Guineas and chickens?

[sred98]

I have all mine together. But, I bought my guineas the same day as the chicks. I kept them separated til the guineas got bigger, and then integrated them. They think they are chickens, and they roost with them, freerange with them, etc. The young roosters have learned not to challenge the guineas, though!

They will lose! The guineas (I have 3) stick together but mingle with the chickens. They only get aggressive when getting a special treat, or if one of the young roos challenges the younger guinea. They really stick together!

I love them!

Shelly

 

[barnwife]

My naighbor has a male guinea that chases all my chickens, ducks, and geese for no apparent reason. They all give him a wide berth, there are no female guineas, it is not his territory, and he chases them without end.

Rooster, hen, duckling, whatever.


Other times he sits next to them and dust bathes just peaceful as any other bird.


I had a guinea keet in with one of my injured birds (for lonliness help) and they are inseparable...a guinea hen and a chicken hen. BUT they were both very young and raised together from 2 wks on up.


It may work, be prepared to separate if necessary.

Good luck!

 

[Debbienmousey]

We have chickens and guineas living together and overall they get along fine.

We got our first chicks in April of '07, and we got our first keats(4) in June/July of '07. The chickens were living in the coop by the time we got the keats. We kept the keats in the house for acouple weeks (2-4 maybe, I forget) then we kept them in a cage inside the coop till they were probably at least 10 weeks old. Then we let them mingle with the chickens. One of our Cuckoo Maran roosters actually "adopted" them. They followed him around all day and spent most of their time with him.

May/June of '08 came and the adult guineas (2 cocks, 2 hens, what luck!) were still fine with the guineas. Since that was still our first year of guineas, we really didn't know much about their nesting habits. We didn't get a hatch that year because the white hen got chased off her nest by the dogs and the Royal Purple hen got killed by a hawk.

July of '08 we brought in 6 new keats, various ages. They lived inside for a while, then went outside into the nursery. They could see the rest of the flock but neither sides could meet each other. When they were old enough we let them into the flock and everything was fine.

April of '09 and I saw my first guinea breedings. Very cool. The cocks (At the time we had 3) were still not "aggressive" or "bullying" towards any of the chickens, roosters included.

As of now, we have only 5 adult guineas, 7 incubator raised keats (One's not doing well), and 69 hatching eggs. We've recently lost a whole guinea hen and nest of 24 eggs. The guinea cocks will occasionally chase the roosters or hens, but nothing serious. Most of the time the roosters start a fight with the cocks, the cocks chase the roosters around a bit, then stop, and then the roosters start fighting with the cocks again. Stupid birds.

Overall we have no aggression or bullying. We have 9 roosters running around and 2 guinea cocks.(Our birds free-range most days) And I don't expect any problems when we add our coming keats.

However if you can help it, never end up with just one keat. We did once, and he seemed extremely lonely and sad. Try to keep atleast 2. I'm not sure if this would be the same for adults.

Anyhow, thanks for reading my book and good luck with your chickens and guineas! (Guinea keats are soooooooo cute between the ages of just hatched and before they get their helmets & wattles)