Sooner or later, you’re going to want more birds. Whether you’ve decided to expand your guinea flock, or lost some birds to old age or predators, or you’ve decided to branch out into other kinds of poultry, or a guinea hen surprises you by showing up with keets in tow – at some point, you’re going to need to know how to integrate new birds into your flock.
As I always do with guinea fowl, I try first to look at how things happen in nature. When a guinea-mom shows up with newly hatched keets, her instincts are to bring the keets back to the coop area and close to the flock, but not IN the coop and not WITH the flock. She wants to be close to the flock for the security that the flock represents, but she seems to know that the keets cannot yet be fully integrated into the flock. Perhaps she senses that they are too small and fragile for the kind of tumult that can occur within the coop, or that the very active members of the flock may accidentally trample the keets, or that normal pecking-order behavior might be inappropriately – but fatally – directed at her keets.
Whatever her reasons (and all of those are good reasons), I’ve observed that the guinea moms want to hang out with her keets, along with a few “nannies” and male guardians from the flock. At night, she wants to bed down with the keets, an hour or two before normal cooping time, near but not inside the coop.
For about five weeks, she’ll keep up this pattern, if left to her own devices, and then she’ll start to try to roost with the flock, encouraging her keets to join her on the roost. It generally takes a few days, but by 6 weeks, the keets are roosting with the mom, right beside other members of the flock, and they are fully integrated.
The following recommendations are made, trying to take advantage of how guineas do things in nature.
Your new birds, whether guineas or other poultry, whether adults or keets, should be housed within the coop if you’re able to provide all that they need – supplemental heat, enough room for the new additions. You want them to be able to see and interact with your existing flock. If you’re adding adults, you may see signs of bonding: some birds sitting next to the crate or penned-off area. With keets, some adult – often the low bird of your flock – will pace along the enclosure, calling and pecking through the wire. (This pecking behavior should not be interpreted as “the adults are trying to kill the keets.” Remember that guineas don’t really understand wire, fences, etc. It’s frustrating for them to have this “invisible force shield” preventing them from getting the keets underneath their skirts for safety.)
After you see some signs of bonding if dealing with new adults, or when the keets are 4-5 weeks old, start letting them out of their enclosure into the coop, giving them the run of the coop while your existing flock is out ranging. This helps give them some confidence, and also gets them used to being herded back in for the evening. Use herding-sticks to usher them back into their enclosure before you’re ready to let the rest of the flock start coming into the coop for the evening.
A week or so later, start leaving the coop door open in the late afternoon, so the new birds can discover the outdoors, and the flock can discover the new members. Never do the mingling within the confinement of a closed coop. Have some hiding spots available -some bales of hay, or securely propped-up boards. Expect some pecking-order behavior. Stand by to be sure it doesn’t get out of hand, but don’t try to stop it entirely; this would just frustrate the alpha birds, and their behavior might get more extreme. Use herding-sticks to prevent any piling-on or any truly violent behavior.
The next day, move up the release time by an hour, and keep doing that for a couple more days. Be sure to offer yummy treats or do the evening feeding just before cooping time, but start weaning the new birds away from having food available 24/7.
This system has worked well for literally hundreds of additions to my flock over the years; I hope you have good success as well. It’s best to have a plan, because “chicken math” (in this case, “guinea math”) is real!
