Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[BlueShadow]

Unfortunately you can't unlearn the guineas about thinking they are the same as the chickens. The best solution if you really want to keep guineas without them terrorizing your chickens is to start over without raising the guineas with chickens. Give them their own area and have enough of them (minimum of 10) that they can satisfy their flock needs.

And I suppose the next generation of guineas, even though they were raised by a guinea and don't think they are the same as chickens, still learns to pick on chickens. Sigh.

Seriously, these gangsters and their attitudes are making ducks and their slobbish obsession with water and all things mucky look like an easy problem to solve.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
this is my plan my next go round.

 

[R2elk]

And I suppose the next generation of guineas, even though they were raised by a guinea and don't think they are the same as chickens, still learns to pick on chickens. Sigh.

Seriously, these gangsters and their attitudes are making ducks and their slobbish obsession with water and all things mucky look like an easy problem to solve.

I kept the keets from my original problem guineas but did not keep the problem guineas to raise them so the second generation are the ones that are fine with my other poultry. If you keep the problem guineas and allow them to raise the new keets then yes they will teach the keets to behave the same way.

 

[duluthralphie]

I kept the keets from my original problem guineas but did not keep the problem guineas to raise them so the second generation are the ones that are fine with my other poultry. If you keep the problem guineas and allow them to raise the new keets then yes they will teach the keets to behave the same way.

I never allow the Guineas to raise any young. I have let them try to brood eggs but something always gets them.

Even integrating the young with the old at a year of age brings the older ones bad habits into my flock. The main bad habit I have is playing on the highway.

I think though I have enough guineas so they keep the fighting in the family.

 

[BlueShadow]

Why don't you let guineas raise any young? I like to let a hen raise the babies when possible, it saves me quite a bit of time. (This was the first time with guineas, but my chickens have raised several broods of young). Last year, the guinea keets were an unplanned surprise and I had a baby of my own soaking up all my time, so raising the keets myself really was not an option.

We also lost most of our guinea hens sitting on nests to predators. Can you move a guinea nest so that mama stays on it? We did not have luck with that the one time we tried. This mama guinea had her nest in the bushes right in front of our house, possibly the only location on our property where she was safe from predators. We caught them up the first morning they appeared (we were very surprised to see them) and put them in our second overflow bird pen, the granary in the barn. I was pleased with how mama raised them, especially when I let them out at a month of age. She kept them close, kept them safe, and taught them how to eat bugs and be little gangsters. (If you are interested, this is their story. Cute guinea pics https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/lavender-guinea-keets-2016)

 

[duluthralphie]

I have not had luck with them sitting on nests.

If they did I would run them and the keets into a building and covered pen. My weather even in the summer is not good for keets. We have cool mornings and the grass is really wet with dew. I doubt the keets could handle the wetness.

They never had problems learning to chase bugs. I thin they enjoy the torturing of them.

The young Guineas I have were hatched in May/June and they have never been outside of a cage or pen....except the few that have escaped and I had to catch and return to the mob.

 

[guineapeeps]

Why don't you let guineas raise any young?  I like to let a hen raise the babies when possible, it saves me quite a bit of time.  (This was the first time with guineas, but my chickens have raised several broods of young).  Last year, the guinea keets were an unplanned surprise and I had a baby of my own soaking up all my time, so raising the keets myself really was not an option.

We also lost most of our guinea hens sitting on nests to predators.  Can you move a guinea nest so that mama stays on it?  We did not have luck with that the one time we tried.  This mama guinea had her nest in the bushes right in front of our house, possibly the only location on our property where she was safe from predators. We caught them up the first morning they appeared (we were very surprised to see them) and put them in  our second overflow bird pen, the granary in the barn.  I was pleased with how mama raised them, especially when I let them out at a month of age.  She kept them close, kept them safe, and taught them how to eat bugs and be little gangsters. (If you are interested, this is their story.  Cute guinea pics https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/lavender-guinea-keets-2016)

I apologize in advance for this lengthy post......
I have had some luck moving Guineas on their nest...I would say I have had a 50-75% success rate, which is better than their chances if I let them try and hatch them outside the coop. you might try this method and see if it works for you....the worst that will happen is that they'll abandon their nest then you'll have to decide if you want to incubate the eggs or stick them under a broody hen. I've actually done it a few ways but the premise is the same. First, I get a large Rubbermaid bin with a llid and cut a hole in one end. I fill it with straw and then add some grass or material that is similar to what they have their nest laid in. Now from here, I've transferred the bird a few different ways. The first time, I waited until after dark and snuck up on the nest and grabbed the bird and all her eggs and stuck her in the bin. (You have to be very quick about it or she will get away and run off.) Then, I cover the hole with a blanket and take her back to a completely dark coop. You may want to block off part of the opening so she can't get out but can still get air. She will be forced to stay in all night and hopefully decide this is her new nest. The other times I've done it, I have found the nest before the hen went broody and has not yet started laying on the eggs. I've found this to be much more successful, but you need to find the nest earlier in the laying/nesting process. After the hen has finished laying her egg for the day and has left, I get the same Rubbermaid bin filled with straw and grass and transfer the eggs to it and place it directly over where the nest was. I try to cover it with surrounding material to hide it as much as possible. Usually, the hen will go back into the bin the next day and continue to lay her eggs. I willl not move the bin until she has gone broody and starts laying on the eggs. Then, again, after dark, I cover the hole in the bin and move her to the coop. Now there is a catch to this! Each time I've done this, I end up having to carry the bin out to the old nesting spot during the day and move them back into the coop at night because when I open the coop, I find that the hen runs to her old nesting spot. So, every morning I carry the bin to the nesting spot and the hens jump right in. Every night, after dark, I go get the hen bin (I call it the PNU...portable nesting unit) and carry it back in. I have locked the hen and the bin in a smaller area and keep her confined the whole time and that works ok but sometimes the hen is not satisfied until she can return to the old nest during the day. I know people will ask why I spend so much time and effort instead of just incubating the eggs. I do this because the 25-28 days I spend moving the hen is much less time than I'd spend raising the keets, plus I find the hens do a better job than I do at raising free range Guineas and they seem to be much more savvy to predators!

 

[pearlGuinea]

The way guineapeeps hatches eggs sounds like a good way to protect the hen and her keets. The both times my guinea hen tried to hatch some, something got her eggs and she lost a few feathers. So I think guineapeeps way to hatch keets is the best way if you what to use your guinea hen to do it.

 

[BlueShadow]

@guineapeeps

Great ideas, thank you. I think I would take a 50% success rate, it is far better than the 6 failed nests, missing feathers, and 1 dead guinea hen we got last year for the 1 successful nest.

 

[guineapeeps]

@guineapeeps


Great ideas, thank you. I think I would take a 50% success rate, it is far better than the 6 failed nests, missing feathers, and 1 dead guinea hen we got last year for the 1 successful nest.

I've found that my Guineas don't really like the normal nesting boxes that I've put in the coop in the past. Now, I don't even use any of those traditional boxes anymore. Instead, I put plastic wheelbarrows filled with straw in the coop and find that almost all my hens use them. I have only 2 hens that even try to lay eggs outside the coop now that I have those wheelbarrows in the coop. The only bad thing is that the keets can't get out very well so I squeeze some food and water into the wheelbarrow when they start to hatch and then take the keets out after a few days when all of them are done hatching. You might try that and see if it helps too.
Here is a picture of two of my hens on eggs in one of the wheelbarrows: