Raising Guinea Fowl 101

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Does anyone know if Guineas and Peafowl will get along? I have a Peahen, she is a little over a year old and A male soon to come, same age.. In about a month,I will be getting 2 Guinea keets. I eventually want to free-range them, but was wondering if they would be alright in my peafowl runwith them when they are bigger? It is a little smaller than a 30x30 run, so it is spacious..

Thanks in advance.
 
I've got a couple quick questions! (great thread by the way!)
We have moved further back on our farm into one of our homes that we used to rent, therefore we are having to move the chicken coop - wow what a process that will be!!!! Its big enough to hold 52 birds so you can imagine! I also have a smaller brooder coop. I have planned on getting some keets at the farmers market from a local breeder who will be there tomorrow with some week old little ones. I had thought I would house them in the Brooder/coop at first and then when they were older move them to the big coop with the chickens, just like I do my baby chicks when I raise them. The pens surrounding the brooder/coop is right next to the Big Coop and Chicken Yard, and the chickens also free range throughout the day, so when I raise chicks they get to know each other through the fencing until they are old enough to be introduced. I had hoped I could do the same with the Keets. But now I'm wondering with how hard it is to get them to be trained to "come home" if this isnt such a good idea? Seems I'll be training them to one coop, and then have to be re-training them to another. Whats your advice? Also with them being a week old, and the temps in the 90's during the day with a heat index of 100 - 108 and anywhere between 70 - 88 degrees at night what would your suggestion be with heating them at this age?
 
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Also...with them being so small, I'll have to house them separately due to the fact I cant have the chickens picking on them...I'm confused as what to do since I have grown hens already!
 
Your coop/brooder/pen/yard set up sounds nice! What a project moving all of it tho!

IMO, the only thing you'll really have to put much time and energy into is the transitional brain reprogramming time (aka coop lockdown period) that they'll need in the big coop that they will be sharing with the chickens. You want to make sure the keets' little pea brains know THAT coop is home, or they may keep returning to the brooder coop, or choose to roost on top of it or in the trees instead.

So here's my suggestion:
You may want to section off an area in the big coop just for the keets to stay in after they are about 4wks old (instead of the usual 6wk age that's recommended by many), and then keep them in their new section of the big coop for about 6 more wks (so they can get a little more close contact with the chickens, see them come and go all day, but are separated by wire still), and then after the coop lockdown period start letting them out into the coop and the chicken yard with some of your gentler chickens, but be sure to herd them in every evening around the same time to establish a routine (if they don't willingly follow all the chickens in on their own). Hopefully you can establish the routine of going in before they figure out they can fly out of the chicken yard! You might not have any issues at all getting them to "coop up" if they can learn the routine from the chickens. Routine is key with Guineas, so the more diligent you are from the get-go the more it will pay off in the long run for you. Hopefully they will integrate just fine with all your chickens and just blend in and go with the flow. Raising them with a few chicks that are close in age may help too.

Now, having said all that... please (if you haven't already) read all the previous threads about aggression issues some poultry owners have with co-mingled flocks. Hopefully you don't have any of those issues since you have a spacious coop and yard, and you let everyone free range, but it never hurts to be prepared just in case you do have any problems, especially during breeding/laying season.

As far as brooder temps go... IMO, you may want to just provide a low watt bulb (40-60watt) in a brooder lamp hood for the keets just at night for a little while, maybe up until they are 3-4 weeks of age at most. They definitely don't need the heat during the day, so no need to waste the electricity!

Good luck, hope all goes well/smoothly for you. Post some pics if you can!
 
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Also...with them being so small, I'll have to house them separately due to the fact I cant have the chickens picking on them...I'm confused as what to do since I have grown hens already!

I have a very similar set up.I have Ducks, Guineas ,and Chickens that all run the place. When the young get big enough, I open there pen doors and let them have at it. I also raise mine with the asst. chicks of similar size from day one.
 

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