Are they all THIS noisy?

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I don't understand what flock dynamics are missing with 9 or fewer Guineas? Do they have specific roles that they fill?

I think they do have different roles. I see it most in winter when the flock is most cohesive. There are the fringe girls chased off from the main group. Fringe girls lurk around the periphery as sentinels, and buckwheat call often. There are dominant hens in the thick of things, with all deferring to our dominant cock. He has his bros that are high ranked and cluster together. Then there are more subordinate cocks further out. Cocks may chase off threats, though mine don’t chase off predators, more like crows, deer and rabbits. When a hen hatches keets in the flock, there are also “Nannies” and “aunts” and “uncles” that help watch the keets when free ranging. I’ve gone from 8 guineas to 16 to 22 and now 28 during different years. Increasing the number of cocks made the Guinea flock much less interested in harassing my other poultry, chickens and ducks.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Increasing the number of cocks made the Guinea flock much less interested in harassing my other poultry, chickens and ducks.

That's the truth. My last flock didn't have enough males and they were relentless with the chickens. No issues with turkeys, geese, or ducks, but would come across four acres to chase and harass my Orpington males if they were out in the evening for some greens and bugs.

 

[R2elk]

That's the truth. My last flock didn't have enough males and they were relentless with the chickens. No issues with turkeys, geese, or ducks, but would come across four acres to chase and harass my Orpington males if they were out in the evening for some greens and bugs.

They will definitely harass turkeys too. It might be funny to watch a guinea latched onto a turkey wing feather getting dragged around but it isn't funny for the turkey. The turkey in question would have killed the guinea if he could have caught it.

 

[ColtHandorf]

They will definitely harass turkeys too. It might be funny to watch a guinea latched onto a turkey wing feather getting dragged around but it isn't funny for the turkey. The turkey in question would have killed the guinea if he could have caught it.

Oh for sure. My tom was too busy starting things he couldn't finish with my gander. It's like getting in between two dogs in a fight when you get between them. I got to where I'd just pick up the bird that was closest to me. The tom never won. But because they don't fight the same way neither of them could tell who was the winner. Thankfully the Bourbon Reds had the decency to leave the geese alone. The Blue Slate was just hard-headed. But the guineas were angels with the turkeys and geese. The geese hate everyone and they didn't even mind the guineas.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Always an option

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

That's the truth. My last flock didn't have enough males and they were relentless with the chickens. No issues with turkeys, geese, or ducks, but would come across four acres to chase and harass my Orpington males if they were out in the evening for some greens and bugs.

My oldest Guinea cock, a member of the first group and the only male that I kept because he was calmer with my other poultry, still harasses the ducks! I usually escort the ducks to the pond to minimize the drama. Of course, now the ducks have it on for all Guinea fowl too! The ducks are so slow next to the guineas though that most of my guineas just look at the “threatening” ducks in confusion…

 

[Sydney65]

