Considering Guineas

[Big A Chickens]

I am considering adding some guinea fowl to my existing flock of hens but I know very little about them such as temperment. Are they much more different that raising chickens?

 

[wullus]

My mum wanted some guineas, so I bought her two females (well, one of them was a female I know) that were quite young at the time. One of them died the night we got it because of the cold (and the youngness), but our friend gave us a grown male one of hers. We added them to our existing flock of chickens (8 hens, 1 possibly-hen, 2 roosters), and kept them all locked together for 2 weeks. I've read that you should lock them up for 6 weeks, but nothing ever seems to need that long.

So anyway, the male guinea fowl seems to follow the head rooster everywhere, and the young female guinea fowl follows the male guinea arround (though the male must get cranky at her, cause I've seen him chasing her, getting quite aggressive). They all tagged along with the chickens and only flew up on the roof when I, or the dogs scared them, or got to close to them. They always flew down after a few minutes though.

They can be randomly noisy, but I'm used to it. The male makes an extremely loud noise when we are trying to shepard the chickens, and he will often make this same noise for no reason when in with the chooks. The female sometimes makes this noise, but is a lot quieter.

We're going to get two more soon, so I'm quite excited; I've read that it's best to have at least three, though I suppose this would be different if there were chickens that they can companion with. The male has never had any problem with our rooster... something which possibly could change in the future... but nothing I think will happen.

We just feed them the same as what we feed the chooks.

They're happy as Larry!
I would recommend them to you, if you can put up with the noise

 

[bradselig]

Ok, this is coming from both a new chicken owner and guinea owner. I had my chickens about 4-5 weeks before I decided to get my Guinea Keets. I honestly enjoy my guineas more than the chickens. Dont get me wrong, I love my chickens, but the guineas are just very quirky birds! You will need to feed the guineas a higher protein diet to start but as adults Ive read/heard they do great on the 16% layer rations. I have found that the guineas will get used to you, but do NOT like to be held. Obviously each on is going to have their own personality and preferences. Of my 11 guineas, I can only hold the week old keets with ease. All others freak out.

If you are interested in guineas, I found this free e-book online and thought it was a wonderful read. Very helpful.
http://guineafowlbirds.com/Book-Living-With-Guinea-Fowl.html

I left my guineas penned up in the coop for roughly 5 weeks and they are now just being able to free range during the day. They are staying in the yard (they stay with the chickens and usually dont wonder too far from them) and they are putting themselves to bed by sunset in the coop. I was extremely worried about them, but I think having the chickens already know the routine has helped "train" the guineas. We will see how well it goes as they start to get hormonal! lol

 

[Big A Chickens]

Thanks alot for the information and link. I was told that they are very territorial and aggressive.

 

[N. Virginia]

I am a minority who had guineys and chickens (3 guineys, 8 chickens) that grew up together but couldn't get along. The guineys were terrible bullies and would randomly terrorize the chickens, chase them and hurt them, so I ate the guineys. Maybe mine were just a mean bunch. They were, however, very comical and entertaining...if only they had left the chickens alone...

 

[wullus]

Really? My guineas are terrorised by my chickens (we got four new ones last week, all females I think), and they are confined to the corner of the coop for the most of it.

We have one male guinea who seems to think he is a chicken, and follows the rooster around all the time. He even attacks some of the guineas! He's phsyco.