What should I do for housing, mixed family?

[minaayindra]

I took a “family” of 1 chick and 4 guinea keets, as well as the hen momma raising them. They had been with an Amish boy who let them all run around together in a barn. Rough guess is they are all now about 4 weeks old (minus Mom of course). She takes beautiful care of them and they all seem bonded to her. My question is about where these guys should end up? The Guineas are supposed to be eating different food than the hen and chick but that doesn’t work when they’re grouped. I’ve been giving them All Flock for the last week with mealworms thrown in. I also have 17 4-week old chicks in another brooder. My guess is it would be better to put mom and chick in a separate coop where the other chicks are going to go and let the Guineas stay in this one. I have 2 other coops available as well- will the mom moving cause any difficulty with the keets? If she and the chick can move, will they be okay going into this mixture of other chicks and should they go to the new coop first? When would it be safe to put the other chicks in with the mom and chick, or is it? When will the keets be fairly self-sufficient and none of these feathered friends will be traumatized? Sorry for all the questions but my 17 are getting much bigger and I want to minimize fights when (or if) combining the two others. I also heard growing up with chickens will produce calmer keets but there seems to be disagreement about that. HELP!

 

[aart]

Boy, that's toughie!
Is the mama the only adult bird you have?
Are any of your coops big enough for these 22 birds?

 

[Chickassan]

Your keets are chickens now, raised by a chicken they're chickens.
The only thing besides space you have to consider is separating out the males when they come of age because they'll harass the females even worse than male chickens.
Mom should be ok, but keep an eye on her if you let your brooder kids get close to her family.
Can she see the other 17 at all? If not might be a good idea to set it up so she can and let her and her kids get to know the rest safely before even thinking about putting everybody together.

 

[minaayindra]

Boy, that's toughie!
Is the mama the only adult bird you have?
Are any of your coops big enough for these 22 birds?

The mom is the only adult, my others are 4 1/2 weeks old (chicks) plus the smaller chick in with her. I believe the guineas are about 4 weeks but they are already mostly independent! lol

As far as coops, I bought 2 of the largest ones but still don't feel like there will be enough space. I just purchased 2 other smaller ones but with large and tall runs, covered from hawks. My initial plan was to put the chicks separate from the guineas but, even with the largest coop, there's no way the 1 adult and now 18 chicks will fit inside it, assuming I should move the mom and baby chick to chicken housing instead of guinea housing. So, I was going to still give the guineas their own, and then have one for the less dominant roosters I now see I am getting (I'm still researching this but I expect to have far more than the one I can already identify as some were straight runs, I won't kill them, no one will take any I might have, and some article said this was the only way to maintain peace). The remaining small one (up to 7) and the large ones (up to 20 but no way is that accurate) would have chicks split between them- if that will work. They were all raised together so I don't want to cause a lot of distress.

 

[aart]

I bought 2 of the largest ones but still don't feel like there will be enough space. I just purchased 2 other smaller ones but with large and tall runs, covered from hawks.

Sizes in feet by feet....with pics?

 

[Chickassan]

Whoa, that IS alot to take in!
If you seperate mom from keets but leave one chick don't even try to put them with your brooder chicks until she weans the one chick.
Males indeed will need their own space away from the sight and sound of the females or you'll have issues. You'll have more than one no doubt since you mentioned your chicks are straight run your male to female ratio will likely be high so be prepared for that.
Separating your birds will cause momentary distress, they will get over it quickly so please don't worry too much about that.

The mom is the only adult, my others are 4 1/2 weeks old (chicks) plus the smaller chick in with her. I believe the guineas are about 4 weeks but they are already mostly independent! lol

As far as coops, I bought 2 of the largest ones but still don't feel like there will be enough space. I just purchased 2 other smaller ones but with large and tall runs, covered from hawks. My initial plan was to put the chicks separate from the guineas but, even with the largest coop, there's no way the 1 adult and now 18 chicks will fit inside it, assuming I should move the mom and baby chick to chicken housing instead of guinea housing. So, I was going to still give the guineas their own, and then have one for the less dominant roosters I now see I am getting (I'm still researching this but I expect to have far more than the one I can already identify as some were straight runs, I won't kill them, no one will take any I might have, and some article said this was the only way to maintain peace). The remaining small one (up to 7) and the large ones (up to 20 but no way is that accurate) would have chicks split between them- if that will work. They were all raised together so I don't want to cause a lot of distress.

 

[aart]

I think that the biggest issue here might be the one single adult,
when she weans those chicks she's gonna be wanting some 'adult' companionship.

 

[minaayindra]

Here are the coops, 2 of them are the same (the ones with the aviary area), the others are wood construction and very nice.

I'm having trouble determining the exact size on the TSC coop but you can get a rough idea from the pictures- I know the outside run is 10x10, the building I can't find. The dimensions on the Dutch coop are 6x6 and I have a full size run attached to kt, about the same size and height as the coop. The coop plus run is 10x12 on the other building.

 

[minaayindra]

Whoa, that IS alot to take in!
If you seperate mom from keets but leave one chick don't even try to put them with your brooder chicks until she weans the one chick.
Males indeed will need their own space away from the sight and sound of the females or you'll have issues. You'll have more than one no doubt since you mentioned your chicks are straight run your male to female ratio will likely be high so be prepared for that.
Separating your birds will cause momentary distress, they will get over it quickly so please don't worry too much about that.

I hate to ask such a stupid question but what do you mean by wean. I only know that term in reference to nursing and I'm pretty sure she isn't doing that! So I should start by putting them in the different coop and then introducing the other chicks? I see contradicting articles indicating you either SHOULD let all chicks in at once as soon as they are ready to go and the other resident chickens have gotten used to seeing them, or you SHOULDN'T do that and just introduce a few chicks at a time- what has your experience been?

I read that the roosters WILL get along so I was going to locate their coop backwards from the others. Unfortunately, I guess that means they can't free-range since they are bound to run into the fairer sex in the course of their travels.

 

[minaayindra]

I think that the biggest issue here might be the one single adult,
when she weans those chicks she's gonna be wanting some 'adult' companionship.

Would the hen be alright when the chick roosters will only be a few months away from being young males? Yep, chicken ignorant, that's me!