Within a flock, there will be an alpha male. His choice of mate becomes the alpha female. Then there's the Beta couple. Others will couple, &/or serve as guards. Not sure what the magic of 10 is, but I spent a lot of time just sitting quietly watching my 1st 7, from keets to adulthood (hello, covid). The 1st mating season, the Alpha hen made a nest, he sat next to the nest, and the other 5 sat in a circle around the nest. The hen stayed on her nest, the others would come and go. When she started calling "come back come back", they all went running to her.
Then I watched the beta hen wander away on her own, and she made her own nest. Right about the time the other 5 had come back up to me to eat, alpha started hollering and they turned to scurry back to her. But before they got very far, beta hen called out from the opposite side of the property. As I watched, the 5 froze, and I swear there was an agreement made as they stared at each other. Alpha male and one other headed in one direction, beta and the other headed the other direction.
They were pretty tolerant of me, so I could walk up close enough to see the mate sitting next to the nest, the hen on the nest, and the "guard" sitting about 5 feet away.
The 2 guards were inseparable otherwise. She randomly dropped eggs whereever they were,but never attempted to make a nest that I knew of. Possibly that's what she was doing the day she flew into a passing suv.
My beta male was the one to perch atop the coop in the evening and call out until everyone was inside, and he'd chase down one of the hens that took too long meandering in. He never went in until everyone else was in.
When I was down to one hen & she went broody, the 2 males I had left had nothing to do but stare at her or fight w/each other.
I introduced them to the keets I had incubated. They'd watch them through the patio door every day until I took the keets outside. From that point on, the two males took over parenting those keets, together, cooperatively. It was pretty amazing to watch.
Once hers hatched, SHE wanted nothing to do with the incubated ones, but the males cont to "parent" them as well as the newly hatched ones.
Once I lost my males, the hen was a nervous nellie for a long time & didn't even want to come out of the coop. I realized then that the males always kept an eye cocked to the sky, watching, while the females grazed obliviously. So now she had to be the one to watch and protect the remaining keets.
So *in my opinion* the flock dynamics are about everyone having a role to play in the security of the flock, & the bigger the flock, the more security.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Within a flock, there will be an alpha male. His choice of mate becomes the alpha female. Then there's the Beta couple. Others will couple, &/or serve as guards. Not sure what the magic of 10 is, but I spent a lot of time just sitting quietly watching my 1st 7, from keets to adulthood (hello, covid). The 1st mating season, the Alpha hen made a nest, he sat next to the nest, and the other 5 sat in a circle around the nest. The hen stayed on her nest, the others would come and go. When she started calling "come back come back", they all went running to her.
Then I watched the beta hen wander away on her own, and she made her own nest. Right about the time the other 5 had come back up to me to eat, alpha started hollering and they turned to scurry back to her. But before they got very far, beta hen called out from the opposite side of the property. As I watched, the 5 froze, and I swear there was an agreement made as they stared at each other. Alpha male and one other headed in one direction, beta and the other headed the other direction.
They were pretty tolerant of me, so I could walk up close enough to see the mate sitting next to the nest, the hen on the nest, and the "guard" sitting about 5 feet away.
The 2 guards were inseparable otherwise. She randomly dropped eggs whereever they were,but never attempted to make a nest that I knew of. Possibly that's what she was doing the day she flew into a passing suv.
My beta male was the one to perch atop the coop in the evening and call out until everyone was inside, and he'd chase down one of the hens that took too long meandering in. He never went in until everyone else was in.
When I was down to one hen & she went broody, the 2 males I had left had nothing to do but stare at her or fight w/each other.
I introduced them to the keets I had incubated. They'd watch them through the patio door every day until I took the keets outside. From that point on, the two males took over parenting those keets, together, cooperatively. It was pretty amazing to watch.
Once hers hatched, SHE wanted nothing to do with the incubated ones, but the males cont to "parent" them as well as the newly hatched ones.
Once I lost my males, the hen was a nervous nellie for a long time & didn't even want to come out of the coop. I realized then that the males always kept an eye cocked to the sky, watching, while the females grazed obliviously. So now she had to be the one to watch and protect the remaining keets.
So *in my opinion* the flock dynamics are about everyone having a role to play in the security of the flock, & the bigger the flock, the more security.

I’ve been surprised that in my confusion, the male and females have completely separate hierarchies. This was particularly striking when Bruiser was the head cock but his girls, Violet and Starla, were the lowest ranking members of the flock! Now Junior is head cock and I don’t even know who he’s paired with. JR has rotated through different hens over the last three years, but never with more than one at a time. I’ve been waiting to see what Welch will do. She paired with her foster son, Hamlet, last year, but he turned out to be keeticidal and they didn’t really pair again after that. So far this year, I’ve seen her spending most of her time with her NEW foster son, Zinfandel!

 

[Sydney65]

I’ve been surprised that in my confusion, the male and females have completely separate hierarchies. This was particularly striking when Bruiser was the head cock but his girls, Violet and Starla, were the lowest ranking members of the flock! Now Junior is head cock and I don’t even know who he’s paired with. JR has rotated through different hens over the last three years, but never with more than one at a time. I’ve been waiting to see what Welch will do. She paired with her foster son, Hamlet, last year, but he turned out to be keeticidal and they didn’t really pair again after that. So far this year, I’ve seen her spending most of her time with her NEW foster son, Zinfandel!

Likewise I've been watching the interaction between Mama & the males- or rather, the lack of. Between the rain and the bird flu, their free ranging has been curtailed quite a bit, possibly retarding reproductive activity. I've read that a hen's reproduction slows down at age 3, although R2elk has had hens much older than that, so possibly that reference comes from over bred or less than ideal flock conditions (ie nutrition, illness).
When they are loose, Mea's dominance is obvious, Brodie just keeps his distance. There are more challenges between Mama & Numi than the males.
Despite the turkey farm infections, there has only been one wild bird flu report here, & that was a duck closer to Ky than to me (That magic 2 hr mark). So once we're able to dock the arc for awhile, I may be able to lighten up on restrictions.