my crazy flock

[aliciabug]

I currently have 3 adult completely free range guinea fowl. Two are males and one female and they are 1 year old. I bought 6 day old keets 12 weeks ago. I also successfully incubated two eggs we collected from our one adult female, Gracie. They are now four weeks old. Gracie also disappeared many weeks ago to appear last week with four keets, which are now about 7 to 9 days old. My one original male, Kevin follows Gracie and her babies throughout the day, helping keeping them together as they stroll the yard and the fields on either side of my property. We have decided to let nature completely take its course with this group. As, my 3 originals are completely free range except in the winter, we keep them in the garage at night. I have a large pen with a coop inside. In the coop are the 12 week old 6 keets. Yesterday, I couldn't take it anymore and removed the two 4 week old keets and put them into a small cage and kept them along the side of the coop. They seemed to want to go into the coop with the older birds. I was a bit afraid that I would come back to them dead. So today, I moved the two four week olds into the coop but still in their cage. They seem to be happier and the 12 week olds don't seem to mind them. How long do you think I should keep the 4 week olds in their cage inside the coop? The cage is kinda small and they can't really fly which they were doing before I moved them outside. I was thinking 2 weeks because that is about the time I was going to let the 12 week olds go free range but my husband thinks that may be too long in the cage and a bit cruel. Man, there is such a learning curve with these babies, especially for us since we are new to the whole lifestyle of country living.

 

[GitaBooks]

Congratulations on all the guineas! Sounds awesome!

I would suggest introducing them after a week or two of getting to know one another. Make sure they are fully feathered, as this will protect them from bullying better.
Also, make sure there are multiple roosts, feeders and waterers and plenty of room to get away if chased. Waiting a couple weeks would also give the keets time to learn that the coop is home and not just escape and try to run away.
If the cage seems a bit small, you could try taking them into a small run for daily exercise or hanging up treats for them to play with to prevent boredom.

Best of luck with your keets!

 

[aliciabug]

Thank you for your input GitaBooks....I actually let them out into the coop late yesterday when everyone was getting their last feeding...So today, they are doing okay...They are sticking together and keeping away from the other birds as much as possible. The older birds don't seem to go after them but they are obviously 'gun shy' so I think they may have gotten pecked a bit overnight but the coop is big enough and this weekend we are going to start letting the older birds out to free range during the day so that will give them a lot more time away from them.