Guinea keets!

[SamLockwood]

The guy at Tractor Supply was saying raising keets with chickens helps give them more chicken tendencies.

It might. It might also give your chickens some guinea tendencies, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how much tolerance you have for guinea fowl quirks.

Guineas are very territorial, much more group oriented, and more aggressive than than chickens.

How well they get along with your chickens if you let them mix with the guineas depends on how much space they have and the temperament of the chickens.

In general, guineas seem to do best on larger flocks, with plenty of space to roam, with chickens that aren't too uppity with them.

One cool thing about guineas is you can train them to be herded and they understand pointing really well. one of their more interesting behaviors is if they see something strange they'll surround it and point at it with their beaks, muttering to each other.

They'll also act like watchdogs: mine always call out when something comes by the fence or up the driveway.

The downsides are they're very bossy and their danger calls are both harsh and loud. If you get a lot of traffic around your property the noise may get on your nerves. They have no subtlety when it comes to enforcing the pecking order and young male guineas will fight over virtually anything.

If you mix them with your chickens, the first spring will test their patience and yours. Spring guinea mating rituals involve a lot of chasing and feather pulling, and at one point one of my male guineas, a turkey-sized giant I named "Monster", figured out if he ambushed the young roosters from behind they'd jump straight up into the air. I think his record was six and a half feet. The roosters got pretty stressed out that spring, but on the plus side they leaned to be a heck of a lot more vigilant. Those roosters rarely if ever miss spotting an incoming predator.

 

[R2elk]

It might. It might also give your chickens some guinea tendencies, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how much tolerance you have for guinea fowl quirks.

Guineas are very territorial, much more group oriented, and more aggressive than than chickens.

How well they get along with your chickens if you let them mix with the guineas depends on how much space they have and the temperament of the chickens.

In general, guineas seem to do best on larger flocks, with plenty of space to roam, with chickens that aren't too uppity with them.

One cool thing about guineas is you can train them to be herded and they understand pointing really well. one of their more interesting behaviors is if they see something strange they'll surround it and point at it with their beaks, muttering to each other.

They'll also act like watchdogs: mine always call out when something comes by the fence or up the driveway.

The downsides are they're very bossy and their danger calls are both harsh and loud. If you get a lot of traffic around your property the noise may get on your nerves. They have no subtlety when it comes to enforcing the pecking order and young male guineas will fight over virtually anything.

If you mix them with your chickens, the first spring will test their patience and yours. Spring guinea mating rituals involve a lot of chasing and feather pulling, and at one point one of my male guineas, a turkey-sized giant I named "Monster", figured out if he ambushed the young roosters from behind they'd jump straight up into the air. I think his record was six and a half feet. The roosters got pretty stressed out that spring, but on the plus side they leaned to be a heck of a lot more vigilant. Those roosters rarely if ever miss spotting an incoming predator.

You should try not chicken imprinting your guineas. My non-imprinted guineas would free range with the other poultry with no problems. Each poultry group kept to themselves with no interaction between the chickens and the guineas or turkeys.

Unfortunately for you, your current guineas would probably teach any non-imprinted guineas their interactions with your chickens.

 

[SamLockwood]

You should try not chicken imprinting your guineas. My non-imprinted guineas would free range with the other poultry with no problems. Each poultry group kept to themselves with no interaction between the chickens and the guineas or turkeys.

Unfortunately for you, your current guineas would probably teach any non-imprinted guineas their interactions with your chickens.

I definitely would have done things differently with the first generation.
The biggest issues I had were in the first 18.months.

AFter that, the biggest difficulty is if I introduced new birds to the flock: the guinea hens don't like any strangers, even other guineas.

Oddly, if I let the flock raise chicks or keets, the guineas have no problems accepting them.

The biggest problem with my guineas is that even if they have enough guinea hens to go around, I always have two cocks that go all "Sherlock and Moriarty" on each other all summer long, usually when I'm trying to lock them up for the night.

During the daytime they act like two separate flocks, and at night some of them will mix in the "neutral" roosting area between the two coops at night. But overall they act like two separate families that share the same hotel and restaurant.

The exception is if something shows up they think is a threat, then I'm amazed at the level of coordination they show in getting the hens to safety and either hiding or changing the predator head-on. Maybe it's the somewhat unique nature of the setup I have combined with the predator pressure, but the last two years the most aggression I see out of them is when some.raptor does a flyby or they spot a coyote or opossum nosing around the fence.

