Free range in forest?

[Rivendell03]

We live on 27 forested acres in the Washington State Cascades and our backyard extends into ten square miles of Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We've found some two ticks on one of our dogs and are thinking of getting some guineafowl for the property. Can we get twenty or so fowl and simply release them? Will they breed and thrive? I'm assuming we shouldn't clip wings.. what about if we get chickens later? I've read they can be combative?

 

[R2elk]

We live on 27 forested acres in the Washington State Cascades and our backyard extends into ten square miles of Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We've found some two ticks on one of our dogs and are thinking of getting some guinea fowl for the property. Can we get twenty or so fowl and simply release them? Will they breed and thrive? I'm assuming we shouldn't clip wings.. what about if we get chickens later? I've read they can be combative?

If you purchase adults and turn them loose, they will leave. If you start with keets, you will have to raise them until they are mature. If you just turn them loose without providing food and water, they will all eventually leave or be taken by predators. Guineas really aren't a forest bird.

 

[NatJ]

Here's an old thread that compares guineas vs. chickens for tick control:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chickens-as-tick-control-as-good-as-guineas.787027/

Some of the responses look like they might be relevant to your question, even though the thread has been dead for about 8 years.

 

[Isadora]

I once read on here what someone said about guineas. They are like welfare moms: they are good at having babies, but not good at raising them. Keets are pretty fragile, more so than baby chickens. If they get chilled and wet, they can die, but Mama Guinea will just traipse around through the wet undergrowth and get all her babies chilled. The nesting habit of guineas is to find somewhere on the ground in the long grass where they are easily targeted by predators. If you were to get some guineas, I wouldn't suggest just letting them go. I would try to coop train them and just let them out all day and hopefully they can come back at night and have a safe place to hatch their keets.

 

[Rivendell03]

I once read on here what someone said about guineas. They are like welfare moms: they are good at having babies, but not good at raising them. Keets are pretty fragile, more so than baby chickens. If they get chilled and wet, they can die, but Mama Guinea will just traipse around through the wet undergrowth and get all her babies chilled. The nesting habit of guineas is to find somewhere on the ground in the long grass where they are easily targeted by predators. If you were to get some guineas, I wouldn't suggest just letting them go. I would try to coop train them and just let them out all day and hopefully they can come back at night and have a safe place to hatch their keets.

Cool, yeah that absolutely sounds like something we could do. We're planning on having chickens and some other livestock anyhow. I was wondering if we should clip wings and such... Sounds like if we take care of the keets than that wouldn't be totally necessary?

 

[Isadora]

Cool, yeah that absolutely sounds like something we could do. We're planning on having chickens and some other livestock anyhow. I was wondering if we should clip wings and such... Sounds like if we take care of the keets than that wouldn't be totally necessary?

Clipping the wings is a pretty temporary thing to stop the bird from flying, which I don't think that would stop your guineas from leaving your property if they got in their heads to do so. Clipping the wings is only helpful if you're trying to keep them inside of a shorter fence. Really if you're planning on free-ranging them during the day, I wouldn't clip their wings. That would put them at a big disadvantage for predators. I have some guineas right now and we are working on coop training. Right now they are all very good about going in their coop at night so I hope to free range them soon, but I don't plan on clipping their wings. I have raised them from little baby keets, as well.

 

[My2butterflies]

I agree, don’t clip their wings if you free range. Guineas walk away, not fly away. So if they are going to leave they will just walk off.
If you coop train them from the start they won’t leave and you won’t lose as many to predators.
If guineas didn’t need protection and could survive totally on their own I think we’d be seeing flocks of wild guineas in many areas. Sadly they can be easily picked off by many predators.
Everyone I’ve heard of that just lets them loose has to replace the flock yearly. That’s pretty spendy if you ask me.

As for chickens, mine don’t mess with them. The only possible problem I can see you having is if you rasie them together and coop them together. It’s best to keep them separately, but you can free range them at the same time.
I have a chicken hen that now and then sneaks out and hangs with the guineas. They don’t mind her at all.