Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[itsjustme]

[COLOR=4B0082]LOL BlueMouse... Guineas HATE change.[/COLOR] [COLOR=4B0082]OMG a roost, it might eat us!!! [/COLOR]

[COLOR=4B0082]I bet they are all over it by now tho, lol.[/COLOR]

I just moved my 2 1/2 week old guineas to the bigger brooder (on straw now, I still don't dare give them shavings.) It only has heat at one end, which I have set to 85 degrees. They were happily running around, taking small test flights, "sunbathing" under the heat lamp, and sucking down prodigous amounts of fermented game bird starter, until I put in the "training roost" That caused a mass panic and they had to all pile up into one corner and STARE at it. They really crack me up. Now that it's been in there for a couple hourse one is testing it out. I can't believe that they're so feathered out at two and a half weeks!

Aren't they so funny? I love guineas. They do hate change! And they notice everything! We got rabbits and put them in the chicken tractor (alone) there are no chickens living with them. It wast ten minutes the guineas were running around it screaming at them. Lol there is a squirrel who likes to visit and I think he torments them on purpose lol they will run after him yelling and he just scampers around like he doesn't even notice them. But when he stops they stop. I love watching them. Lol

 

[kynewbchickie]

I'm adding a roost today - this could get comical

 

[jbirds2012]

our guineas are about 1 year old now. i really love them. DH really loves me and so claims to love them because i do ( thank god ) they really live life to the fullest and have an opinion about everything under the sun. i kept them in the brooder til they were 12 weeks old and none of them have ran away and always come home to the coop at night.i do have to open the front door to the coop and turn the light on to get them to cooperate.
we have some new baby guineas and i am wondering if i should keep them in the brooder for the full first 12 weeks or if i let them out they will hang out with their parents and follow their lead ?

 

[PeepsCA]

our guineas are about 1 year old now. i really love them. DH really loves me and so claims to love them because i do ( thank god ) they really live life to the fullest and have an opinion about everything under the sun. i kept them in the brooder til they were 12 weeks old and none of them have ran away and always come home to the coop at night.i do have to open the front door to the coop and turn the light on to get them to cooperate.
we have some new baby guineas and i am wondering if i should keep them in the brooder for the full first 12 weeks or if i let them out they will hang out with their parents and follow their lead ?

If you hatched the keets out in an incubator... they won't know who their Momma is, and the flock may not accept them... and may just kill them or run them off if you try to integrate them while they are so young and small. So in that case, yes they will need to be housed (in their brooder) where the rest of the flock can see them for at least 6 wks once they are old enough to be off heat and outside (which is usually at 6 wks old), then after the 6 wks of being confined is up you can try integrating them and see how it goes. You may have to separate them tho and try again in a couple more weeks if the adults are overly aggressive towards the new additions. It's not always easy to merge new birds into an existing flock... and the new additions usually go thru quite a "hazing" before they are accepted into the flock (if they ever are), and it's usually made very clear to them where they stand in the pecking order (which is always at the bottom).

If one of your Guinea Hens hatched out the keets tho, I would just keep the Hen and keets (and maybe the Daddy Guinea too if he wants in with them) confined in an area that the rest of the flock can interact with them for several weeks so they can get used to the keets but not get to them, and then let them all out to integrate after a few weeks once the keets aren't so fragile... the Momma Hen will do the integrating for you, but be sure to be ready to step in and separate everybody again if there is too much aggression directed at the keets, and then give it a couple more weeks and try it again. Sometimes the whole flock will act as nannies and help raise and protect the keets, but it depends on the particular flock and coop/pen/free range set up.

 

[BlueMouse]

Think I'm safe to put them on shavings (coarse flake, not the fine stuff) at three weeks? The straw is just not as absorbent and gets caked with poo really quickly, even though I turn it twice a day, and change it daily, and I'm having to clean caked on poo off of toes (which does not make me popular)

Everyone is now fighting over space on the "training roost" I put it at the edge of the heat lamp, and they're using it a lot. They still like to "sunbathe" directly under the lamp though.

