I definitely would have done things differently with the first generation.
The biggest issues I had were in the first 18.months.
AFter that, the biggest difficulty is if I introduced new birds to the flock: the guinea hens don't like any strangers, even other guineas.
Oddly, if I let the...
From experience, you're going to have to accept you're going to lose a significant portion of the hatch: I've had power interruptions a couple of times and it always causes problems.
I wouldn't worry of the egg turner worked or didn't a day or two early or late. I haven't seen that be as big a...
Some hens are not good mothers. Other times they don't like what they see in a hatching egg or hatchling and abandon it or even kill it Remember that while they look cute and fluffy they are actually tiny dinosaurs and sometimes your backyard chickens act out scenes from Jurassic Park.
On the...
It might. It might also give your chickens some guinea tendencies, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how much tolerance you have for guinea fowl quirks.
Guineas are very territorial, much more group oriented, and more aggressive than than chickens.
How well they get along with...
That was my first thought. Some of them get really weird the first time they get broody. One youngest hens got broody for the first time this summer, and any time she left the nesting box she was puffed up to the point she looked like she grew spikes and growled constantly if anything got near her.
She'll wait until the chicks get their legs under them and start getting hungry. Depending on mommas place on the pecking order and if you you have other broodies you may need to separate or not. It depends on how they interact.
This year I had multiple broodies that hatched multiple chicks and...
The better mothers keep the chicks inside as much as possible the first couple days until the chicks get their legs under them. I help out by providing them their own food and water source in the coop.
They're pretty good at training them, and when the babies get feathers enough, usually 2 to 4...
I had a similar incident with a guinea fowl last year: he was outside and wallowing around in a puddle but was clearly disoriented and suffering heat exhaustion. I picked him up and brought him inside and he went into convusions and was dead in less than a minute.
Perhaps he was already far too...
A certain amount of aggression is always inevitable. This isn't a species that has a sophisitcated method of communicating, so "go away" is usually a quick warning, followed by pecking and chasing.
Where I call it excessive is when you start seing missing feathers, actual injuries, or where the...
6:1 isn't a terrible ratio for hens to roosters, although getting 10 roos to get along would require a LOT of space.
In my experience if you drop below 4:1 you're definitely going to have problems even with an ideal setup if only from the over-mating of the hens.
Make sure to have backup plans...
Absent any real details it's hard to say.
First, guineas tend to like being in larger groups and tend to get very tetchy if they're alone or in small groups. If you have a proper flock of guineas and one gets separated from the group they often go into full panic mode.
Second, guineas are...
Not really a problem or a question, just noting some interesting behavior in my mixed flock.
The second year in a row I let some of my broodies hatch chicks & keets, as well as some "back-ups" I hatched indoors.
Last year only a pair of chicks made it and the mothers raised them separately. I...
The first time they got a bit upset, but since then my flock doesn't seem to care. And where I live we get fireworks for Cinco de Mayo and Diwali as well as July 4th, Memorial Day, and Veteran's day. Plus they've seen me shoot predators.
At this point unless it's actual thunder they don't...
Their usual nesting behavior is the male scouts out the nest first, and if he thinks it's OK he'll make some approving sounds (which sounds like my tinnitus acting up) and then he'll stand guard while she lays.
Before she lays she'll often give what chicken-keepers mistakenly call an "egg...
Where I live, frequent downpours and temps in the mid-90's are what we call "normal summer weather."
If they're panting but otherwise acting normally they're not heat-stressed: it's just the only way they cool off. Chickens can't sweat and they're not inclined to get wet to cool off. Mine HATE...
They have very keen eyesight. They see a wider range of colors than we can, and in daylight they can see movement much better than we can.
I've seen mine spot flying hawks 100 yards away in forest, and farther than that in open sky.
Their hearing's better than ours, too. Mine have reacted to...
They like nesting sites that are covered. Mine either use the nesting boxes built into the coop or if they lay outside they'll pick natural hollows with cover.
They usually only start to sit on eggs if they have a lot of them: like around 2 dozen or so. Good luck getting in that nest, then. Few...