Guinea Fowl Keets, Jungle fowl and Ducks

[Cinsu]

I bought 50 guinea fowl keets to take care of a tick problem and asian ladybug infiltration at the end of Aug. I happen to have ordered 5 ducks and had 6 jungle fowl hatch at the same time.
I raised them all together and let them free Range all day and night.
The guinea's seemed to really love the ducks. They hung with them and would stay up against the house at night under our porch..
This worked out great till the ducks finally decided to go live in the pond with the bigger ducks.
At first we had a hard time getting them to the pond.
The first time we took the ducks to the pond, a guinea flew to the middle of the pond to swim to shore with the ducks. (I thought for a moment I would have to swim and rescue him).
I took a count a week ago and noticed that there were 27. The next day after that there were 12, then the day after 8, day after that three and now there are none this morning.
We live on 220 acres have lots of trees and fields with no neighbors.
I'm hoping they will return. They are only about 6 or 7 weeks old right now. I'm hoping that they will wander back this way. Have been out looking for them with a ranger but didn't see them.
Obviously raising them with ducks was not as ideal as I thought it was.
I haven't given up on guineas. I loved watching them found them very amusing and fun. So next time will have to try something a little different. Maybe raise them with a couple of regular hens or get eggs and have some chickens hatch the eggs.

 

[roosterhavoc]

I bought 50 guinea fowl keets to take care of a tick problem and asian ladybug infiltration at the end of Aug. I happen to have ordered 5 ducks and had 6 jungle fowl hatch at the same time.
I raised them all together and let them free Range all day and night.
The guinea's seemed to really love the ducks. They hung with them and would stay up against the house at night under our porch..
This worked out great till the ducks finally decided to go live in the pond with the bigger ducks.
At first we had a hard time getting them to the pond.
The first time we took the ducks to the pond, a guinea flew to the middle of the pond to swim to shore with the ducks. (I thought for a moment I would have to swim and rescue him).
I took a count a week ago and noticed that there were 27. The next day after that there were 12, then the day after 8, day after that three and now there are none this morning.
We live on 220 acres have lots of trees and fields with no neighbors.
I'm hoping they will return. They are only about 6 or 7 weeks old right now. I'm hoping that they will wander back this way. Have been out looking for them with a ranger but didn't see them.
Obviously raising them with ducks was not as ideal as I thought it was.
I haven't given up on guineas. I loved watching them found them very amusing and fun. So next time will have to try something a little different. Maybe raise them with a couple of regular hens or get eggs and have some chickens hatch the eggs.

Wow! That’s great you have so much land! They aren’t the brightest birds in the world. They may be wandering around somewhere but more than likely they are being picked off by some sort of fox, coyote or bobcat depending on what you have locally.

 

[Cinsu]

this is west Tennesee so have all the above preditors. I can see them pick them off one or two at night but 12 in a single night. They are not locked in so it would have to catch them.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Unfortunately they truly aren’t that smart. I’ve seen a fox run them down. Instead of flying they just run and fly a little then go back to running. Yeah a pack of coyotes could easily do it and even one fox can kill quite a few. Raccoons could get them out of the trees too.

 

[red horse ranch]

Guineas should always be enclosed in a safe place at night. And 6 to 7 weeks old is too young to be free ranging anyway. They are NOT ducks! But they are probably staying close to the water where their friends are. They are easy pickings for coons, foxes, owls or any other night predator. Guineas are pretty much blind at night and would not be hard for any predator to get. If you find any of them alive they should be caught and confined until they are older. They may be hiding somewhere and you should try to find them.