can i put guinea hens and chickens together?

[jujuschicks]

I have two 5 month old guineas. They always loved one particular hen (a black sex link) and followed her everywhere. They roosted in our apple tree all summer. We had lost a third guinea to a neighbors' stupid dog , plus winter was coming...so we decided to confine them with the chickens . All went well until a few weeks ago when the guineas decided they no longer "loved" there favorite hen. They were attacking her and I think they would have killed her. So we are back to separating them. I don't know if this is normal behavior for guineas or not, but I did note that another forum member had similar issues I love the guineas , but am kind of sorry I got them. I liked it a lot better when we had a peaceable kingdom

 

[Yonaton]

They will eventually start bullying the chickens...chasing them away from the feeders, etc. They're noisy for no good reason (*VERY* noisy...it'll drive you nuts), they do *NOT* keep the ticks down (I've yet to find a bird that will eat a tick like it's a food source), and will get no bigger than maybe 5 or 6 pounds. Once they stay outside the coop (either by accident or one or more of them just doesn't go back in for whatever reason) you'll never get them back in and then the only way to catch them will be at night (still almost impossible as they *will* run and try to fly away from you) or with a shotgun or .22.

IMO, they were the biggest waste of money (feed) we've ever had with stock.

 

[ms4barrell]

Yes you can, It is best to raise the Guineas up with the Chickens, If the Guineas are big they may pluck your Chickens to death as I did learn!

Good Luck

 

[farmerelly]

I had guinea with my chickens and at first they got along fine and then they started picking at my chickens all the time in the coop and free ranged. All my chickens quick laying eggs. It has been 3 months now. the guinea started roosting in the trees and an owl started picking them off so the last 3 went back to the coop at night again. I finally got rid of the 2 males and kept the female. Its been about 3 or 4 weeks now and still no eggs.