Guineas with chicks and ducks?

[Jennysuey]

I'm new to rural living, and raising chicks and ducks. We have 11 2 month old chicks and 2 ducks. They're doing great, free ranging and sleeping in coops at night. We have a major bug and tick problem in our area and I keep hearing guineas are the way to go. We have 12 acres, 3 of which are cleared and the rest is heavily wooded. I also have a dog and two small kids, that are getting eaten alive by bugs. Can I introduce guineas now, or wait until the birds are older? And keets or adults? Any advice would be awesome . Thank you!

 

[pattyhen]

I have chickens, ducks and guineas. My guineas will sometimes chase a duck but never to hurt one. The chickens just basically ignore the guineas and the guineas do the same with the chickens. They all sleep in the coop togeather at night.

If I was you I would get keets and be prepared to build them a coop in case it doesn't work out. I think as long as you have plenty of room for them to graze it should work out. If you were going to pen them up togeather it might not work.

 

[BlueShadow]

If you get adult guineas, you need to be prepared to keep them locked in a coop for a minimum of 2 weeks, preferably 4-6, for them to adjust to their new home. Otherwise, they are quite likely to leave and head back to their old home. For this reason, most people find it easiest to start with keets. Also, this is the time of year when keets are hatching, so they should be fairly easy for you to find.

I don't think you should have any troubles with guineas and ducks, as long as the guineas are not required to live closely with the ducks. Guineas don't like water as much as ducks do. I don't have ducks though and cannot speak personally to this issue.

For your happiness raising guineas, I recommend:
1) Get a minimum of 10 birds. Guineas are flock animals and they are only happy when they can interact with many others of their species. Also, the number of acres you describe, you will want at least that many if you are going to notice much for bug control.
2) Raise the guineas separately from the chickens. I don't expect you will have trouble with this, since your chickens are already older, but I am mentioning it because it is such a common complaint. Keets that are raised with chicks often turn into guineas that bully chickens.
3) Move your guineas to their adult housing, whatever that is, as soon as you can reasonably do so. Guineas hate change and adapt slowly, so it will take them awhile to get used to the new housing. I think a commonly recommended age is around 6-8 weeks, but honestly you can do it at any age, as long as you are prepared to either lock them in the new housing for a couple weeks or every night, chase them into the housing. I've done both and definitely recommend locking them in, chasing them in every night took MONTHS, and their new coop was in the exact same building, just the next room over.

Once your guineas are adults, you may or may not be able to keep them in the same coop with your chickens. My chickens don't particularly like or enjoy when my guineas decide to roost in the chicken coop. Your experience may vary.

 

[Jennysuey]

I have chickens, ducks and guineas. My guineas will sometimes chase a duck but never to hurt one. The chickens just basically ignore the guineas and the guineas do the same with the chickens. They all sleep in the coop togeather at night.

If I was you I would get keets and be prepared to build them a coop in case it doesn't work out. I think as long as you have plenty of room for them to graze it should work out. If you were going to pen them up togeather it might not work.

If you get adult guineas, you need to be prepared to keep them locked in a coop for a minimum of 2 weeks, preferably 4-6, for them to adjust to their new home. Otherwise, they are quite likely to leave and head back to their old home. For this reason, most people find it easiest to start with keets. Also, this is the time of year when keets are hatching, so they should be fairly easy for you to find.

I don't think you should have any troubles with guineas and ducks, as long as the guineas are not required to live closely with the ducks. Guineas don't like water as much as ducks do. I don't have ducks though and cannot speak personally to this issue.

For your happiness raising guineas, I recommend:
1) Get a minimum of 10 birds. Guineas are flock animals and they are only happy when they can interact with many others of their species. Also, the number of acres you describe, you will want at least that many if you are going to notice much for bug control.
2) Raise the guineas separately from the chickens. I don't expect you will have trouble with this, since your chickens are already older, but I am mentioning it because it is such a common complaint. Keets that are raised with chicks often turn into guineas that bully chickens.
3) Move your guineas to their adult housing, whatever that is, as soon as you can reasonably do so. Guineas hate change and adapt slowly, so it will take them awhile to get used to the new housing. I think a commonly recommended age is around 6-8 weeks, but honestly you can do it at any age, as long as you are prepared to either lock them in the new housing for a couple weeks or every night, chase them into the housing. I've done both and definitely recommend locking them in, chasing them in every night took MONTHS, and their new coop was in the exact same building, just the next room over.

Once your guineas are adults, you may or may not be able to keep them in the same coop with your chickens. My chickens don't particularly like or enjoy when my guineas decide to roost in the chicken coop. Your experience may vary.

Extremely helpful. Thank you!

 

[3crazyboys]

I also have guineas and ducks together. I had 3 keets and 3 ducklings in a brooder together for 3-4 weeks, and when we took the ducklings and put them into the outside coop with our 4-month-old ducks, the guineas were NOT happy, so they went into the coop as well, and now, we're about a week or two into the new home situation, and they're all doing great. The guineas are always hanging out either with the ducklings they were with in the brooder, or our 3-month-old turkey when outside foraging. They have always followed the ducklings into the coop at night, we haven't had any problems with them going in when it's getting dark. They're SO cute together

Good luck!

 

[Missy197547]

Guineas are the best for bugs and ticks down fall is they are noisy but keep predators away I use to have a big problem with foxes coyotes and a bad tick problem but since I have had my guineas my problems have went down dramatically

I'm new to rural living, and raising chicks and ducks. We have 11 2 month old chicks and 2 ducks. They're doing great, free ranging and sleeping in coops at night. We have a major bug and tick problem in our area and I keep hearing guineas are the way to go. We have 12 acres, 3 of which are cleared and the rest is heavily wooded. I also have a dog and two small kids, that are getting eaten alive by bugs. Can I introduce guineas now, or wait until the birds are older? And keets or adults? Any advice would be awesome . Thank you!

Datora