of them are up, eating and drinking. and they now have chick sized grit. I doubt that losses are over, I'll be more positive in another week about that.
Pictures later! The white keets have pale markings on their heads, is that white, or another color?
Mary

Probably a different light color. If the center stripe is solid, they will be fully dotted. If it is squiggly lines instead of a solid stripe, they will be partially dotted.

 

[Folly's place]

One more dead this morning, and another unwell. Still better than I feared.
Mixed colors, i think, should be interesting!
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

No more deaths since Tuesday morning, the 24 left are doing great! Have three people interested, want to send at least some to new homes this weekend. Success!
Mary

 

[HeathenHavenHomestead]

We just built our big coop for our guinea fowl to have alone. Our chicken coop could not handle anymore bodies inside of it as it’s at its max for its size to allow enough space to everyone.
Our guineas have not had the option of being with the chickens at any point and our chicks were already in our main coop and free ranging before we got the guineas.

What can we do now to help them imprint with the chickens? I don’t want fights or issues when they grown up they are about 6 weeks old now.

 

[R2elk]

We just built our big coop for our guinea fowl to have alone. Our chicken coop could not handle anymore bodies inside of it as it’s at its max for its size to allow enough space to everyone.
Our guineas have not had the option of being with the chickens at any point and our chicks were already in our main coop and free ranging before we got the guineas.

What can we do now to help them imprint with the chickens? I don’t want fights or issues when they grown up they are about 6 weeks old now.

The best thing you can do is to keep the guineas and chickens separately. Imprinting removes the guineas ability to understand that chicken are not guineas. When that happens, the guineas treat the chickens the same way they would treat each other.

Guineas have entirely different instincts and manners than any other poultry. Other poultry do nt understand nor do they know how to react to the guinea's natural behaviors. It can cause extreme stress to the other poultry.

Other poultry do not understand the races and chases along with the feather pulling or breaking. They do not know how to react to the attacks from behind especially when a whole group of guineas do the attacking at the same time.

I brooded, raised and housed my guineas apart from my other poultry. When free ranging in the same area as the other poultry the guineas kept to themselves and left the other poultry alone.

The ones that I brooded, raised and housed with the other poultry would constantly attack the other poultry.

 

[HeathenHavenHomestead]

The best thing you can do is to keep the guineas and chickens separately. Imprinting removes the guineas ability to understand that chicken are not guineas. When that happens, the guineas treat the chickens the same way they would treat each other.

Guineas have entirely different instincts and manners than any other poultry. Other poultry do nt understand nor do they know how to react to the guinea's natural behaviors. It can cause extreme stress to the other poultry.

Other poultry do not understand the races and chases along with the feather pulling or breaking. They do not know how to react to the attacks from behind especially when a whole group of guineas do the attacking at the same time.

I brooded, raised and housed my guineas apart from my other poultry. When free ranging in the same area as the other poultry the guineas kept to themselves and left the other poultry alone.

The ones that I brooded, raised and housed with the other poultry would constantly attack the other poultry.

Interesting since everything online says differently. I just don’t want the guineas taking off or not being around to alert for the chickens since that was our whole purpose of getting them.
We have a heavily wooded property so I don’t want them just leaving and never coming back /:

 

[R2elk]

Interesting since everything online says differently. I just don’t want the guineas taking off or not being around to alert for the chickens since that was our whole purpose of getting them.
We have a heavily wooded property so I don’t want them just leaving and never coming back /:

There is a lot of bad information on the Internet.

Guineas aren't creatures of the woods. They will stick around if you feed, water and provide a safe coop for them at night.

It is another misconception that guineas will protect other poultry since they aren't that good about protecting themselves.

The best fowl that I kept for legitimate alarms were geese. They gave legitimate alarms at any time of the day or night.

The second best was a Swedish Flower Hen rooster. All of the poultry including the guineas paid attention to his alarms.

 

[HeathenHavenHomestead]

There is a lot of bad information on the Internet.

Guineas aren't creatures of the woods. They will stick around if you feed, water and provide a safe coop for them at night.

It is another misconception that guineas will protect other poultry since they aren't that good about protecting themselves.

The best fowl that I kept for legitimate alarms were geese. They gave legitimate alarms at any time of the day or night.

The second best was a Swedish Flower Hen rooster. All of the poultry including the guineas paid attention to his alarms.

Thank you for the advice. Here I felt like I had read so much information I knew right from wrong at this point. We just build them a huge beautiful coop so hopefully they stick around and eat the ticks.