Mean guinea

[SummerChick]

I can only guess this male guinea is only doing what he is supposed to but I'm scared for my 2 female geese. This fellow chases them until the cower down, I found him jumping on top of my alpha goose and she is usually the head of the yard!
I have 7 guineas and 2 female geese, who ate now very frightened. I think there are 4 male guineas and 3 female... They kinda look alike do its hard to tell unless they are talking.
Do you know how long this male guinea will be crazy mean? I realize it's mating season but is there anything I can do?

Thanks,
Laurie

 

[sourland]

He'd have to find a new home if he lived here. Guineas sometimes develop a 'pack' mentality and target other species one individual at a time. Watch that the others don't join in his attacks. The geese are larger, but still could be injured.

 

[PeepsCA]

He will most likely act that way at least thru the entire breeding season... until Fall (and possibly start up again the next Spring). Catch him and cage him for a week. That may help tone down his attitude and also give your Geese some time to rebuild their confidence. Or you could just pen and free range the Geese and Guineas separately from now on. Another option would be to integrate a few more Guinea Hens into your flock of Guineas, in hopes of keeping him distracted and less focused on the Geese.

 

[tomingreeneco]

I agree, get more guineas (should have 10 or more). They will them pick on each other and leave your geese alone.

 

[SummerChick]

Thank you for all the advice, I think for now I will catch him and put him in jail for a week. See what happens after that. I started out with 10 guineas last year as keets but lost 3. Not sure if I can findf 3 grown female but will look.
I appreciate all the help.

 

[cackler]

My guineas have always gotten along fairly well. Oh they'd occasionally have spats but nobody would be harmed much. Last night when putting everyone to bed, one of my white guinea males was all bloody around his head. I put him in a large dog kennel with some water in the coop to keep him away from everybody. Today the same thing happened except we saw that the culprit was another male guinea - who was also bloody. I put the white guinea in the dog kennel again tonight. I guess I should keep him separated from everyone for awhile? Haven't had this happen before.

 

[GuineaFowling]

When keeping guineas I always keep equal amounts of male and female. That way they are distracted by their mates and wont go after each other or other animals for that matter.

 

[Hotcookie]

No, I don't think it's a good idea to keep them separated from each other. It sounds mean, but they really do need to work out the problems themselves within the flock.....which includes fighting sometimes. When my males start, I can't stand to watch either, so I just go inside and let them be. There has to be some kind of pecking order, and they're just trying to figure it out between themselves. In the ideal flock, equal numbers of males to females would be wonderful, but it always seems like I have more males than females in my crazy group!