Integrating Guinea Keets with Chickens?

[Arya28]

Hi!

We have 4 four-month old guinea keets who we would like to be able to integrate with our chickens. We have a few different flocks of chickens, but are thinking we would like to integrate them in with our hen pen, which has 1 standard rooster, a couple bantam roosters, and about thirteen hens. Would this be possible? We don't want our keets to bully our chickens, or our chickens to hurt the keets. We have read that guineas can be big bullies to chickens; but we are hoping the keets are young enough they won't completely take charge of them.

Right now, because of how we have their pens set up, they have been able to interact with each other a bit, without hurting each other. We have a big open space in the barn for the hens, and we built a smaller pen in there for the guinea keets to go, so that they could kind of grow used to each other for a little bit. They have been in there side-by-side for about a month and a half.

Don't get me wrong, I love them, but the guinea keets are ABSOLUTELY CRAZY and so I am not sure how integrating them in with the chickens will go. Right now they aren't free ranging because they are in a new location (until they are used to it), so we have tunnels and pens hooked up outside of the barn that the chickens can go in and out of as they please. Would this set up work out for that?

How have you integrated your guineas in with your chickens? Has it worked?

Any thoughts and experiences will be appreciated!

 

[Chaos18]

Sorry I can't offer much help. My guineas were raised by a broody chicken so they never needed any integration. The guineas free range no problem with the chickens and even still go in the coop at night. I haven't had any bullying issues either (guineas are 15 weeks old) as the guineas will follow one of my roosters around all the time when free ranging. Maybe if you pick a day when you know you will be home all day and just give it a whirl. That way you'll be able to step in quickly if there are any problems.

 

[R2elk]

Sorry I can't offer much help. My guineas were raised by a broody chicken so they never needed any integration. The guineas free range no problem with the chickens and even still go in the coop at night. I haven't had any bullying issues either (guineas are 15 weeks old) as the guineas will follow one of my roosters around all the time when free ranging. Maybe if you pick a day when you know you will be home all day and just give it a whirl. That way you'll be able to step in quickly if there are any problems.

It is quite common for guineas to be okay with chickens right up until their first breeding season. When your guineas go into their breeding season next spring things are very likely to change. Guinea's have different mannerisms than do chickens and the chickens are not capable of understanding what is going on. In the spring, the racing and attacks from behind and feather pulling will all begin. It is all part of being a guinea.

 

[Arya28]

Thank you both for your answers!

So we actually just decided to give it a go, and I kid you not, no one even cared. They just kept eating and drinking around each other. We did it a little more towards evening so that if it went awry they would be going to bed soon. A couple hens poked at them a few times, but other than that they were totally good for a couple hours.

We know at least three out of the four of them are girls, so maybe the won’t be as rough about breeding since they’re girls? I don’t know but if things were to get too bad we’d separate them.

Thanks again!!