Intergrating new Guineas?

[OkChickenNerd]

I have two older guineas out of an original 8 and i am trying to intergrate three newbies into their group. The two i have are french guineas and are both female. The three new ones are purple guineas and the sexs aee unknown at this time thou i know one is a female atleast cause i hear buckwheat from their pen all the time but cant catch the culprit. So i was wondering how do I introduce my one year old ladies with their 2 and a half month old friends? When is it appropriete to put them together? I have been trying to give them enough time to get big enough to fend the larger ones off if need be as well as the hens. So far I have them moved into a small 4x4 cage that I keep inside the run where they all have plenty of time to get to know each other. They have been in this introduction cage for about a month or so. Am I going aboit this in the right way?.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I know nothing about guineas except that they "buckwheat" and it drove my mother batty when I was little.


Can you let them out in the run and keep an eye on the older ones? Are the younger close in size to the older?

 

[OkChickenNerd]

Well I think I am going to wait till my new chicken coop is built at the begining of next month then I am going to make everyone live together. The older guineas already live happily with the chickens so it is just intergrating the young in with the older guineas and the chickens. I guess one step at a time get them in there with the adult guineas.

 

[Okie Amazon]

Sounds like a good way to get them integrated. When you do cut them loose together, stick around to make sure evryone gets along (aside from normal dominance establishment stuff).

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
Sounds right to me, plenty of exposure, but protected. I'd try letting the Royal Purples out of their cage (but still contained to the run) when they turn 12 wks old, but be ready to separate everybody. And to be safe I would just let them out together for short periods at first and supervise them, not just turn them all loose and hope it works out. Sometimes it can help to change things around in the coop/pen/run (or add new things) so it distracts the adult birds or takes them out of their element a little, that way they do not focus on the youngsters as much or get overly protective of certain areas in the pen. If you don't already have 2 feeders and 2 waterers, that always helps too so there's no aggression or bullying in those areas.

Good luck, hope it goes smoothly

 

[OkChickenNerd]

I saw your post on my other thread guess i will close this one thanks for the help!