Health question

[Bird are Life]

I just started raising a small flock of guineas. I noticed one being chased and treated ugly by the others then another one. Then I noticed their wattles were swollen this has happened several times and they are six months old now I’m assuming they are just maturing any information would be appreciated.

 

[Sydney65]

By "their wattles" do you mean the one being picked on or more than one bird? And is the victim male or female?
If everyone's wattles, at 6 mo the wattles shld be becoming more pronounced- bigger, thicker. But they do use these to fight. They'll grab hold and either drag the guinea around by it or take them to the ground.
General consensus is there's often one bird that everyone picks on. They chase it,pull it's feathers, block it from food. I've seen mine circle 2 fighting like teenagers, seeming to cheer them on. Sometimes it stops, sometimes they change targets,sometimes that one bird remains an outcast to one degree or another, depending on whether it stands up for it's self or not.
I have an outcast. He was much smaller than the others as a keet, & they seemed protective of him. But as he grew, he was a snot, so they quit protecting. We had to put up special shelves for him away from the others to eat and sleep. Because he was smaller, at the time he was the only one who was coordinated enough to get to those shelves.
Now, he only truly fights w/one other male, and he's the instigator. The rest just enjoy chasing him around the house so many laps a day. They still don't let him stand next to them to eat, he perches & sleeps away from the others, watches to make sure I've filled his special bowl on his shelf to eat.
He has grown to be as big as the guinea he fights with (I also have a cpl of jumbos), harasses the young ones, but oddly enough, serves as a sentry-doesn't go in until everyone else is inside, chases dawdlers back to the coop, and will watch the sky while the others graze. You wld think he'd have problems mating, but he mated his first season.
Some separate if the aggression is too bad. As I said, we didn't separate but gave him his own space in the coop.
If it's one aggressor or ring leader, then that's the one who shld get the time out in a separate area for a cpl of days to see if it changes the dynamics of the flock. Separating the victim just makes it harder for it to go back.
Hope this helps!

 

[Bird are Life]

By "their wattles" do you mean the one being picked on or more than one bird? And is the victim male or female?
If everyone's wattles, at 6 mo the wattles shld be becoming more pronounced- bigger, thicker. But they do use these to fight. They'll grab hold and either drag the guinea around by it or take them to the ground.
General consensus is there's often one bird that everyone picks on. They chase it,pull it's feathers, block it from food. I've seen mine circle 2 fighting like teenagers, seeming to cheer them on. Sometimes it stops, sometimes they change targets,sometimes that one bird remains an outcast to one degree or another, depending on whether it stands up for it's self or not.
I have an outcast. He was much smaller than the others as a keet, & they seemed protective of him. But as he grew, he was a snot, so they quit protecting. We had to put up special shelves for him away from the others to eat and sleep. Because he was smaller, at the time he was the only one who was coordinated enough to get to those shelves.
Now, he only truly fights w/one other male, and he's the instigator. The rest just enjoy chasing him around the house so many laps a day. They still don't let him stand next to them to eat, he perches & sleeps away from the others, watches to make sure I've filled his special bowl on his shelf to eat.
He has grown to be as big as the guinea he fights with (I also have a cpl of jumbos), harasses the young ones, but oddly enough, serves as a sentry-doesn't go in until everyone else is inside, chases dawdlers back to the coop, and will watch the sky while the others graze. You wld think he'd have problems mating, but he mated his first season.
Some separate if the aggression is too bad. As I said, we didn't separate but gave him his own space in the coop.
If it's one aggressor or ring leader, then that's the one who shld get the time out in a separate area for a cpl of days to see if it changes the dynamics of the flock. Separating the victim just makes it harder for it to go back.
Hope this helps!

Thank you for the info the picked on one is a lavender one the rest are pied I do not know the sex. I started feeding separately.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Thank you for the info the picked on one is a lavender one the rest are pied I do not know the sex. I started feeding separately.

Can you take a picture of their wattles?