Guineas attacking my chickens!

[Kadu]

I have done whatever I can to save my chickens, my rooster died because he was so stressed with the guineas always plucking feathers out from the hens. He was such a good rooster too! good ones are hard to find! ='(

About a month ago when the rooster died, the 5 guineas lost coop privileges, so now they sleep in the trees. Today I let the chickens out from their coop cz they are getting better now, and the guineas just went crazy chasing down the poor chickens. One poor baby got chased all the way to the woods and she was missing for about 5 hours. I got her back in the coop like 5 minutes before it got completely dark.

Is there anything I can do to stop them from doing this?
I read online that increasing the flock size can help, but I feel like that's suicidal lol I don't mind feeding 20 guineas but if they all started attacking the chickens I don't know what I'd do!

I really want to have guineas, so it would be great if anyone can give me advice on what to do. Does a bigger flock really work?

I'm going to have to start keets this spring because the guineas I have now, I made the mistake of feeding them vegetables and now they eat everything out of my garden. If my plants weren't covered they would have eaten everything! so I still have time to decide if I want a bigger flock or none at all if they just keep doing that

 

[Percheron chick]

How many cocks do you have? Age of guineas and chickens? Sounds like the guineas are bored. Mine coexist peacefully but I had older and larger hens when they were keets. The cocks do get after the cockerels but nothing more than an old hen would do.

 

[Kadu]

I have 3 males and 2 female guineas. All my chickens are less than a year old, and guineas are exactly 6 months old. How many guineas do you have? Mine get to free range all day, but do they still get bored? Hmmm...
I wonder if a bigger flock would fix that...

I guess I'm going to try out 15-20 keets and if they start to attack the chickens, they go to freezer camp. =)

 

[Percheron chick]

I started out with 9 guineas. 3 cocks and 6 hens in a flock with 2 roosters and 20+ hens. I'm down to 3/3. The guineas are intimidated by the larger rooster. If you have the reverse of 2/3, you might not be having any problems. I do think mine at 6 months were the most vocal, entertaining, fractious, bossy... (insert your own adjective). Mine all free range together and about 95% of the time, the guineas return to the coop at night. I have lost 2 recently to owls so they've been better about sleeping in the coop. Guineas are pretty valuable in the south so I would try to find a way to work through this until they are a little older. You should just be starting to see the benefits of a decreased tick population.

If it's one who is being the bully, that's probably the odd man out. More keets could help and so might more chickens and a new rooster (adult). It would be a shame to get rid of the adult guineas but it might be the easy fix. Start over with keets that will get their butts beat when they get out of line. If you are lucky and have a hen go broody, let her raise the keets. My keets that were raised by hens were quieter than those raised by their mommas. No real way to tell how the dynamics will work out until you give it a try.

 

[Kadu]

Yea my guineas had a thing for the rooster lol I think in their minds, the roo is the daddy. So if he's ever out of sight, omg the guineas just won't stop screaming. lol 3 are being bullys and I think its the 3 hens... I will definitely get the keets and I'm gonna keep the number at 15. I have not lost any so far because they sleep on the tree right in front of the house and nothing gets past our dog who's fenced in. I wish I had a hen go broody! I will definitely take quieter guineas haha
I have not seen a single tick yet, but then its not warm yet. These 5, we will sell or eat. =D

Thank you very much for the info! I appreciate it =D