Guineas and chickens not getting along. Any ideas???

[allbirds4me]

We raised our two guineas with our chickens. The female was a sweetheart, but the male attacked all of our chickens (we have 13) and the female guinea. We had to kill them both because the chickens were so afraid of the guineas and the female would be depressed with the male. I don't want to make people scared of guineas or start any arguments, but I don't know if getting more chickens will help.

Hopefully you can get this all worked out though.

seriously ?
I had problems with the same but simply sold the guineas to new homes. Made $$ and everyone is happy now.

 

[henny1129]

Yes, where we live guineas aren't super popular so it would be hard to find them a new home. They would have had to stay at our house longer until we found them a home and it wasn't worth losing a beloved chicken in that time.

 

[GreenAcres825]

I've gotten so frustrated with them, the males really are so nasty to the chickens and have even attacked me. The chickens are loving that the guineas are no longer attacking them, and everything has gotten calm again. I hope that once the males are no longer there that the four females will be able to interact with the chickens and not have a problem.

 

[MeepBeep]

They can live in harmony but they need their own space and lots of it... If you have them in a small coop or a small pen, yes the guineas will harass the chickens to no end, it's their nature, but if the chickens/guineas have enough area to get away from each other and form their own little flocks inside the flock the harassment will be minimal...

My guineas rarely if ever bother my hens, but they do have a pet peeve for roosters that are strutting their stuff, that will almost always get the rooster a chase and beat down, and I don't complain as it actually keeps things calmer overall...

 

[Just Ducky10]

Just wanted to share our set up that works for us.


We have 23 guineas currently (9 female, 4 breeder males, and 10 free ranged males) in a mixed flock of 7 geese, 11 ducks, and 7 silkie chickens (downsized for winter, did have an extra 12 Juvie guineas, 5 adult guineas, 25 broiler & sex-link chickens, and 5 broiler turkeys) They all get along fine. Small fights have broken out a couple of times, but it's always with other guineas (when the dominate male losses a fight and they're deciding a new order) We have 1 really large pen (2 1/2 ft fence used to keep the geese from mindlessly wandering off our property while grazing), 2 large uncovered pens, 2 small uncovered pens, and 3 "chicken tractors" that we section off unruly birds as needed, but most of them "free range" (they hop from one pen to another when they want and will continue until we're able to afford getting them covered)

The pens are on 1/4 of an acre, we have 3 acres but the free rangers usually stick to the 1 acre next to the pens. The guineas ages are a mix of 1 & 2 years, ducks are 2 years 1 year & 2 months, geese are 1 y, Silkies are 5 months & 2 weeks (they are a family members pets).

The guineas have never been in the same pen as the silkies and we won't ever let them since the silkies are small, slow, stupid, look funny & can't see well through they're crests so I couldn't blame the guineas if they did do something. The guineas look through the fence but aren't really interested in them.

All of our birds are friendly, even our guineas. While most don't like getting caught, they'll come right up to us to see what we're doing and once caught they stay still and enjoy their pets (some of the guineas even make their "happy noises" when held)


Hope this post is helpful.

 

[pattyhen]

Does anybody have guineas and chickens and ducks that get along togeather? I have 15 ducks and 12 chickens that all get along with each other. My husband bought 2 keets two days ago. They are two days old and are in a brooder. After reading some of the posts I am now afraid that my chickens and ducks are going to be terroized by these guineas and I don't want this to happen. Any advice or suggestions I would appreciate. Thanks

 

[pattyhen]

I forgot to mention they all free range in the yard togeather . We have a chain link fence around the yard.

 

[Just Ducky10]

Does anybody have guineas and chickens and ducks that get along togeather?  I have 15 ducks and 12 chickens that all get along with each other.  My husband bought 2 keets two days ago.  They are two days old and are in a brooder.  After reading some of the posts I am now afraid that my chickens and ducks are going to be terroized by these guineas and I don't want this to happen.  Any advice or suggestions I would appreciate.  Thanks

Just wanted to share our set up that works for us.


We have 23 guineas currently (9 female, 4 breeder males, and 10 free ranged males) in a mixed flock of 7 geese, 11 ducks, and 7 silkie chickens (downsized for winter, did have an extra 12 Juvie guineas, 5 adult guineas, 25 broiler & sex-link chickens, and 5 broiler turkeys) They all get along fine. Small fights have broken out a couple of times, but it's always with other guineas (when the dominate male losses a fight and they're deciding a new order) We have 1 really large pen (2 1/2 ft fence used to keep the geese from mindlessly wandering off our property while grazing), 2 large uncovered pens, 2 small uncovered pens, and 3 "chicken tractors" that we section off unruly birds as needed, but most of them "free range" (they hop from one pen to another when they want and will continue until we're able to afford getting them covered)

The pens are on 1/4 of an acre, we have 3 acres but the free rangers usually stick to the 1 acre next to the pens. The guineas ages are a mix of 1 & 2 years, ducks are 2 years 1 year & 2 months, geese are 1 y, Silkies are 5 months & 2 weeks (they are a family members pets).

The guineas have never been in the same pen as the silkies and we won't ever let them since the silkies are small, slow, stupid, look funny & can't see well through they're crests so I couldn't blame the guineas if they did do something. The guineas look through the fence but aren't really interested in them.

All of our birds are friendly, even our guineas. While most don't like getting caught, they'll come right up to us to see what we're doing and once caught they stay still and enjoy their pets (some of the guineas even make their "happy noises" when held)


Hope this post is helpful.

If you'll read my post above it's more detailed, but the short version is that I've have had guineas, chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys all get along in the same pen. The guineas could fly in & out as they liked and they didn't bother each other at all. Keep in mind they had a large area and were initially introduced through a fence over 2-4 weeks. There's always a bit of of a tussle at first, but no serious injuries. And if any guinea was being particularly ruff they were put in the "chicken tractor" with a buddy while the others learned to get along and then reintroduced 1-2 weeks later.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Our chickens and guineas (when let outside) free range and have the whole farmyard explore. But what I mostly see them doing is waiting by the door of the chicken house to pick on the chickens. Once they've had their fill of that, they like to venture over to my hubby's parked truck and look at themselves in the chrome bumper.

I was inspired to try a smaller number of guineas with my chickens. I noticed a guinea getting picked on a bit the other day, and it happened to be a really nice day so I let my girls and this one guinea out. It turned out to be the female. She complained a lot, the guineas inside complained even more but I stuck by my decision. I didn't see any picking, but I was also busy in and out of the house. End of the day came and the females went in and began to roost. I went in to do the evening chick chores. Well if the darn female guinea didn't jump up with the chickens on the roosts and start pulling random feathers from the hens in front of her on the next level!

The female guinea had lot's of space on her level...and there was open space on the next roost up. Yet she was antagonizing the hens for fun. I caught her, put her back with the other guineas and have decided to still sell the guineas. Frustrating.

 

[varidgerunner]

I had guineas once. HAD. The two happiest days of a guinea owner's life are the day you brought them home, and the day you got rid of them.