Chicken/Guinea compatibility

[Chicks Galore3]

I am getting 12 guinea fowl in 2 1/2 weeks. I was pretty excited for it, but I just saw a friend of mine who has guineas and chickens that said her guineas injured and even killed some of her chickens. I'm a little nervous now. They will be cooped separately, but free range together. Do any of you have any problems with your guineas and chickens getting along?

 

[R2elk]

I am getting 12 guinea fowl in 2 1/2 weeks. I was pretty excited for it, but I just saw a friend of mine who has guineas and chickens that said her guineas injured and even killed some of her chickens. I'm a little nervous now. They will be cooped separately, but free range together. Do any of you have any problems with your guineas and chickens getting along?

I had problems when I kept guineas, chickens and turkeys together. Now that my guineas are housed separately, I don't have any interaction problems even when they are free ranging at the same time and in the same area. The guineas keep to themselves as do the chickens and turkeys.

Good luck.

 

[palrusty12]

Hello! I added 3 keet (2 days old) into my brooder with 7 1-month old Speckled Sussex this spring. They're now 2 and 3 months respectively and the guinea are inseparable from the chickens. They follow them everywhere and are especially attached to one of the cockerels.

2 weeks ago the guinea hit that magic age in the spring that they are beating the bejeezus out of each other. The flock free ranges together, but when they all make their way into the coop to settle for the night, it's not unusual to see two of the guinea face fighting to the degree they're all scabby and bloodied. But then they hunker down to sleep wedged up against each other and the chickens.

I've seen several of the chickens break up the guinea squabbles. Their favorite cockerel will jump on them and one of the pullets will decide she's ready for bed and will roost in between them if she darn well pleases. So, so far so good.

When I first got them the breeder recommended raising them alongside chicks as it made them more manageable and docile. Don't know if that helps?

 

[Ameraucanas]

While I have heard that guinea hens sometimes pick on chickens, I have had no personal experience with this topic. However, at the farm that I volunteer at, I know that the farmer had a guinea hen or two with his flock of 50+ chickens. They got along fine, and when the guinea hen eventually died, one of the chickens even "adopted" her new chicks. Good luck! Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions or comments.
-Ameraucanas

 

[TeeMom]

Guineas were the start of my chicken habit. I brought home 8 guinea keets and a month later added 12 pullet chicks. They all coexisted in the same coop until the guineas got a bit older and decided to roost outside the coop most nights. Not once did I ever witness any aggression from either direction between the species. They didn't intermingle either, but stayed out of each other's way and ignored each other. One by one the guineas were picked off by predators and we never replaced them, so I no longer have guineas, but ours got along fine with their chicken cohorts.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

Whew, thank you guys! I hadn't heard of guineas mistreating chickens to the point of severe injury before, so I just wanted to make sure!

 

[R2elk]

Whew, thank you guys! I hadn't heard of guineas mistreating chickens to the point of severe injury before, so I just wanted to make sure!

If you do a search on this forum you can find plenty of horror stories about what guineas do to other poultry. Most people that post about how well their guineas and chickens get along are posting before they go through a breeding season with the guineas.

With 12 guineas you are in pretty good shape since guineas are a flock bird and do better in large groups. With sufficient guineas they tend to keep to themselves instead of picking on other poultry. I do not know of any other birds that exhibit the same type of mannerisms that guineas exhibit. They normally attack from behind and one of their favorite pastimes is feather pulling or breaking off the feathers.

 

[BlueShadow]

I started with keets and chicks that were raised together. The guineas always were a bit aggressive to the chickens, nothing too bad, just your usual bird dominance issues.

Then breeding season started. The guineas were awful to the chickens. I took the screens out of the windows on the coop so that the guineas could fly out whenever they wanted. That helped quite a bit. By the end of the summer, we had made a separate coop for the guineas so they could be housed separately. As long as I leave the chickens in their coop & run, everyone is fine. But if I let the chickens out of the coop, the guineas run over and chase and bully them. They pull out the chickens' feathers. The best that I can figure out, its because the guineas were raised with the chickens, so they view chickens as the same "kind" as them.

 

[jak2002003]

I have had a few flocks of Guinea Fowl. I have noticed that if Guinea Fowl are raised together with the Chicken flock from youngsters there will be real problems later on. I think this is because the Guinea Fowl grow up thinking they are the same kind of bird as the chickens and part of the flock pecking order. So when mating season comes they will try to mate, fight, display to the chickens.. but these birds have different natural behaviors to chickens so that leads to confusion, fighting and injury in the end.. and a lot of stressed out beat up chickens.

When the rooster tries to protect the hens, the Guinea Fowl then gang up and attack him as they see him as challenging them for mating rights or threatening them... and roosters behavior means they keep fighting... so there will be a blood bath!!!

However, when I raise my Guinea Fowl on their own.. to young adult stage, then introduce them to the chicken flock I never have any problems. The Guinea Fowl will understand the chickens are a different kind of bird to them... so will not be interested in mating with them and hanging out with them, interacting with them so closely.

In fact, the GF pretty much will ignore the chickens then... but still hang around with them when free ranging for protection in numbers and to help find food. They will also protect the chickens accidently.. because if any threat comes near them the GF will attack it to drive it out of their territory, or sound the alarm, to warn the chickens.

These are my experiences... I don't know if others have found the same.

 

[trev1lov3]

I got a guinea cock and a chicken hen given to me when the rest of friends giineas were oucked off by predators. I adsed them to my chickens and all was kosher so i decided to get 6 guinea hens for this lonely guinea cock and lemme say that these young guinea hens have not tryed to sit their eggs yet. They are only alnost a year tho. Alk was good eith the male but maybe becuase he was bonded with the chicken the others seem to pick on that one more than the other chickens i am working on a separate enclosure for them now because the do pull the tail feathers out of the chickens chase them away from food and water to get it first and that sort of thing but that one black australorpe that was bonded with the guinea cocks seems to get more feathers pulled out,more scabs, the guinead will be dominant but the double edged sword. Because i kept them with the chikens. Then guineas have really only laid a couple eggs on the floor. Kost were in one of my nest boxes the chickens use.