JessMay
Songster
Last year I purchased four guinea keets and six turkeys. They’re all full grown now, but recently I started to notice some behavioral issues. I raised the turkeys and guineas together, and then introduced them to my flock of ten chickens and one rooster. I am now down to two guineas ( 1 male, 1 female) and five turkeys (2 toms 3 hens) About 1-2 months ago I started to notice my hens were bald in some spots.. mostly they’re backs and tail feathers.. I thought maybe since the weather is warming up they’re getting ready for summer.. until I saw the guineas latching onto the hens backs and chasing them through the yard. They free range on some days if it’s a nice day. Then they started doing it to my rooster and ripping his feathers out. The strange thing is that the turkey hens will start attacking the guineas (pecking, chasing) and then they start spurring eachother. I’m getting very frustrated because the guineas are so aggressive to the point where the hens are afraid to go into the coop at night. I’ve started to kick them out and make them sleep in the trees. Is this normal behavior and is there a fix? I’m starting to think I either need to cull or get rid of the guineas so my other birds can be happy.. although if there’s a chance I’d like to keep them. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
P.S (if anyone is educated on turkeys) I have a second question about my toms.. figured I’d post it on this thread just in case. For the past three days they have been in a constant show down.. I mean they have NOT let up on fighting. They usually get along very well and I’ve never seen any aggression in them. They have been grabbing eachother and literally RIPPING eachothers faces off. I’ve been separating them because I don’t want any of my other birds to get hurt.. but separating means one stays in the run while the other stays in the coop. Even if one is free ranging and one is in the run ( the run is chicken wire so they can see eachother) they are chest slamming into the chicken wire and will continue to do it from 9am to 9pm.. we are supposed to get a bad storm and I’d like everyone to be in the coop, but I’m worried that they will fight to death in there and harm my other birds. Any advice on what to do about my toms? Not sure if I should let them fight it out or keep seperate.. of course I wouldn’t want one or the other getting killed, but I also don’t want an injury to occur in which it can get infected.. please help!
P.S (if anyone is educated on turkeys) I have a second question about my toms.. figured I’d post it on this thread just in case. For the past three days they have been in a constant show down.. I mean they have NOT let up on fighting. They usually get along very well and I’ve never seen any aggression in them. They have been grabbing eachother and literally RIPPING eachothers faces off. I’ve been separating them because I don’t want any of my other birds to get hurt.. but separating means one stays in the run while the other stays in the coop. Even if one is free ranging and one is in the run ( the run is chicken wire so they can see eachother) they are chest slamming into the chicken wire and will continue to do it from 9am to 9pm.. we are supposed to get a bad storm and I’d like everyone to be in the coop, but I’m worried that they will fight to death in there and harm my other birds. Any advice on what to do about my toms? Not sure if I should let them fight it out or keep seperate.. of course I wouldn’t want one or the other getting killed, but I also don’t want an injury to occur in which it can get infected.. please help!