Once Moved, Will My Guineas Stay With the Chicken Flock?

[ChickensinAfrica]

We have a potentially broody hen. Poor girl was sitting on an avocado seed today! In the near future, we will be moving to a large property where there would be many snakes, mainly deadly snakes. I have heard that guineas will often not stay in an area if moved there as an adult, and we can see the great benefit of having adult guineas from the outset when we move. So my thinking is, if we place fertile guinea fowl eggs under our hen who is wanting to sit, and she hatches and raises them, when we move, will they stay with the chicken flock no matter how much space they have to explore? So if any guinea experts can help with this question, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks so much.

 

[ChickensinAfrica]

I've just realized that I did not make something clear above. The potentially broody hen is a chicken, not a guinea fowl hen. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[R2elk]

I've just realized that I did not make something clear above. The potentially broody hen is a chicken, not a guinea fowl hen. Sorry for any confusion.

I assumed your were talking about putting the eggs under a broody chicken. Keets that are hatched and raised at a location are far more likely to know that location as "home" than adult guineas that are relocated there.

Adult guineas can be relocated but must be confined for approximately 6 weeks to convince them that the new location is now "home".

Of course there are no guarantees with guineas but raising keets is the easiest way of relocating guineas.

 

[Flockandfowl46]

R2elk is right I wouldn't do any less than 6 weeks confinement they are hard to relocate just like peacocks

 

[ChickensinAfrica]

Thank you. So I'm guessing this would be the case even if they are raised by a chicken?

 

[R2elk]

Thank you. So I'm guessing this would be the case even if they are raised by a chicken?

Yes. I do use broody chickens to hatch keets but I do not allow the chickens to raise the keets. If the keets are raised by a chicken they will imprint and when they grow up they will not recognize that there is a difference between them and chickens. They still will have their inherited guinea ways about them and they will use those manners on the chickens. The chickens will not understand why the guineas are acting the way they are and can become very stressed by the guineas.

Because I raise my keets separate from the chickens, they never get imprinted and when they grow up they recognize that chickens are different from them. By doing it this way, I can let my guineas and other poultry free range in the same area at the same time without there being any interaction between the different kinds of poultry.

Good luck.

 

[siamese]

We didn't let our Guineas out after we got them for almost 10 months. I got them as keets in late July, shortly after that a wildfire broke out and we were on evacuation alert thru to late Sept. So I decided that we wouldn't let them out until spring. So in March we let them out. the first week was very interesting!! I will post later about that. Anyhow I can call them for their millet and they race over if they're not already on perches. They love it!! So I would say yes they will stay with them.

 

[ChickensinAfrica]

Thank you for the above information. That helps. So do you have any idea how we can have adult guineas foraging for snakes as soon as we get there? It sounds like we'd have to keep them shut up for quite awhile before letting them run everywhere so they won't take off. And since we can't use the chickens as "family" to keep them there, I'm wondering what we can do.

 

[siamese]

Well I think your hooped. You have to keep them in as stated above, 6 weeks. Due to my situation last summer, wildfires, we kept them in much longer. Your going to have to hunt the snakes your selves. We have adult Guineas that catch and kill mice. There are rattlesnakes around however I have never seen one. It is a desert area, lots of tumbleweeds and sagebrush.

 

[red horse ranch]

Don't count on guineas to kill all your snakes. They may warn you that there is a snake around but I don't know that my guineas have ever killed one. We live in rattlesnake country and we still have to kill one occasionally that the guineas weren't even aware of. And I've had bull snakes get in a nest of eggs and eat them while the hen and her mate stands there and watches.

p.s. I do let my chicken hens raise baby guineas and I rarely have interaction problems between guineas and chickens. They all live together in a big henhouse year round. In an ideal situation they would probably be better raised by their own kind. But most of us don't have ideal setups for it. @R2elk is right in what he says about keeping them separate but I wanted to let you know that it doesn't always have to be done that way.