Are Guinea Fowl more likely to be killed by hawks than chickens?

[Guinea and Chicken raiser]

I'VE HEARD GUINEAS ARE GOOD AT GETTING RID OF SNAKES, IS THIS TRUE, WILL GUINEAS COME BACK TO THE COOP AT NIGHT LIKE CHICKENS? THANKS

I wouldn't doubt it's true. But I think mine never did yet, no snakes in our yard, I didn't see a guinea with a snake in its mouth or a dead snake pecked by guineas yet. But if one showed up, I bet it will. I been living in Louisiana for 2 years and so far only seen 2 snakes at the most both last year. I bet the guineas chase the snakes away before they kill em snakes.

And yes, my guineas always roosted with the chickens. I had 4, now I'm down to one girl and she sleeps like she's just another chicken. In with them whereever they decide to sleep, in their dog cage at first, now in our laundry room that isn't part of our house, but it's so they don't have to be cold at night in the winter. or rain.

 

[Guinea and Chicken raiser]

What colors are they first of all? I think the lighter colored guineas are easy pickings for hawks. Plus, I think guineas tend to spend too much time running around chasing each other in the field rather than watching the sky lol. We usually have a few picked off per season, but the chickens tend to stay closer to the barnyard and therefore safer. We actually got to watch a momma guinea bait a hawk away from another momma with babies, it was REALLY neat. Ahh nature at work

oh.. i bet you're right. the lighter colored guineas may be easier. I only had 4 of the same: pearl. I was thinking about getting Lavendar but my fiance says no. I showed him pic, he says its not natural. Lavendar are rare though... but that could be exactly it, light guinea is easy prey. I had dark feather birds go missing. Right now I have a bird missing 4 days or 5 days and nights consequetively that was a black-sex link
And I had 2 black male ducks and a white and brown runner boy who were left out of a killed and ate by me third black duck and a female white and buff indian runner duck female, they went to a pond 5 houses down or less from our place cuz they had a huger pond to offer them and they never came back. They were there for months, a long time, then something attacked them in December and there is one of my black ducks left and an all white female which they had 3 all white females. So that proves feather color is nothing, though. I had a white female before my males left but she disappeared but we found her decomposing body a month later. Cat hurt her I guess. Happens. If an animal wants to eat something, it will.

 

[Guinea and Chicken raiser]

yeah nature at work. cute story, thanks for sharing, MNSherpherdess, glad to be a new acquantance/friend of you.

 

[cpmax]

I live in the northeast and I HAVE had hawks attacking my chickens, they have picked off 3 of 8 now, I am so mad. And injured 2, which have survived. But it's really frustrating. The guinea flock is free range on about 3 acres of pasture, yard, and trees/shrub areas. There is some tall grass in the paddocks and I would have thought they could hide there, but I have seen hawks attack them even when roosting under a big row of arborvitae or pine trees. I didn't see the attack today but I think they were in the side yard under some trees. Any ideas how to stop this?? I have male guineas too, it doesn't seem to make much difference. Sad.

 

[JaCin]

We have 8 lavander Guineas that are just over a year old now, because they are lighter than our pearl guineas I was very worried about predators picking them off. So when they were old enough meets to place outside I put them into a dog run and placed a roof over the run to protect them from owls, hawks etc. We added a roosting house to the run for warmth during the winter which worked quite well. When they were old enough we let them out to free range during the day and offered feed in their kennel every evening. They come in every evening for their feed and we simply shut the door keeping them safe in the night from predators.

I did not have any idea how venerable the guineas are to preditors when we purchased our first group two years ago and we set them free in the barn, hoping they would roost in the covered area at night. We fed them in the barn but soon found that they do have a mind of their own and they chose to roost out in the open, thus we began to loose them to predators one by one. We now have only two of that first group left. We found it impossible to train these older birds to go in at night with the Lavender group to roost in safety.

My best advice, stemming only from our trial and error, is to teach your birds while they are young to roost in an area that is protected from predators at night.

 

[agedog1]

I am going to get a bb gun and shoot at the hawks - won't kill them but will scare the heck out of them. My Guinea's are young and they are still in a cage on the porch. A hawk tried to get the cage this morning and the Guinea's went wild. I calmed them by bathing each one's feet in warm water (I do this twice a day as a bonding). They calmed right down.

 

[southwind00]

What kind of hawks were bothering your guineas? I have coopers hawks which get the doves under my bird feeder and red tails that get some squirrels and stuff but not sure if the guineas would be to big for them.

 

[Anep]

I've got 1 Male Guinea Fowl, that I raised with several chickens. The Guinea protects as a rooster would and will occasionally mate with the chickens(only in spring). Guineas seem to be more primal. More watchful, aggressive, and strong. Twice now he has protected the flock from Red Tail Hawks. But, unfortunately they are also pretty dang unintelligent. Having him raised with chickens helped him to act more domesticated though. He won't fly any higher than the chickens, even though he could, and he always roosts at night with the chickens in the coop. If I were going to have a much larger mixed flock, I would have a ratio of about 1 Guinea Fowl for every 3-5 chickens.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I've got 1 Male Guinea Fowl, that I raised with several chickens. The Guinea protects as a rooster would and will occasionally mate with the chickens(only in spring). Guineas seem to be more primal. More watchful, aggressive, and strong. Twice now he has protected the flock from Red Tail Hawks. But, unfortunately they are also pretty dang unintelligent. Having him raised with chickens helped him to act more domesticated though. He won't fly any higher than the chickens, even though he could, and he always roosts at night with the chickens in the coop. If I were going to have a much larger mixed flock, I would have a ratio of about 1 Guinea Fowl for every 3-5 chickens.

Hi Anep, welcome to BackYardChickens!!!

Sounds like you have an interesting flock! I’ve had more experience with hawks than I’d like. Our flock is rightfully quite concerned about hawks and always looking for trouble. This thread is about four years old, so some of the people that posted on it are still around and some haven’t been seen in awhile. You can also go to the Guinea fowl forum (or any forum) and create a new post aboit whatever relevant topic you like. Have you looked through the various forums yet?

 

[bananasfoster]

I use to keep guineas and frequently would find one with his head smooth removed and the body undisturbed. I hear owls do it, but i don't know. Of course these guineas were just roosting in the trees.

Coopers Hawks will behead them. And will kill much larger birds than themselves.