Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote: You will be pleased! We raise them for dual purpose, they are awesome table birds.

 

[MistyMountain]

My chickens and guineas have lived together for years without problem. Once in a while you can end up with an aggressive guinea towards the chickens. That one should be removed from the flock. But most of the time they will get along just fine with each other. They will go their separate way thru the day but they all sleep together in the same coop at night.
Guineas are happiest in flocks. The recommended number is at least 5 or 6. If you have the room and no aggression problems, I would advise keeping all of them. The whites and lavenders should make a very pretty flock.

Oh how I wish this was true for us. I had 7 hatch under a broody hen. Two died young, failure to thrive. Two more were lost to a predator. The remaining three are little monsters to the flock, targeting the young birds mostly. I have a lot of tailless juvenile chickens, one even to the point of being bloody. They all free range and coop up together, with these three still following "mom" around during the day (they are 20 weeks old) They just do not like the young birds.

 

[farmguy5]

I will be buying a dozen lavender and pearl gray eggs in late spring....i need suggestions on how to take care of these guys in new to this thing

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I will be buying a dozen lavender and pearl gray eggs in late spring....i need suggestions on how to take care of these guys in new to this thing

Congrats! Say goodbye to ants, ticks and a lot of other bugs! First few pages of the thread will help a lot. Main thing is to get them on a game bird starter feed. They are a pheasant type bird. Keets need higher protein, fresh water of course and heat like any other chick. Keets are more timid that other poultry, frighten easily. Low voices and slow movement will help you bond with them more. Here is one of several care articles I refer to:
http://guineas.com/articles/keets.php

 

[Nickeyo]

I have 8 Guinea fowl and 1 rooster kept together in a run under a tree in my field, my plan is to teach them to roost in that tree but I am not sure how I get them to perch there as at the moment they go back in the coop at night so would I just shut them out and watch to see if they go up but also my nearest neighbour is about 2 large fields from the Guineans but he has a flock of about 15 Guinea fowl and although mine don't go to his currently and his don't come here could mine leave to join his flock

 

[R2elk]

I have 8 Guinea fowl and 1 rooster kept together in a run under a tree in my field, my plan is to teach them to roost in that tree but I am not sure how I get them to perch there as at the moment they go back in the coop at night so would I just shut them out and watch to see if they go up but also my nearest neighbour is about 2 large fields from the Guineans but he has a flock of about 15 Guinea fowl and although mine don't go to his currently and his don't come here could mine leave to join his flock

Unless you do not have any predators around, you should be thankful that your guineas roost in the coop at night. I lost my entire first flock of guineas to owls and foxes. Now that I have raccoons around I am sure they would also help themselves to the guineas The only reason I have any guineas now is because I chase them into the coop every night and shut them in. I never encourage anyone to teach their guineas to roost in trees since so many different bad outcomes can happen.

Your neighbour's flock of guineas are close enough that there can eventually (breeding season) be interaction between the two flocks. If your flock gets decimated by predators it would increase the odds of some of them ending up at the neighbours.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
X2 A bobcat will go straight up a tree for take out.

 

[ColesCreek]

X2 A bobcat will go straight up a tree for take out.

Wow that's a worry

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

All my guinea coop up at night. We have several night time predators, great horned owl find them very tasty. I allow them free range during the daylight hours. I have a handful that were literally dumped off here, or found their way here. Those birds are completely wild and do roost in the trees. We originally had around 18 of them, I have caught and rehomed all but 6 or so that's left. I can tell them apart from my flock due to the odd color, its like a dirty white or dundotte.

 

[Nickeyo]

As I live in England the only risk really is foxes, hopefully I'm going to get some more to help keep numbers up, thanks for your help