Chicks and guinea

[mad4horses]

Anyone have a couple of guineas with their flock? I have 2 hens and am getting 11 day old chicks this summer (10 pullets and 1 rooster). I am thinking of adding a couple of guineas to help with the tick population and added protection form predators. Any advise would be welcome? Can they be in the same brooder?

 

[Wisher1000]

Check out Mahonri's Easter Hatch a long, there has been a recent discussion on guineas there. Hey, why not join us in the hatch? Its great fun!

 

[mad4horses]

Sounds like a good idea. How do I join and is the name of the webpage Mahonri's Easter Hatch a long?

 

[Wisher1000]

It is Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC, Easter Hatch-A-Long! Just type that in the search box and you will find it. There is also a whole forum here on BYC just for guineas. By the way,

If you need more help, just ask!

 

[mad4horses]

Thanks going to check it out now!

 

[Imma Okie]

I have 11 guineas and 31 chickens. My first group of guineas are the barnyard thugs LOL. They were raised together and are a tight nit group. They pick on the other group, which is a year younger and were raised in the same brooder room with the same number of chicks (6 keets, 6 chicks). Once every bird was totally feathered out, I separated the guineas from the young chickens. Now, all of the chickens wander around the barnyard and aren't bothered by the guineas. The guineas pretty much do their own thing.
All of the guineas roost in the guinea house at night. Even though the chicken house is big enough for all of the birds, I don't want the guineas in with the chickens. Guinea poop is HUGE and stinky. I don't want that anywhere near my layers.

I am not sure how much protection the guineas would offer from predators, as I have lost 2 guineas to stray dogs (stupid neighbor down the road takes them in but won't contain them properly) and 1 to an unknown (probably a coyote). I have lost one chicken to an opossum, and it dug in at night (we have since fixed that problem). I will say that I haven't seen a single rattlesnake since we've had guineas.

 

[mad4horses]

Great help, thank you for the info. Everyone has so much good advice!