Guinea attacking turkey

[gavada]

We have one lone guinea (a male) who wandered down from the neighbors and decided he'd rather live with us. We've had him for about 4 months happily coliving with all of our other poultry (15 chickens, a turkey hen and a tom turkey). About 3 weeks ago we got 6 1 week old keets and moved them outside to the coop (still caged) about a week ago. Two days after ago our male adult guinea started relentlessly attacking our tom. He would hang on to the toms side as the tom tried to run away and pull feathers out. The tom now has no tail feathers and is missing some breast feathers as well. We somehow managed to catch the guinea and throw him into solitary confinement to give the tom a break and a chance to heal. The guinea wasn't bothering any of the other birds or our rooster, only the tom. Is this normal behavior? Is he somehow trying to protect the new keets? We hate to get rid of him but there's no way we can keep him if he's going to always attack the turkey. If it's just a temporary thing we can keep him confined but I hate to do that if it's a problem that won't go away. Anyone have any clue what caused this sudden hatred of the tom?

 

[PeepsCA]

I'd guess that it's probably breeding season hormones, topped off with being protective of the keets (it's normal for males to lose their minds during breeding season). I'd keep him confined until the keets are old enough to be integrated and then they will hopefully keep the male Guinea content/distracted enough to keep him from terrorizing your Tom (my Rio Grande Turkey Hen would beat the livin' snot out of him for you tho, if you want to borrow her, LOL).

It'd also be a good idea to cage the male Guinea next to/near the keets if you can. Sometimes caging the bullies will help re-adjust their bad attitudes, but if not when the weather cools off so will his raging hormones (hopefully).

I saw someone post a while back that they put peepers (the blinders for pheasants) on the their Guineas and it helped keep the peace in their mixed flock, you can maybe try that too. I have not tried it yet, but I need to otherwise I have a few males that will be going to freezer camp soon.