Male guineas protective of keets??

[esavvymom]

We're new at this...learning as we go along. We moved our keets into a protective area within our coop...6 keets- now about 6 weeks old. They have a space 4'x4'. They seem to be doing great with the older birds (3 males- about 4-5 yrs old). They only get skiddish when we come in. When the adult birds come in, they just go about their business (or stop and watch them).

My question is...our "alpha male" adult seems to be rather protective of the keets. If he is near the coop when we go in to tend to things, he comes over. Usually he sneaks up on us and runs at whoever is in there. At first, he just went after my 9-yr old (twice). Now my son won't go out there alone. But today, he even tried chasing me off. Didn't work. I had a big walking stick with me. But the darn thing sneaks up from behind too....so this is becoming a 2-man job so someone can watch your back!

is this normal? Will it go down a bit once they are more integrated into the group? We're going to open up the run for the keets later this weekend, but they will still be separate from the adults for at least another 4-6 weeks I think (is that right?? It would put them around 12 weeks old- we're thinking after a vacation we are taking in September. Don't want to do it before, since we'll be gone.).


We realized today that at least ONE of the keets is a female....the first in the group in a while. (Heard the very distinctive "buck-wheat" sound while we were working nearby. Not sure if we have more, but at least one has found her 'voice'.) Could that be causing part of the problem too??

 

[Sandshaven]

I really don't have advice since none of my guineas act much differently during hatching.. Even when I'm shaking babies out of them.
But I am curious how wild your guineas are normally? Without keets?

 

[esavvymom]

I really don't have advice since none of my guineas act much differently during hatching.. Even when I'm shaking babies out of them.
But I am curious how wild your guineas are normally? Without keets?

if you mean do they normally go after us, before keets came along, no. They would steer clear of us. They follow my husband (not in a threatening way...more in a "he's the ultimate ALPHA male" sort of way. But about a week after putting the keets into the coop, the alpha male seemed to be more protective and chases us smaller people. Today, I was out at the garden nearby, and they wouldn't leave the coop for a long time. I guess he was making sure I was not going to come in.

And now to top it off, we have to watch out for a skunk in our yard. Lovely! And our yard is fenced, so have to figure out how he got in, or if he has a den insde.

 

[Sandshaven]

I hope they calm down for you.
I would watch out for the skunk.. they like eggs

 

[mayor]

hope you loose the skunk and keep the eggs ! LOL