Their pecking order is weird. I know exactly who runs the chicken flock, I have a pretty good idea of who runs the guinea flock, and I have absolutely no idea what the ranking is between the two species: I've seen my alpha chicken hen push male guineas around, my alpha rooster gives way to the male guineas, and my bottom rooster has middling status among the guineas

All I know is most days here are quiet, everybody looks pretty healthy, all the hens lay plenty of eggs, and when I choose to hatch them I get beautiful keets and chicks.

 

[R2elk]

The biggest problem with my guineas is that even if they have enough guinea hens to go around, I always have two cocks that go all "Sherlock and Moriarty" on each other all summer long, usually when I'm trying to lock them up for the night.

This is normal guinea behavior. Another normal behavior is for two cocks to buddy up and be the alphas and terrorize all the other cocks.

When the rest of the flock finally has enough of them, all the other males will band together in an all out attack which will depose the two alphas and in worst cases will kill them.

In my case the good thing was that this all went on strictly within the guinea community with no spill over onto the other poultry.

Oddly, if I let the flock raise chicks or keets, the guineas have no problems accepting them.

Guineas are very accepting of keets raised by the flock and can be tolerant of brooder raised keets if done carefully.

 

[Guinea Math]

Thank you so much for sharing! When I got the keets, I was told and had read they're a lot like raising chickens so I wasn't worried. The longer I hang with them the more I realize they are different. Some things are the same, but there are things that make raising them different. It's still super fun!

I like to say that guineas are a league unto themselves.

They can frustrate me to no end but their absolute zest for life, silly antics, delicious eggs, predator alerting/deterrents, non garden destroying foraging and bug eating skills make them keepers.

Always keep it fun and you’ll do great with them!

 

[Guinea Math]

Their pecking order is weird. I know exactly who runs the chicken flock, I have a pretty good idea of who runs the guinea flock, and I have absolutely no idea what the ranking is between the two species: I've seen my alpha chicken hen push male guineas around, my alpha rooster gives way to the male guineas, and my bottom rooster has middling status among the guineas

I haven’t figured it out either! For whatever reason, RIR hens have always been a favorite with my guinea flocks, they will follow those girls around everywhere and my free range guinea flock that roosts with my rooster bachelor flock like hang out with my Polish roo who is not the alpha boy; they never chase or pull his tail feathers like they do every other rooster and he loves to be with them too.

All I know is most days here are quiet, everybody looks pretty healthy, all the hens lay plenty of eggs, and when I choose to hatch them I get beautiful keets and chicks.

Those quiet days are simply the best!

 

[ChickenLadyZ]

I like to say that guineas are a league unto themselves.

They can frustrate me to no end but their absolute zest for life, silly antics, delicious eggs, predator alerting/deterrents, non garden destroying foraging and bug eating skills make them keepers.

Always keep it fun and you’ll do great with them!

Thank you! They are fun to watch. I tried to see if they would eat from my hand yesterday and they would come up and then run away. They kept doing that until they decided mealworms weren't worth the risk of coming close to my hand.

 

[ChickenLadyZ]

I like to say that guineas are a league unto themselves.

They can frustrate me to no end but their absolute zest for life, silly antics, delicious eggs, predator alerting/deterrents, non garden destroying foraging and bug eating skills make them keepers.

Always keep it fun and you’ll do great with them!

I do have a question for you if you don't mind me asking. My keets are looking pretty feathered. Is it too early to take their heating plate out? When I put them to bed at night they're not under it, but I don't know if they're using it in the middle of the night.

Excuse the mess. They got fresh shavings a few days ago and decided it would be great fun to scratch down to the feed bags

The only reason I'm asking is because I have hens that would benefit from a fan in their coop, but the keets have my best cord for their plate. I still put a piece of hard plastic on the back of the coop to keep heat in overnight(the open part in the picture is the back). It's about 70 overnight.

I figured you turned the temp down every week, but they seem like they're almost done with it. Am I reading them wrong?

 

[R2elk]

I do have a question for you if you don't mind me asking. My keets are looking pretty feathered. Is it too early to take their heating plate out? When I put them to bed at night they're not under it, but I don't know if they're using it in the middle of the night.
View attachment 4175331

Excuse the mess. They got fresh shavings a few days ago and decided it would be great fun to scratch down to the feed bags

The only reason I'm asking is because I have hens that would benefit from a fan in their coop, but the keets have my best cord for their plate. I still put a piece of hard plastic on the back of the coop to keep heat in overnight(the open part in the picture is the back). It's about 70 overnight.

I figured you turned the temp down every week, but they seem like they're almost done with it. Am I reading them wrong?

What are your nighttime temperatures?

 

[ChickenLadyZ]

What are your nighttime temperatures?

The last few days have been 71. I saw 68 two weeks ago, but mostly it hangs around 70