Male Guinea Fowl attacking chicken hen

[Birdo19]

Hello, I have a male Guinea fowl that is housed with my flock of 15 hens. They have been living together in harmony since October but all of a sudden the Guinea is attacking one of my girls. Unfortunately I was unable to see how it all started but I noticed the Guinea pecking and jumping on top of my hen. The hen was bleeding in multiple spots and panting, so I took her out and isolated her overnight. She is doing very well today and we reintroduced her to the flock. The Guinea fowl keeps following her around, almost to the point of restricting her from joining the others. I have not seen aggressive behavior yet but I’m worried it will happen again. He only seems interested in this particular chicken, and he will not let up. Has anyone else experience this?

I also wanted to give some backstory as to why I have a Guinea housed with my chickens. We had a flock of 10 Guinea fowl which we kept mostly wild. Unfortunately we have too many predators and they gradually started getting picked off to the point only one Guinea fowl was left. We felt sorry for it and knew it would not survive alone for long, so we put it in with our hens. So far we have had absolutely no issues with him, and he’s actually protected my girls on multiple occasions.

 

[R2elk]

The best thing you can do for that guinea and your chicken flock is to rehome it to someone who already has a large flock of guineas.

 

[Theorrin]

guinea are butch birds and aggression is normal with them. they are territorial. was he raised with your birds?

 

[Isadora]

Poor guinea. He needs some guinea friends. If you don't plan on getting any more of his kind, I would rehome him asap. It's not going to get better.

 

[Birdo19]

guinea are butch birds and aggression is normal with them. they are territorial. was he raised with your birds?

They were raised together, yes

 

[Theorrin]

They were raised together, yes

it can make them more tolerable of others but not always. id keep them separate and get him some friends of his own or see if someone else might take him

 

[Birdo19]

Poor guinea. He needs some guinea friends. If you don't plan on getting any more of his kind, I would rehome him asap. It's not going to get better.

Yes, it’s sad all his friends are gone. I loved them. We considered getting more but I hate to do it if the predators will just continuously pick them off ☹

 

[R2elk]

Yes, it’s sad all his friends are gone. I loved them. We considered getting more but I hate to do it if the predators will just continuously pick them off ☹

It really helps to keep them in a secure coop of their own at night and to not let the hens go broody on hidden nests.

 

[Birdo19]

It really helps to keep them in a secure coop of their own at night and to not let the hens go broody on hidden nests.

Funny enough, we actually built them their own coop to roost and eat in. They however decided not to roost inside of it and that’s unfortunately what led to their demise. They were kept inside of it for several weeks to establish where “home” was. Unfortunately that did not work for us. Any suggestions on helping with that if we do decide to try again?

 

[R2elk]

Funny enough, we actually built them their own coop to roost and eat in. They however decided not to roost inside of it and that’s unfortunately what led to their demise. They were kept inside of it for several weeks to establish where “home” was. Unfortunately that did not work for us. Any suggestions on helping with that if we do decide to try again?

I trained my guineas to be herded. Every evening I would herd them into the coop. The few times I had one that thought it should roost outside of the coop, I kept after them until they gave up.

Eventually all of them would go in the coop at night on their own except for hens on their hidden nests. Those I would have to individually herd in.