Rooster being attacked by male guinea, please help!

[Kiley_Mahan]

I recently lost my Silkie rooster to a respiratory sickness, and my best friends mom was so kind as to give me one of her Leghorn Silkie rooster crosses. Now I have the problem of my male guinea attacking him, to the point where he is constantly hiding in the nesting boxes of my coop. I’m not sure what to do, my past rooster basically grew up with the guinea so I have never really had any problems like this. I need to keep a rooster because I want to hatch out chicks in the following months, but I’ve come to the point where I’m considering giving the new rooster back, or re-homing my guinea. But I’d hate to see either of them go. Has anyone had the same problem, or know what I should do in this situation?

 

[hysop]

The way I see it is, rehome the guinea if you want to hatch out chicks. Do you have other guineafowl or just that one? I have heard of guineas attacking chickens but my experience is my guineas attack each other not the chickens BUT they also don’t “live” together and they have plenty of room to be far away from each other.

 

[Kiley_Mahan]

I just have the one, and I believe he’s mated with one of my hens as weird as that may sound. That’s why I hesitate to re-home him, he never likes to be away from her and kinda freaks out when he is. If I were to try and transport him I fear he might hurt himself.

 

[hysop]

I just have the one, and I believe he’s mated with one of my hens as weird as that may sound. That’s why I hesitate to re-home him, he never likes to be away from her and kinda freaks out when he is. If I were to try and transport him I fear he might hurt himself.

That’s why he’s attacking your rooster then, because he already sees one of the hens as his own. But you won’t get fertilized eggs from the guinea to my knowledge.

Maybe get him a female guinea or separate him from the chickens. If you want to return the rooster, then you just won’t have fertile eggs, that’s a decision for you to make and to weigh the pros and cons of each decision.

Edited to add: turns out a guinea can fertilize a chicken egg, but I personally would not want a hybrid since that’s not how nature intended it to be.

 

[R2elk]

That’s why he’s attacking your rooster then, because he already sees one of the hens as his own. But you won’t get fertilized eggs from the guinea to my knowledge.

Maybe get him a female guinea or separate him from the chickens. If you want to return the rooster, then you just won’t have fertile eggs, that’s a decision for you to make and to weigh the pros and cons of each decision.

Guineas and chickens can crossbreed. The offspring are infertile and do not live long lives.

Th OPs best option is to remove emotions from the equation and rehome the guinea to someone who has a flock of guineas. The sooner the better and the sooner the guinea will start learning how to be a guinea. It will also eliminate all the stress being caused to her chickens.

 

[Kiley_Mahan]

Thanks so much for the help, I will take all this into consideration and look into possibly rehoming the guinea.

 

[Joev1973]

My opinion seperate guineas from chickens. I brooded & raised 30 chicks & 8 guineas & all was fine for a few months then the guineas started harrassing. Would single out a bird & spend all day chasing & plucking feathers. I finally had enough & kicked all guineas out of both the coop & run. Chickens are much happier.

The guineas kept returning to the coop each night wanting back in so I started feeding them in another shed and after a week or two being locked in there they got the hint that was their new home. Now they roam happy all day & return at night to roost & dont bother with the chickens at all.

 

[hysop]

My opinion seperate guineas from chickens. I brooded & raised 30 chicks & 8 guineas & all was fine for a few months then the guineas started harrassing. Would single out a bird & spend all day chasing & plucking feathers. I finally had enough & kicked all guineas out of both the coop & run. Chickens are much happier.

The guineas kept returning to the coop each night wanting back in so I started feeding them in another shed and after a week or two being locked in there they got the hint that was their new home. Now they roam happy all day & return at night to roost & dont bother with the chickens at all.

Are guineas just mean or what? Mine used to pick on the same guinea til a predator got her one day. Now they have a new target. A weaker guinea. He’s skinny and looks like some of his feathers are missing not to the point of seeing his skin since they have many layers.

 

[Kiley_Mahan]

I’m sure I’ll have to separate and or rehome the guinea at some point. If I’m to be hatching out chicks then I’m sure eventually he’ll be picking on them too. This has been a good experience though, and now I know for future reference that I can’t raise them together. To me it seems like in general the guineas just don’t get along with foreign chickens. He had had no problems with the hens and rooster he was raised with, but I’m sure that’s because dominance was established through time as they aged.