Well there you go

[kinnip]

I've been telling everyone that guineas and chickens can get along just fine and now I'm going to eat crow. My keets got loose today. Which wasn't too bad in and of itself. They've got to be nearly 15 weeks old. One of them got into the chicken run. I heard the cries for help and cam running. When I got there, I found Carmine, an Andalusian cockerel, pecking the snot out of this poor, cornered keet. I knocked the jerk in the head and picked up the keet. She seemed fine, a little shaken, but fine. I put her in her coop and she hid in the corner. After nearly an hour of chasing another keet through the briars in our woods, I returned to find her dead. That's two keets in two days I've had to bury. The really sick part is that I'm now thinking about replacing the dead ones. I think my BF will nix it though. He's out of town right now, but when I tell him about the latest casualty, he won't take it well. I'm taking it with a shot of tequila.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Oh no!!! So sorry for your loss! I tried letting my keets out a few weeks ago, only to have every bird on the place trying to bully them! even the adults I have were pecking them. I put them in their own cage, and vowed to not let them out again until they were bigger.

Well, I ended up getting another rooster that needed a safe place to stay, so the keets got to bunk with the silkie babies. I let the silkies out every day, and the keets looked so pitiful wanting out, so I let them. They did pretty good. Some of the OEGB boys were trying to pick on them, but they just flew away! I think the adults are trying to get the keets to hang out with them. Other than the OEGB boys, they did pretty good!

 

[birdnutz]

In a few more weeks your cockeral will have the tables turned on him. The guineas can get pretty ruthless to an overbearing chicken. I've lost 2 roosters and saved a couple from guinea tude. I think they get enough of being bullied until their cup runnith over. Once they are mature watch out!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Wow, I guess I'm lucky! My adult guineas just chase my other chickens off, and pull the occasional tail feather out!

 

[kinnip]

I really didn't expect them to find the chicken run so soon. They have more than an acre to wander. The keet wasn't supposed to be out at all, but my dumb butt just had to go in the guinea house with a ladder and a drill, so I could scare the hell out of them. One adult guinea decided he wasn't going back in the house last night. Where was he this morning? In the chicken run, of course. I kept the chickens locked up until I could retrieve him and had to disassemble the nursery run to get at him. Obviously, my system needs some work.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Yeah I have been wanting to catch my guinea adults to getthem trained to roosting in a building. My dad offered to put them in with his chickens, I think they would fare better outside rather than in there!