Raising Stardard and Bantam chickes w/Guineas

[DirtDiva]

We will be getting our chicks in February. Plan to get 10-12 poulets (standard) and 5 bantams). Also want 3 guineas. Will the guineas beat up the other poultry?? Initially, all will be kept in large, enclosed run, then allowed to free range when we are home. We have numerous preditors, so their protection is a must. All will be kept in coup in evenings. Input welcomed!

 

[PeepsCA]

There's no definitive answer to this... Some people have no problems at all housing Guineas and chickens together, some have nothing but problems. There's quite a few past threads here on the Guinea Fowl forum that have testimonies and opinions that go both ways on this subject. If you have time, reading thru them may help give you an idea of what you could be facing.

Having the biggest coop and an attached covered run possible, with plenty of places for picked on birds to hide behind (but not get trapped behind), lots of roosting space, 2 feeders and 2 waterers, plus plenty of free range time for everybody definitely helps. Over crowding is never good when Guineas are concerned, even if you keep only Guineas. They need at least 4 sq ft of floor space in the coop, 2-3 times that in the run as adults. The Guineas will need to be raised on high protein game bird, turkey or pheasant starter feed for the first 6 wks and then a game bird grower feed until they are 12 wks old to be able to grow, feather out and develop at the proper rate without developing any health or development issues. Chickens can be raised on the same feeds and will supposedly pass the extra protein without any issues, but there are some that argue this point. (I do not own chickens so I cannot speak from personal experience as to whether it's true or not... but I do know plenty of people that have had no issues with their chicks eating the high protein starter feeds). If you can start with chicks and keets of the same age/size and raise them together, they may be fine and bond as a flock and never have any issues. Most likely the first breeding season will give you an idea if you are going to have any aggression issues or not. It's usually the Guinea cocks that start causing the problems, but the rest of the flock can tend to have the monkey-see-monkey-do mentality and follow suit if there's one aggressor in the group. But then again, your rooster or roosters could be the aggressors just as easily. It really varies from flock to flock, coop to coop. Not everyone's coop/run situations and birds' temperaments are exactly the same. Having a back up plan/place to move the Guineas to is always a good idea if problems within the flock do start happening.

 

[DirtDiva]

thanks for your input!!!

 

[Kevin565]

My guineas trampled my mallard drake to death. I personally would not house them together.

 

[Triplell]

My Chickens and Guinea Fowl were raised together. One of my chicken hens became their mom. I ended up with 2 females and 4 males. Since fall they started to chase and fight my chickens to the point that they stopped laying eggs. I have had to seperate the two breeds and the Guinea's still try to attack through the fencing. They have gone wo far as to attack my ducks as well. Come spring they will be let lose to eat all the bugs and ticks they want. I will not be raising any more with my other birds. I'm here in MN and it gets real cold but they will be moved to a more open area of the horse barn with a heat lamp for warmth. They are good watch dogs and noise makers but for us they are more work than we feel they are worth.

A friend of ours had to put theirs in their freezer as they attacked her husband and son as they walked buy to the garden. So its also beware, Ive never heard of that before untill this summer.

 

[cracking up]

I agree it could go either way. We've had everything together for years and never had a problem. They have plenty of free range room during the day but are all locked up together at night - the bantams are separate at night just because they were so small in the beginning we kept them locked up all of the time. Eventually they wanted out so badly we let them.

We have chickens, ducks, geese, guineas and they all run together. Make sure you have plenty of feed bowls so they all have their own eating space.

 

[Triplell]

Just as I was affraid of!!!! The Guinea Fowl attacted 3 of my layers and it looked like a slaughter house. They even went after the ducks. I did my late check on the coop and I heard and seen it.
My coop is 3 pens of 12X10 inside the old dairy barn. They all had thier own coop but the weather was 50 degrees and they needed to get out and stretch anf scratch around so I did.
Big mistake on my side. Never again will they be aloud to co-mingle. PS I did hand raise the fowl in hopes to be alittle tamer.