Introducing Young to Old

[GlennLee]

First of all, I should inform you this is my first time with poultry of any kind and thank you in advance for any wise advice.

I have 16 French Guinea Fowl keets - one week old today; we have some time to work on this.

In addition, I was just given an adult male - who I think is a Pearl. He (Henry) is already living in the coop, a converted utility shed, and will be confined there for a week. The keets are in a brooding box in another building.

Henry will be confined in the utility shed for a week and then in the utility shed and enclosed attached run for another two weeks. At this point, the keets will be 3 weeks old, but still brooding,

Any ideas on how and when to make the introduction? Should Henry be separated at first? Maybe introduce him to a few at a time? At what point should they be introduced? There is no power to the coop, so I cannot move the brooding area out there. I can close off the utility shed from the enclosed run and I do have a dog crate if I need to use that.

Thank you!

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Hope cold is it? The sooner you can move the crate out there the better IMO so they can start seeing and getting used to each other. In the meantime Henry is figuring out that the coop is his kingdom and as more time goes by I think he will take longer to get used to the keets and be okay with them in his domain.

 

[GlennLee]

We are dealing with day temperatures in the 70's and night temperatures in the 40's and 50's for at least the next two weeks. It would be doable if we had electricity to the building, but we don't. I'll try to get them in there as soon as it warms up and they are off the need for a heater. Thanks for the input! Much appreciated.

 

[Starseed]

On the other hand, guineas are flock animals. Henry is probably missing his flock and will probably be very accepting toward a new flock. I think the danger would be in letting your keets grow into adults before introduction. Then they will be an established flock and view Henry as an outsider, and could potentially harm or kill him.

I agree though, the sooner you can move them out there, the better. Wait until they are at least 6 weeks.

 

[SueT]

I have had several batches of guineas, and the adults, who were free range, would first meet the keets who were in a pen. After about 2 weeks of talking through the fence, I let the youngsters out to free range as well and they would integrate, and it was always successful that way. Can you divide the run at first?

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I have had several batches of guineas, and the adults, who were free range, would first meet the keets who were in a pen. After about 2 weeks of talking through the fence, I let the youngsters out to free range as well and they would integrate, and it was always successful that way. Can you divide the run at first?

Do you mean that the keets were two weeks old when they were able to integrate? Or were they already a little further along before you put them in the pen?

 

[SueT]

Do you mean that the keets were two weeks old when they were able to integrate? Or were they already a little further along before you put them in the pen?

They were about 6-8 weeks old...they had 2 weeks of "no touch" introduction. Since they were integrating into a free range situation, they had to be big enough to release before integrating. If all the birds are penned up, maybe you can do it at an earlier age. There are a lot of excellent forums on this subject, mostly about chickens.

 

[GlennLee]

The way the run is connected to the coop, it can't be divided unfortunately. That would be ideal though. I'll probably put the keets (in dog crates) in the coop for a while before letting them out. Hoping to do that in another two weeks if the evenings warm up enough - no electricity and we're going to be dropping down to low 50's for the next 10 days at least.