HELP! My Guinea is Attacking My Hen

[Lady Badlands]

I have 23 9-month old laying hens of various breeds, one Roo and one Guinea cock. I got rid of all my other 9 Guineas because they would act like gang members, terrorizing my hens. One Guinea remained and he has been pretty well-behaved. However, just now my husband found him chasing one of my Barred Plymouth Rocks. He grabbed onto her tail feathers while she ran screaming. He ended up pulling a bunch of her feathers out. My husband ran him into a pen and locked him in while we went to search for our little sweetie. She seems traumatized and didn't want to go back in the coop. She kept extending her neck and her neck would tremble. I held her and stroked her and gave her some bread and then I put her up on the roost with the other Barred Rock one one side and the Roo on the other. The Roo has had to do some running side tackles to the Guinea recently because the Guinea is harrassing the hens.

My husband thought maybe the Guinea is trying to mate the hens. I have no idea why his behavior is so reprehensible. He's 9 months old, also, and grew up from day one with the hens. Does anyone know anything about this kind of thing, had experience with it, or have advice? I'm pretty disturbed about it.

Thanks so much!

 

[Lady Badlands]

Please, can anyone help me?

 

[Lesa]

I really wanted a mixed flock of guinea and chickens, but I read way too many posts like yours. It would appear that it difficult to get the two breeds to live together peacefully. Hopefully, someone else will chime in. Good luck!

 

[zazouse]

I found that guineas that are caged with chickens tend to get aggressive ,where as free ranges get along pretty well with a few fight between a rooster and guinea.


I have a group of lavenders and white guineas that are in love with my barred rock roo, they follow him everywhere.

 

[MuranoFarms]

Well....it is that time of the year for guineas! I think you'd have better luck if you would have kept a female. He might need some girlfriends. My guineas are a little bit weird to the chickens but not mean. Then again, one of my BCM roos is as big as the guineas.

Maybe you need bigger chickens!

 

[cheraboo]

My neighbor has a small flock of chickens, ducks and one guinea. The guinea pretty much keeps to itself. I had to laugh today because the Indian Runner was chasing the guinea and it flew up to the powerline. Not sure if it's a male or female.

The guinea comes into our yard all the time, no big deal. The other night my neighbor came over to get it back into her yard. My kids were outside and she apologized to them about the guinea. Jacob told her it was fine - which it is. How the heck can you think you can completely control free range birds. Oh, and he had to tell her I named the dang bird Gus so I'm sure she thinks I'm a total nutcase. I couldn't keep saying "the guinea" so I named it