Guinea Hens and Chickens

[rhody josephine]

Can Guinea hens and Chickens share a coop?? Do they get along??

 

[acy0029]

When I was a kid growing up we always had Guinea's in with our chickens they are better alarms than Geese. My mom wouldn't think of not having Guinea's along with the chickens. They are very noise though so it may cause problems if you don't live in a rural area. And it is almost impossible to hatch out any of your own.

 

[muslw4]

My mother has both guineas and chickens plus call ducks and two geese together. They seem to all get along for the most part. Although the guineas sometimes gang up on the rooster, which is an americana. If my mom lets the guineas out for the day then they don't seem to pick on the rooster as much. THey come back to the hen house at night. It's only when she's gone and they are all together in the "chicken playground" (as my niece calls it), they start having issues. The "chicken playground" is covered with netting so the guineas can't get out and rome.

 

[rhody josephine]

Thanks for the input!! Someone on craigslist is giving away a couple of Guinea fowl chicks..maybe I'll call him!

 

[ColbyNTX]

If you didn't already call, I bet there gone! Mine run with the turkeys but I brood them with turkeys.

 

[TarheelBirdy]

My chickens accepted the Guineas when I first got them.....but I have to add that all get to go out during the day. One female Guinea gets up in the boxes and roosts all piled up with my hens every night. They seem to do fine. But I don't know how that would be if everyone were in the house 24 hours a day.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
It's always nice to see people post of successfully co-mingled flocks, congrats on your happy coop

If you look at 99.9% of all the peaceful co-mingled flocks... free ranging is a key component to keeping a happy flock of mixed poultry, (ANY type of poultry IMO, but especially a flock with Guineas). So is plenty of room in the coop, plenty of roosting space and roosting options, plenty of time for the newbies to get acclimated and accepted by the existing flock, as well as extra feeders and waterers. IMO... if you avoid over crowding and situations that can cause aggression issues from forming from the get-go, then you tend to have better luck with mixed flocks of ANY kind of poultry

(Not everybody gets this tho and so Guineas usually tend to get the blame for being the issue, when it's more often than not the flock owner's fault for not understanding the specific needs of the individual types of poultry).

 

[GallopingGoat]

I've had guineas and chickens live happily together now for about 9 months. 4 hens, a roo, and two mating pairs of guineas. That said, one of my guinea cocks has just utterly lost his head for mating season and become HUGELY aggressive - beating up my rooster terribly. They're actually flying through the air at each other, trashing, drawing blood and pulling feathers (this started in the last couple of days). Sadly, I think I'm going to have to cull the guinea.

A mistake I've made, which caused this problem: I had the guineas and chickens in the same coop, and they chose to lay in the same spot. They're all free-range during the day, even in the winter, so exercise or crowding are not to blame - and the coop itself is 10'X6', which they use only for laying and for the night. The fighting happens during the day, then they all gather in a bunch to sleep. Odd.

At any rate, I've really enjoyed the mixture thus far, and they've gotten along really well until now. Lots of space and freedom during the day is a must, and if you can, try to get the guineas to lay their eggs somewhere other than in the same box as the chickens.

 

[ray2310]

We have 3 male guineas (whom live with our flock of 1 rooster and 26 chickens) just recently they started aggressively mating with our chickens.. They really favor our americanas...also They sit in front of the nesting box while the Americana chickens are laying eggs, watching them.. Today our lavender male guinea was sitting under the daylillies in the front of the house with an Americana hen while she laid an egg... She consistently lays her eggs in the nesting boxes so this is super strange! and just a few minutes ago our dark guinea male pulled our rooster off a hen (our rooster is very sweet and docile, poor guy)

We have decided to cull them in the next few days, it's just not working out for us. Our girls are unhappy.

Any good recipes for 10 month old guineas?

 

[baileys3233]

Quote:
are these the hens that will kill ticks and stuff outside?