 

[PeepsCA]

Think I'm safe to put them on shavings (coarse flake, not the fine stuff) at three weeks? The straw is just not as absorbent and gets caked with poo really quickly, even though I turn it twice a day, and change it daily, and I'm having to clean caked on poo off of toes (which does not make me popular)

Everyone is now fighting over space on the "training roost" I put it at the edge of the heat lamp, and they're using it a lot. They still like to "sunbathe" directly under the lamp though.

You can try it, and just keep an eye on them to make sure they aren't hoovering down a ton of the shavings (unfortunately even the coarse flake bales has small particles in it they will eat). Whenever I change my keets over onto to a new type of bedding I make sure that they've just gorged themselves on a freshly filled feeder, treats or greens and then I quickly change out the bedding, plus I'll rearrange where the feeder and waterer are in the brooder, and an extra mirror or some bricks to climb on etc. If their crops are nice and full, and they are distracted by more than one new thing then they tend to pick at the new bedding less. I'd also keep sprinkling a little chick grit on their food... just in case. Good luck, hope it works out.

 

[weeshanti]

I have nine guineas who will be a year old this July. They are driving my husband crazy with the yammering. Please tell me they'll calm down once they get to a year (which I think I read somewhere, and which he is holding me to as he works from home and they set off their squawking at the slightest breeze changing direction...). Anyone know?

 

[JLeigh]

They probably will calm down for the most part, but guineas are always noisy. When they mature, they're not noisy all the time, only very often. I have a hen who wouldn't shut up. She made a racket all day every day for weeks (seemed like months...maybe it was; I've blocked it from my memory, LOL) and worked all the other guineas up into a lather and the noise was a real pain. Then one day she just settled down, and the rest of them did the same. But I wouldn't exactly call them quiet under the best of circumstances. Can't predict when they'll calm down either - could be a year, could be a year and a half, or (gulp) never. Is it all the time that bothers your husband, or is it the squawking several times a day that he objects to, because if it's the latter, there's nothing you can do about it.

.

 

[jbirds2012]

If you hatched the keets out in an incubator... they won't know who their Momma is, and the flock may not accept them... and may just kill them or run them off if you try to integrate them while they are so young and small. So in that case, yes they will need to be housed (in their brooder) where the rest of the flock can see them for at least 6 wks once they are old enough to be off heat and outside (which is usually at 6 wks old), then after the 6 wks of being confined is up you can try integrating them and see how it goes. You may have to separate them tho and try again in a couple more weeks if the adults are overly aggressive towards the new additions. It's not always easy to merge new birds into an existing flock... and the new additions usually go thru quite a "hazing" before they are accepted into the flock (if they ever are), and it's usually made very clear to them where they stand in the pecking order (which is always at the bottom).

If one of your Guinea Hens hatched out the keets tho, I would just keep the Hen and keets (and maybe the Daddy Guinea too if he wants in with them) confined in an area that the rest of the flock can interact with them for several weeks so they can get used to the keets but not get to them, and then let them all out to integrate after a few weeks once the keets aren't so fragile... the Momma Hen will do the integrating for you, but be sure to be ready to step in and separate everybody again if there is too much aggression directed at the keets, and then give it a couple more weeks and try it again. Sometimes the whole flock will act as nannies and help raise and protect the keets, but it depends on the particular flock and coop/pen/free range set up.

thanks for the info.
we have 3 that one of our turkeys hatched, we were going to try to let mom free range with her babies but the grown up guineas were killing the babies by picking them up and shaking them so we put them in their own cage with mom till they get bigger. i will pay close attention when i start releasing them.

 

[BlueMouse]

I just changed my 3 week old keets onto shavings. Fed them their lunch, cleaned out the brooder, re-filled their food bowl, gave them a hunk of fodder, and stuck them all back in. About half of them are eating the shavings. the other half are eating the fodder and the food.

I think they're more digging through them than actually EATING them, but they're definitely eating some of the little bits. They have grit in there. I'm going to sprinkle grit on their food for a couple days though. I'm hoping no one has any problems.