Help!! Boy Guineas will not stop fighting!!

[Snowboy]

I have 3 male guineas that have lived in piece for 2 years now, but now two of them fight like crazy. I feel they will kill one another. I also feel like I am watching a cock fight. I do not know what has changed but the fighting has to stop. I really have no idea what to do other then to separate them. There inside pen is a total of 16 square feet and I have heard that two feet per bird, so that leaves me with 10 square left so I wondered if purchasing 5 or just 3 or how ever many females would help this situation?

 

[PeepsCA]

Do you have other poultry that the boys could be fighting over? It's breeding season, and the males naturally get stupid during this time. Adding some Guinea Hens may help, and more than 3 Hens would keep them well preoccupied, but you need 4 sq feet per bird in the coop, double that in their pen, not 2 sq ft per bird. Free them ranging so they can burn off their pent up energy/aggressions may help too.

 

[Snowboy]

Sorry I am getting back so late, but yes I do have other poultry, I have Ducks and Geese, I have tried, literally forever trying to free range them and they just love to chase people down the street, so that's near impossible, the fighting as of now has stopped dramatically, however it is common to see them fighting once a day.

 

[PeepsCA]

Glad things have mellowed out some, but even tho breeding season is winding down (and their hormone spikes are mellowing out) I still say adding some Guinea Hens to the mix would keep your boys well occupied, and also feeling like they are part of an actual flock, instead of the dynamic trio with huge chips on their shoulders.

You could try putting up temporary fencing with shiny/reflective bird tape, old CDs, tin pie pans, shiny reflective pinwheels etc (basically all the stuff commonly used to scare wild birds away from gardens and fruit trees) and placing new scary shiny things in their pathway to the street that they will shy away from, that will hopefully help keep them in the yard and from chasing people... even the motion activated sprinklers work well (really well actually, lol). But ultimately to have happier Guineas they really do need some free range time every day or a really large pen to burn off their extra energy and aggression in, as well as some girlfriends (of their own kind).

 

[JLeigh]

I was told to try this with guineas, and didn't, but have tried it with chickens and it works like a charm with them. Still haven't tried with guineas, but I intend to.

Get an umbrella and when they start to go where you don't want them to go, (if you can be there when they go there), take the umbrella and open/close it as fast as you can. Hubby said, and I agree, that it sounds like a HUGE bird flapping its wings.

My chickens were getting on my porch (of course they did - - I was feeding them treats on the porch like an idiot, but live and learn) and leaving literally 30-40 poop piles everyday. I was cleaning the porch every day. I tried the umbrella and after two times in one day, it worked beautifully. I did have to reinforce the training once after about a week, but now they avoid the porch at all costs.

It just might work with guineas. I hate to frighten them, but it's better than the stewpot or re-homing. (Hide your face behind the umbrella so that maybe they don't know it's you doing it? He!!, I dunno.) I hated to take an hour a day to clean the porch. Now I don't have to.

Moral: Try everything within reason - you never know what might work.

 

[Joel Brasier]

I am now having this same issue. I have 4 females and 2 males. One of the males doesn’t fight back. They are free ranged during the day. It is so bad I had to put the male that doesn’t fight back in my duck run. I don’t know why he is not fighting back.Could the oldest (the one that doesn’t fight back) be sick and weak?

 

[R2elk]

I was told to try this with guineas, and didn't, but have tried it with chickens and it works like a charm with them. Still haven't tried with guineas, but I intend to.

Get an umbrella and when they start to go where you don't want them to go, (if you can be there when they go there), take the umbrella and open/close it as fast as you can. Hubby said, and I agree, that it sounds like a HUGE bird flapping its wings.

My chickens were getting on my porch (of course they did - - I was feeding them treats on the porch like an idiot, but live and learn) and leaving literally 30-40 poop piles everyday. I was cleaning the porch every day. I tried the umbrella and after two times in one day, it worked beautifully. I did have to reinforce the training once after about a week, but now they avoid the porch at all costs.

It just might work with guineas. I hate to frighten them, but it's better than the stewpot or re-homing. (Hide your face behind the umbrella so that maybe they don't know it's you doing it? He!!, I dunno.) I hated to take an hour a day to clean the porch. Now I don't have to.

Moral: Try everything within reason - you never know what might work.

The guinea master @PeepsCA would run at her guineas flapping a big bath towel whenever they ventured out of their designated area. If you make the guineas uncomfortable when they are where you do not want them to be, they will learn to avoid that area.

 

[R2elk]

I am now having this same issue. I have 4 females and 2 males. One of the males doesn’t fight back. They are free ranged during the day. It is so bad I had to put the male that doesn’t fight back in my duck run. I don’t know why he is not fighting back.Could the oldest (the one that doesn’t fight back) be sick and weak?

One of the reasons to have a minimum of 10 guineas in your flock is so that the in-fighting can be spread around. Even then it is not uncommon for one guinea to be the odd man out and not be completely accepted into the flock.