Gueneas for Father's Day. Questions about adding to chickens and coop

[BirdBrain]

My Dad has been wanting guineas. Mom doesn't know they are coming.

I persuaded her to get chickens and hatched some for her on Easter weekend. They are now about 6 weeks old. We built a coop that is 8 x 8 feet. There are about 34 chickens in there. That number will drop when the roos go to freezer camp. I think there will be somewhere around 18 pullets when all is said and done. I ordered guineas today from Ideal and there will be 8 coming later this week. I'm sure they will be sending warmer birds with that small number. Any one around Houston want them?

Today I built a 4 ft long x 2 ft wide by 2 ft tall brooder out of 2 x 4s plywood and hardware cloth. I guess we will take it down to my folks ranch in a couple of weeks. I don't really know what they are getting in to with guineas, but I guess they will learn along the way. I was figuring to put the brooder box in the coop so the chickens could get used to the new kids. How long before I can let them out and them not get the tar beat out of them by the chickens?

Any advice on how to mix the two groups would be so welcome.

 

[NancyP]

If you can get the book Gardening with guineas it is very helpful and will answer many of your questions.

 

[julieschickens]

i had guineas with my chickens and the guineas ended up really being jerks to my poor chickens. they were fine for a good while and then the guineas just took over and became real bullies. i do not let them come back to roost at night anymore so that the hens can have a little peace. each morning when i open the trap door and they go out into their exercise yard they are greeted with another visit from the guineas. i think they are coming up to see if i am feeding any treats to the hens. anyway, i would NEVER raise them with my chickens again and i wish they would stay away- however, i do like the guineas and do not want rid of them but just want them to stop tormenting my hens!!!

 

[BirdBrain]

Did you raise them together from hatch? Mom's chickens will be 6-7 weeks older than the keets.

 

[Debbienmousey]

We have chickens and guineas living together and overall they get along fine.

We got our first chicks in April of '07, and we got our first keats(4) in June/July of '07. The chickens were living in the coop by the time we got the keats. We kept the keats in the house for acouple weeks (2-4 maybe, I forget) then we kept them in a cage inside the coop till they were probably at least 10 weeks old. Then we let them mingle with the chickens. One of our Cuckoo Maran roosters actually "adopted" them. They followed him around all day and spent most of their time with him.

May/June of '08 came and the adult guineas (2 cocks, 2 hens, what luck!) were still fine with the guineas. Since that was still our first year of guineas, we really didn't know much about their nesting habits. We didn't get a hatch that year because the white hen got chased off her nest by the dogs and the Royal Purple hen got killed by a hawk.

July of '08 we brought in 6 new keats, various ages. They lived inside for a while, then went outside into the nursery. They could see the rest of the flock but neither sides could meet each other. When they were old enough we let them into the flock and everything was fine.

April of '09 and I saw my first guinea breedings. Very cool. The cocks (At the time we had 3) were still not "aggressive" or "bullying" towards any of the chickens, roosters included.

As of now, we have only 5 adult guineas, 7 incubator raised keats (One's not doing well), and 69 hatching eggs. We've recently lost a whole guinea hen and nest of 24 eggs. The guinea cocks will occasionally chase the roosters or hens, but nothing serious. Most of the time the roosters start a fight with the cocks, the cocks chase the roosters around a bit, then stop, and then the roosters start fighting with the cocks again. Stupid birds.

Overall we have no aggression or bullying. We have 9 roosters running around and 2 guinea cocks.(Our birds free-range most days) And I don't expect any problems when we add our coming keats.

However if you can help it, never end up with just one keat. We did once, and he seemed extremely lonely and sad. Try to keep atleast 2. I'm not sure if this would be the same for adults.

Just let them get to know each other, keeping the keats separate until they're at least 10-12 weeks old would probably be good.

Anyhow, thanks for reading my book and good luck with your chickens and guineas! (Guinea keats are soooooooo cute between the ages of just hatched and before they get their helmets & wattles)

(Lol, I'm so lazy. I just copy and pasted this from my other post)

 

[BirdBrain]

Thanks so much. We will try to keep them apart until 10 weeks or so.