Trying to get chicken to hatch guinea eggs.

[Jmiller89]

We have a chicken that’s going broody and want her to hatch guinea eggs. We plan on separating her from the rest of the flock by putting her in a small coop that’s inside of the large chicken pen. If successful and guineas hatch what food should we feed? Do we give mom and babies chick food or try to give mom layer and babies chick? Also how will introducing mom and chicks back into the flock look? Will the other chickens be accepting or will they attack the chicks?

 

[R2elk]

We have a chicken that’s going broody and want her to hatch guinea eggs. We plan on separating her from the rest of the flock by putting her in a small coop that’s inside of the large chicken pen. If successful and guineas hatch what food should we feed? Do we give mom and babies chick food or try to give mom layer and babies chick? Also how will introducing mom and chicks back into the flock look? Will the other chickens be accepting or will they attack the chicks?

I have had chicken hens hatch guinea eggs. I do not allow the hen to raise the keets. As soon as they are dry I move them to the brooder. Keets that are raised by or brooded with chicken get imprinted. This causes them to lose the ability to understand that there is a difference between them and chickens.

When the keets mature and start their breeding season, they revert to their instinctive behavior. Other poultry do not understand the races and chases and the attacks from behind with the feather breaking or pulling. This can cause extreme stress to the other poultry.

I raise and house my guineas separately from any other poultry. I can free range them all at the same time in the same area without any incidents. It was a nightmare when I kept the guineas with the other poultry.

The people that get away with keeping the guineas and chickens together usually have very large coops, runs and free range areas. Guineas need much more "personal space" than chickens need.

Guinea keets should be fed a high protein turkey or game bird starter for the first 6 to 8 weeks. I feed mine a 28% turkey or game bird starter. It has the higher levels of protein, lysine, methionine and niacin they need for their proper development.

 

[Jmiller89]

I have had chicken hens hatch guinea eggs. I do not allow the hen to raise the keets. As soon as they are dry I move them to the brooder. Keets that are raised by or brooded with chicken get imprinted. This causes them to lose the ability to understand that there is a difference between them and chickens.

When the keets mature and start their breeding season, they revert to their instinctive behavior. Other poultry do not understand the races and chases and the attacks from behind with the feather breaking or pulling. This can cause extreme stress to the other poultry.

I raise and house my guineas separately from any other poultry. I can free range them all at the same time in the same area without any incidents. It was a nightmare when I kept the guineas with the other poultry.

The people that get away with keeping the guineas and chickens together usually have very large coops, runs and free range areas. Guineas need much more "personal space" than chickens need.

Guinea keets should be fed a high protein turkey or game bird starter for the first 6 to 8 weeks. I feed mine a 28% turkey or game bird starter. It has the higher levels of protein, lysine, methionine and niacin they need for their proper development.

Currently with our setup we have a pasture area for the chickens and a larger pasture area surrounding that with our two mating guineas and a goose. We initially tried to put all the birds together. That did not go well since the guineas and goose were raised separately from the chickens. Our hope was not to have to raise chicks ourselves. Once we know what gender the guineas are we would then kick the males out with their parents and leave the females with the chickens. We want the guineas for their eggs (to eat) and hoping if they are raised by chickens they will lay in the nesting boxes with the chickens.
Do you think female guineas would be too aggressive with the chickens if they were raised with/by them? I can see the male guineas being bad to have with them during mating season. Our current male has gotten very aggressive this last month and is making our rooster more aggressive.

 

[R2elk]

Currently with our setup we have a pasture area for the chickens and a larger pasture area surrounding that with our two mating guineas and a goose. We initially tried to put all the birds together. That did not go well since the guineas and goose were raised separately from the chickens. Our hope was not to have to raise chicks ourselves. Once we know what gender the guineas are we would then kick the males out with their parents and leave the females with the chickens. We want the guineas for their eggs (to eat) and hoping if they are raised by chickens they will lay in the nesting boxes with the chickens.
Do you think female guineas would be too aggressive with the chickens if they were raised with/by them? I can see the male guineas being bad to have with them during mating season. Our current male has gotten very aggressive this last month and is making our rooster more aggressive.

I will not allow chickens to raise my keets. I will not house guineas and chickens together. You are going to do what you are going to do.

I want my guineas to be guineas which means keeping a flock of at least 10 guineas and raising them and housing them with guineas and not with any other kinds of poultry.

I did the raise and house the guineas with chickens and turkeys. I will not do it again. Other people do it. Other people have issues with their guineas.

Guinea hens can be as mean as male guineas.