Raising Guinea with year old chickens

[ChaycheeB]

My husband and I currently have 10 hens and a rooster. We were interested in possibly getting a couple guinea hens. We have a brooder we used for the chicks last year when we got them and figured we'd have to put the guineas in it at first. But worried about the transfer to the coop when it was time... if the chickens are already a year old will they beat up the guinea while they are still smaller? I guess I should of led with-- I am a city girl who married country and I am loving it, but I do not have a lot of experience yet, so if I use the wrong terms/words for any of this I apologize!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Percheron chick]

I didn't have any problem when I did it. I added 9 guineas to a flock of 14 hens and 1 rooster (6 months to 2 years). Put them in an enclosed area in the coop when they came out of the brooder at 6 weeks. After about 2 weeks they started flying over the top of the pen. Took the pen down. They continued to stay in the coop and would not wander out into the run or freerange for another 2-3 weeks when the hens went out. A couple of them finally slipped out the door when I let the hens out. I thought that was it but they hung out and returned with the hens at bed time. By 3 months, I would just open the door and let them out with the hens. For the most part they all hang together as a sub group but they usually aren't far from the hens when freeranging and they almost always return to the coop at night. A few times (3-4 in a year) they have been up in the rafters in the barn at dusk and haven't come down but all present and accounted for in the morning. I think because they were put out with the chickens at such a young age, they developed some chicken tendencies and aren't as wild as they could of been.

 

[ChaycheeB]

Nice! I have also been reading on here that it is best to get larger number of guineas... we were looking to get probably 4 at the most, would that be a bad idea?

 

[Percheron chick]

Are you getting them for tick control? If you are, more is better. I wouldn't go less than 4. The larger the group of keets, the easier it is on them to integrate as well. Spread the love around.

 

[ChaycheeB]

Yeah tick control and I just thought they seemed like pretty cool birds. Thanks for the advice!