Adult Guineas and baby chickens

[blmack]

If I put a couple of adult Guineas in a run with my 4 week old baby chickens, will they hurt the babies? I have been forced to move my chick babies outside to their permanent home but we had an incident with a snake a couple of weeks ago and I am very scared for them. I was thinking the guineas could protect the babies from snakes.

 

[PeepsCA]

Are 4 week old chicks feathered enough to stay warm out in a coop? I don't move keets out to the coop until they are at least 6 weeks old, and they feather out pretty fast. I'm not into chickens, so I have no idea how fast they feather out...

Guineas can be pretty territorial and aggressive towards other poultry, especially during breeding/laying season (which is just starting up now). I typically don't even put young Guineas in with my adult Guineas without an introduction period of 3-4 weeks, or at least until the adults show no aggression to the youngsters thru the wire and the youngsters are grown and self sufficient enough to escape a lethal peck to the head (sometimes it takes longer). It would probably work out best if you could separate them by wire, but house them side by side for at least a few weeks, and then see how it goes with integrating.

IMO if a snake wants to eat a chick it will, Guineas or no Guineas. The Guineas may alert you to a snake in the coop, but keep in mind that in the dark they typically won't even sound the alarm

1/2 inch hardware cloth is great for snake proofing. When my Guineas kill and or alert me to a snake, it's typically when they are out free ranging.

 

[blmack]

Thank you for your answer. I kinda thought that would be the way it is. I live in FL, we have been having weather with the highs 80's and the lows 60's.
Most of my chicks have a lot of feathers, some do not. I put their warming light outside in the coop with them. I would have kept them in longer but they have gotten to big for their first box, so I moved them into my kitchen in a bigger box. But, they are making a mess everywhere. they scratch and race and jump etc. So the chicken dust and pine shavings dust is flying all over my kitchen. Not good. I simply do not have a suitable area in my home where they can stay. I did not want to put them outside yet, but I had no choice.