Turkey, Geese, Guinea as guardian animal?

[nao57]

A good rooster will defend his flock. Mine saved my hen from a hawk attack. Get one that is over a year old. There will be some fighting initially, but then things should settle down.

Can roosters actually work to defend against weasels though? I've heard great things about roosters for pretty much everything... except that weasels, minks, etc are very fast and fierce for their size. So I hoped to get more input on this. And yes roosters are a good idea if she's not in the city.

 

[nao57]

Other people may have different experiences here, but I've found raising different species of birds together actually increased their likelihood of attacking eachother. As long as I raise them separately, they keep a respectful distance and do their own things as adults, but when I raised them together It's like they lost all fear of each other. None of them will protect your flock the way you want, so it doesn't much matter anyway. I have dogs to protect my geese and guineas.

You do have to be careful introducing birds to each other. They have ... behavioral traits where they will 'peck on each other'(pick on each other), almost like teenagers lol. BUT with a guard goose what people say they do is they mix only 1 goose in from a very young age to let it get used to the flock. You also take care mixing it with the main flock a bit at a time over a few days so that they can accept it easier also. That's how they do it.

But they also say if you put more than 1 goose in there with them that it doesn't take. Instead from that point they'd realize they are their own group.

That's how they do it with a guard goose.

But it would work different for turkeys. I've not done turkeys. sorry no input there. I hadn't heard that someone could use turkeys for guarding??? Is that even true?

Guineas also have other problems in that they are VERY VERY annoying. They literally make noise all day, non-stop. People get tired of them really fast for that reason. And they only make noise, they aren't fierce and don't defend themselves.

 

[nao57]

What did you end up doing?

I want to add to my flock, preferring a guardian type...friends suggested Geese, Turkeys, Maine Coon Cat, Dogs, Goats & a Donkey. (If I was independently wealthy, had more land & could stay home all day & hang out with them, I would get them all! )

I just asked for some advice & opinions here...I can start out with 1 type of the above.

The cost of dog food is pretty high now. Goose is cheaper to feed than a dog right now. As long as there is grass out you can feed the goose grass. You'd need more land for a donkey. But people do say that donkeys will work for coyotes and such; but I haven't seen that personally only read that from others.

 

[PhantomSlayer]

Update: We ended up getting geese. Its causing some issues now with mating season. I so badly wish I could just invest in training a Livestock guardian dog. The geese sure are interesting little weirdos though.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Can roosters actually work to defend against weasels though? I've heard great things about roosters for pretty much everything... except that weasels, minks, etc are very fast and fierce for their size. So I hoped to get more input on this. And yes roosters are a good idea if she's not in the city.

The only times I ever hear about weasels or minks killing chickens is in the middle of the night when the chickens are locked in a coop and unable to escape

I have weasels here but they've not harmed a single chicken of mine in years of free-ranging

 

[R2elk]

I've found raising different species of birds together actually increased their likelihood of attacking each other.

The imprinting that happens removes their ability to understand that the other species are different from them. It is always best to brood and raise chickens with chickens, turkeys with turkeys, geese with geese, guineas with guineas, etc.

 

[R2elk]

BUT with a guard goose what people say they do is they mix only 1 goose in from a very young age to let it get used to the flock.

Reasons Why You Shouldn't Keep Just One Goose

 

[PhantomSlayer]

The imprinting that happens removes their ability to understand that the other species are different from them. It is always best to brood and raise chickens with chickens, turkeys with turkeys, geese with geese, guineas with guineas, etc.

Definately. We tried brooding geese with chickens and they saw them as chew toys. Didn't last more than a few days. Raising them together after that in the same area was fine until they started getting ready for breeding season and then our gander started biting chickens that were trying to get into the coop to.

 

[fowltemptress]

You do have to be careful introducing birds to each other. They have ... behavioral traits where they will 'peck on each other'(pick on each other), almost like teenagers lol. BUT with a guard goose what people say they do is they mix only 1 goose in from a very young age to let it get used to the flock.

I would never willingly deprive a flock creature of its own kind. How incredibly thoughtless and cruel.

 

[SamLockwood]

I'm one of those weirdos who's gotten a mixed flock of chickens and guinea fowl to work, but it definitely requires a bigger and more complicated set-up than most backyard chicken keepers are willing to do. I've got a permanent flock of about 3 dozen birds and they sleep between two coops with fully enclosed connected run, and free-range on about 5 acres of fenced in land with varying terrain.

In my experience, guineas are extremely effective at keeping airborne predators away, but they're not going to be effective against ground predators: I lost two guineas when a tree took down about 10' of fence and the coyotes grabbed them (my only predator losses to date). They avoided getting eaten by the bobcat that came last spring, but failed to protect the chickens (although one time they chased the 'cat back to the fence-line after it grabbed a hen).

At night they're going to be just as helpless as any other poultry. If you can't or won't coop-train them and you have owls nearby your guinea flock will get decimated after sunset.