Guinea causing trouble with chickens

[Linda Hunter]

I have 17 young hens and 2 roosters all are 18 weeks old. I also have 3 french guineas (2 males and 1 hen). The problem is the male guineas will chase each other and will chase the hens. I am reading that I probably should have gotten 6 instead of 3. The guineas were raised with the chickens, they roost in the coop at night with the chickens, forage with them during the day.

I need expert advise on the best thing to do. Will things settle down? If I raise young guinea to add to the flock will that fix the problem.

I have not had any serious injuries Just want to avoid the possability of anything happening.

Thanks,

 

[damselfish]

Well, I don't know about expert advice, but here's my experience:
1) Lower-ranking chickens may be chased off food or out of a space that a guinea wants. In our case the birds seem to rank by age, so only younger chickens get chased. Most of mine are younger, but my two older hens take no flack from any guinea and will shove them out of the way to get at food.
2) My rooster doesn't seem to get chased more than the girls, but others have had theirs chased more often as part of "the chase", which is when male guineas tear around the yard, trees and roof like a bunch of freaks. There's a recent thread on here about a rooster that got cornered and pecked...
3) Our guineas are much quieter and calmer now that they are mated off (they're just coming up on a year old). We have ten adults and two keets.
4) Guineas vary, just like chickens. Some are jerks, some are not.

If you have the space and like guineas, I'd get more so they can have a more natural grouping. Ours have a separate coop and everyone free ranges during the day.

For now, I'd make sure that the chickens, particularly the rooster, are getting to eat.

Your mileage may vary, this is just what's happening here.

Hope this helps!

 

[Debbienmousey]

Quote:
I agree 100%.

I agree with most of damselfish's other points too. But I have found that our guinea cocks don't care much about the age of the chicken hens. The guinea cocks rarely chase our two older roosters though. The younger guinea cock (Paired up already, he's a little over a year old) is definitely chasing the younger birds more. It's ok if he's chasing the 8 month old roosters, but I can't have him chasing the 15 week old chicks yet, so they're still in a cage but are going to be moved to another run before being added to the flock.

On 2) my birds are the same. The roosters do get chased away from the food but only about as much as the hens. Occasionally one or both of the guinea cocks will chase the roosters and grab their tail feathers, but our guinea cocks have never hurt the roosters or hens. But, if you have a guinea cock which regularly chases the roosters (Not just a simple running off, but like damselfish said, "the chase") you need to make sure that he's not hurting the roosters.

I would leave things as they are, make sure the guinea cocks don't bug the chickens too much though. Hopefully you'll have one of those nice calm cocks which settles down after a year or two.

Good luck

 

[Linda Hunter]

Thanks you so much for the advise. I think I will leave things as they are and not add additional guineas right away. Things have calmed a little. The guinea have not chased the roosters, but have sort of paired up with one. I have 3 pullets that do not leave the run when everyone else is free ranging for some reason the guineas pick on or intimidate the partriage wyandottes.