BYC Guinea hen club

[cicilianb97]

Normally chicken hens make better mothers than guinea hens because they don't tend to have the wanderlust that guinea hens have.

Here is my chicken hen with her hatch. I had given her 10 guinea eggs and on day 26 she hatched all 10 eggs.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/699789/wyoming-unite/310#post_13926784

Even guinea hens can be good mothers under the right circumstances. They are definitely very protective of their keets but they need to be confined to an area where they can be prevented from dragging the keets through wet grass

cool thanks

 

[MelissaZeno]

Here are 2 questions. 1 - if I were to order keets and brood them in my garage in may or june and wanted to raise them with chicks how many chicks would be a good match?
2- What is the percent rate of male / female when you order from a feed store?

 

[BusyBearMama]

Last year we got 12 keets from a local breeder, straight run of course one is definitly a female and one I think is, but it doesn't make a peep so ? One died, the other 9 were definitly males, I kept the hens and one male because I didn't really need 11 but that's just proof that straight run doesn't guarantee anything, you could get all one gender no problem or an even split or anything in between. When raising with chicks you should make sure you have a lot of space, they're very active and grow fast. They have to eat a high protine starter and you can't just give them chick starter, Espescially not the medicated I'm told. But I believe the chicks can have the turkey starter? As far as how many you'll need, I don't think it matters too much how many of which animal you have but keep in mind that guineas need to be with guineas I would never have less than 3, more the better but they are very strong and active so you'll want them to not overpower the chickens as a whole. I like keets better than chicks though they hate being held unless you do it A LOT and even then its cas by case. You can raise them together but be sure they get their different needs met.

 

[BusyBearMama]

In response to this

Here are 2 questions. 1 - if I were to order keets and brood them in my garage in may or june and wanted to raise them with chicks how many chicks would be a good match?
2- What is the percent rate of male / female when you order from a feed store?

 

[margaret8]

Last year we got 12 keets from a local breeder, straight run of course one is definitly a female and one I think is, but it doesn't make a peep so ? One died, the other 9 were definitly males, I kept the hens and one male because I didn't really need 11 but that's just proof that straight run doesn't guarantee anything, you could get all one gender no problem or an even split or anything in between. When raising with chicks you should make sure you have a lot of space, they're very active and grow fast. They have to eat a high protine starter and you can't just give them chick starter, Espescially not the medicated I'm told. But I believe the chicks can have the turkey starter? As far as how many you'll need, I don't think it matters too much how many of which animal you have but keep in mind that guineas need to be with guineas I would never have less than 3, more the better but they are very strong and active so you'll want them to not overpower the chickens as a whole. I like keets better than chicks though they hate being held unless you do it A LOT and even then its cas by case. You can raise them together but be sure they get their different needs met.

I use 28% Gamebird starter. Crumbies. I use it in my peas and guineas. I hatched outclose to a hundred this year. I sold some , I gave some away and I've got about 44 now. The majority of which are hens!

 

[BusyBearMama]

Awesome!

I use 28% Gamebird starter. Crumbies. I use it in my peas and guineas. I hatched outclose to a hundred this year. I sold some , I gave some away and I've got about 44 now. The majority of which are hens!

 

[margaret8]

Awesome!

That's 28% protein!

 

[BusyBearMama]

 

[MelissaZeno]

Thank you for the information!

 

[cicilianb97]

It has come to my attention that guinea hens will often fly over the neighbors fence, in our case it would not be such a big deal because our neighbors have both ducks and chickens.

I would like to know whether or not it is a good idea to clip the guinea's wings as a solution.