Are Guineafowl a smart choice?

[Dmontgomery]

I’ve seen a few people who were able to raise geese and chickens together in a somewhat harmonious state. Those people have said the geese are more aggressive towards people than other birds. Apparently having a goose attack you is rather painful, I don’t personally know. Guineas will bully the chickens, no matter how many chickens you have. They don’t care if they are outnumbered or not.
While they can act as a security alarm, they are not dependable for that purpose. Mine usually react only after one of the chickens has already sounded a threat.
I don’t have personal experience with geese, but a single guinea is not going to help, and will actually cause a lot of trouble. A flock of several guineas will help on the alarm side but will likely cause your chickens more trouble than you can imagine.

 

[Ms Biddy]

Raising keets and chicks together causes the keets to be imprinted by the chicks. When they grow up the guineas do not recognize that the chickens are not guineas and use their instinctive behaviors on the chickens. If they are raised separately, the mature guineas know that the chickens are not different looking guineas and if the guineas have sufficient numbers in their flock and sufficient room, they will leave the chickens alone.

I have raised keets both ways, with and without chicks and have housed guineas both ways, with and separate from chickens. I now brood and raise my keets separate and house my adults separate from chickens and other poultry. I maintain a flock of at least 10 guineas. My guineas can now be free ranged in the same place at the same time without any interaction between them and my chickens and turkeys. The guineas keep to themselves as do the chickens and turkeys.

We only keep one pair of guineas, not a flock. They seem to know they aren't chickens and get along okay.