Thinking about raising 1 Guinea with chickens!

[daisychick]

I love the picture, so cool! I hope my 6 little squirts grow up and like their chicken cousins.

 

[stoopid]

I raised both guineas and chickens together, I think it's a good idea. Guineas are very high strung to begin with, just the one will think he's a chicken and not learn the annoying habits from other keets, they can really get each other cranked up, but the chicks will just hang out and be chickens. Should be interesting, good luck!

 

[afchicken]

i got a pair of guineas a yr ago planned on getting more but the price spiked way up and 1 died in coyote attack so only have 1 in with my chickens now and as far as i know its doing good i hear it in background everytime my dad calls

 

[appychick]

I just raised 6 keets and a few standard chicks housed together on FlockRaiser. I was concerned about them not getting enough protein but they grew out fine. The lone female guinea started laying eggs at 3.5 months of age. But at about a month of age,one day the guineas killed half the chicks(cockerels only) & seriously wounded the remaining cockeral while not bothering the pullets. I then removed the remaining pullet chicks. They seemed to be attracted by the reddening combs on the young cockerels. The cockerels were purchased from local feed store as pullets & were very slow to show gender . Possibly they also needed more space than they had at this time so got bored....But the guineas seemed to do fine on FlockRaiser when kept at 60 degree range temps. At colder temps they definately would need higher protein to survive.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:
Sorry for the loss of your cockerels.

Lack of protein is one of the main primary causes of cannibalism, especially when birds are housed in close quarters. They will eat every loose feather they can find as well, trying to further make up for lack of protein their bodies needed. 4 week old keets are not aggressive killers, they are hungry, and flock raiser does not support the nutritional demands that the growth spurts and molting puts on their bodies.

If you've noticed on the back of the flock raiser bag, in the feeding directions section it says to start feeding the flock raiser to turkeys when they they are 9-10 weeks old, and prior to that it says to feed them startena. Guineas and turkeys have very similar nutritional needs (which is why high protein turkey starter is recommended for keets).

In the wild, keets eat a high protein diet of bugs, small reptiles, seeds/grains etc (higher than 20% protein) which allows them to grow fast and feather out quickly so they are able to run fast, fly up to roost safely as soon as possible and survive. Compared to your chicks, (which grow and feather out much more slowly than keets do), I'm sure your keets did appear to grow out "fine"... but to be honest that is not an accurate gauge for evaluating keets' growth or health.

I'm not attacking you or your poultry husbandry personally, I'm just not an advocate of feeding lower than recommended starter feeds to keets, for many reasons, and cannibalism is another.

 

[prairiehen74369]

I always put what I call a trainer chick with my keets to show them how to eat and drink. Works for me......

 

[appychick]

Thanks PeepsCa for your input. This was my first experience with guineas. Definately was male aggression,not cannibalism....The chicks were supposed to be pullets,otherwise I never would have housed the guineas with cockerels intentionally as had read about this happening on occasion. I was hoping that if I raised them with asst. color pullets,they would tolerate various breeds of chickens when having to be confined during winter,if they should have to be housed with other species. I had no clue the guineas matured so fast. And having 5 out of 6 being males-they have been battling ever since that time even with unlimited dayltime free range.....So I just got a few more hoping to quiet down the fights over the single female . Unfortunately I do not have much choice for bird feed in this isolated area. I did have to drive about 200 miles for Purina feed but they never would get me any higher protein as had to order in too large of a quantity that they couldn't sell . But finally got a local farm store to get a dealership & they will get me quantities I need but nothing above 20% protein as they purchased from another dealership.The other brand available locally is only 22% & I have lost birds because they just refuse to eat it,multiple lot #'s. I even tried several custom mix lots at local seed plant but they consistantly used garbage quality stuff for ingredients even when I gave them a formulation. But my spoiled rotten guineas were introduced to just about everything I could think of in the way of feedstuff while they were confined in my house for first almost 2 months of their lives. Yes they did get a bit noisey ! I think of everything I have ever fed to chickens & guineas,kiwis were the most favorite treat. Maybe I fed them more extras than I thought as these birds were definately not lacking in any area other than they had to be confined as happen to be living in the coldest place in the US during their growth. I just had no clue they matured so fast compared to chickens ! They still are bonded to me & follow me around the ranch until I sneak away from them......