Guineas and Chickens

[merrymutts]

A friend gave me some 8 week old Guinea keets this morning and not having a separate pen, I put them in with my chickens... varying ages and sizes.

So far, everything going very well...the keets are hanging out together as is expected but are also intermingling with some chicks which are near the same age/size as they are.

My big question us: the chickens are used to free-ranging for a few hours in the evening and are coop trained to go back in at dusk.

How long should I keep the keets penned up before they can free-range along with the chickens ?

I should mention that many years ago I raised some guinea keets and after a year of being cooped and penned, I decided to let them free-range with the hens and the ungrateful *&*^%& took off after the second day and we never saw them again.

 

[duluthralphie]

Guineas are not chickens as you know from your ungrateful flock in the past.

I no longer have mine because they refused to stop practicing highway robbery and the neighbor complains about them beating his dog up..

Mine would go into the coop at night with the chickens, but I had to fight them often. They would just decide they were moving out of the coop and that’s it!

As far as how long before letting them out, I would wait s couple weeks then let one out. That way he would return back to the others at night. A few days later let another out.

That way they might remember where they live. But don’t be surprised if you look in the coop one night and find crowbars and hammers on the floor from where the little burglars broke their friends out of the coop.