# Suggestions Please



## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

We have a bunch of chickens and a rooster. They have a coop and a large run. In the morning they get access to their "yard", and fenced area about 30' x 40'. In the late afternoon we let them out to free range so they can go out and destroy our flowerbeds and dig holes in the lawn.

We are thinking of adding other birds to our farm. Mostly as pets but we are fine with eating eggs or meat too. If they could cohabitate with the chickens or require minimal additional construction, that would be best. Being able to free range is a must. If I wanted caged bird I would get golden pheasants.

So, any suggestions, advice, ideas or warnings about other species would be appreciated.


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## JML Farms (Jan 1, 2021)

Sounds like you need some barnyard watch birds aka guineas. They are pretty self sufficient, make all kinds of racket when someone drives up, and act as air raid sirens when hawks fly over. My chickens learned when the guineas went to making noise, it was time to run for cover! Just make sure you get more than one.


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## AlabamaGirl (Jun 18, 2020)

Mike at Capra Vista said:


> We have a bunch of chickens and a rooster. They have a coop and a large run. In the morning they get access to their "yard", and fenced area about 30' x 40'. In the late afternoon we let them out to free range so they can go out and destroy our flowerbeds and dig holes in the lawn.
> 
> We are thinking of adding other birds to our farm. Mostly as pets but we are fine with eating eggs or meat too. If they could cohabitate with the chickens or require minimal additional construction, that would be best. Being able to free range is a must. If I wanted caged bird I would get golden pheasants.
> 
> So, any suggestions, advice, ideas or warnings about other species would be appreciated.


Turkeys. From what I've read, they're excellent for meat production and they're good hatchers because the broodiness hasn't been bred out of them unlike many chicken breeds. They're probably better than free ranging chickens because basically all of their diet can come from forage. Turkey's are more susceptible to certain diseases than chickens, so you should keep that in mind, but good disease prevention practices may help with that.



I'm not sure if this really counts, but you could also try free ranging utility pigeons, there are different ways to try this. They're good meat birds, regularly hatch and raise their own babies throughout the year and lots of people keep them as pets. _Some_ varieties may fly off, but this is less likely with the heavy, utility birds especially if you clip their wings a bit.


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## GoosegirlAsh (Mar 24, 2021)

We used to keep a few Narragansett turkeys (down to one now, thanks to coyotes). The turkey hens laid a fair amount of eggs. They were housed separately from our chickens at night, but they all free ranged together during the day and got along fine. Now the lone turkey tom lives with a rooster, and they are best buddies. 

I've heard that blackhead can be an issue if you keep turkeys and chickens together, but we never had an issue with it. It might be something you want to consider though. 

I don't really recommend keeping waterfowl with chickens. Male ducks can kill a hen trying to breed them. My geese mostly don't mind chickens, but I did have an incident where one of my ganders tried to kill my rooster.


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

JML Farms said:


> Sounds like you need some barnyard watch birds aka guineas. They are pretty self sufficient, make all kinds of racket when someone drives up, and act as air raid sirens when hawks fly over. My chickens learned when the guineas went to making noise, it was time to run for cover! Just make sure you get more than one.


Great suggestion. Never would have thought of guinea fowl. Started reading. Definitely mixed reviews though.


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

We've got guinea fowl. They help control the tick population. They are game birds. Very wild and flighty. They are nearly impossible to catch unless they're badly injured. Very self sufficient, excellent foragers, and those dudes can fly! They range pretty widely...much more widely than chickens do. We like our guineas, but a lot of people cannot stand the noise.


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## goathiker (Apr 14, 2011)

If you want a mixed flock together and aren't planning on the normal limits like at least 15 ducks per drake, etc. DON'T get males. 
Don't run male guinea fowl with chickens or turkeys, don't run drakes with hens, and just stay completely away from ganders...

They all house differently. You'll need to make sure everyone has their needs met. Also some don't go in at night, are you up for bird herding?


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Caileigh Jane Smith said:


> We've got guinea fowl. They help control the tick population. They are game birds. Very wild and flighty. They are nearly impossible to catch unless they're badly injured. Very self sufficient, excellent foragers, and those dudes can fly! They range pretty widely...much more widely than chickens do. We like our guineas, but a lot of people cannot stand the noise.


Thanks for that. I've done a little more reading and concluded that guinea fowl are not for us. Mostly because they may/will terrorize the chickens. Also the noise. I generally do not like noise, though I've gotten used to having a rooster crowing. They seem to make loud unpleasant sounds a lot of the time.


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## Cedarwinds Farm (Dec 2, 2019)

Mike at Capra Vista said:


> Thanks for that. I've done a little more reading and concluded that guinea fowl are not for us. Mostly because they may/will terrorize the chickens. Also the noise. I generally do not like noise, though I've gotten used to having a rooster crowing. They seem to make loud unpleasant sounds a lot of the time.


Yes, they are loud! They will set up a racket at any disturbance. Ours are very comical. We enjoy watching their antics. But they are not pets. I feed them in the winter, but in summer, they probably range 1/2 mile or more and are self-sufficient. Our current chickens have a lot of attitude and don't take nonsense from anyone. But the guineas did pick on chickens we've had in the past. 
My brother in law keeps a few hen turkeys in with his chickens, and as far I know, has never had any issues. Just something to consider...


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## BarnOwl (Sep 6, 2020)

What about ducks? I've never had any--I don't want to worry about providing something for them to swim in, but I've always thought they looked fun.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

We have chickens, ducks, turkey, guineas and geese..they all free range..all have their go to night spot. We don't lock any of them up but the bigger birds tend to stay in the area we raised them in. Chicken ducks and guineas roam more freely. Guineas are loud and obnoxious and I swore I never have any but now I don't want to be without them.. great snake detectors..eat ticks and such but also go crazy when hawks and owls are near. My kids want to eat them. They hate their noise lol. And they are suppose to taste good lol


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## AndersonRanch (Oct 18, 2020)

I have chickens turkeys and pigeons. The order of favorite is the turkeys pigeons and then the chickens lol while the chickens kinda do their own thing and could honestly care less about me other then when it’s food time the turkeys are like dogs and follow me where ever I go. They are full of personality! They are also awesome about the flies and their favorite is meat bees which are my sown enemies! They have totally demolished the stinging nettles in the goat pasture i let them have access too. I wanted to let them have access to another section of the pasture to take care of those nettles but the wild turkeys are very interested in my hens and I would rather not loose any hens to them so have not allowed them to go past where they are. 
The pigeons honestly I never would have gotten if someone had not given me a box of babies that needed to be hand raised. And I am so thankful that happened! I really enjoy them. I did have them in a cage because I thought they would fly off if not but they looked so unhappy I decided it was what it was and turned them loose. They stuck around and they go into the pen with the turkeys and free range chickens every night. I can go out with a handful of scratch and call them and they will fly on my arm to eat the scratch out of my hand and this isn’t just the hand raised pigeons but also the babies they have raised. 
One thing about the turkeys though if your wanting pet and meat to with heritage turkeys. The broad breasted are pretty much just for eating and will gain weight at a rapid rate and won’t last long. You can limit their feed and get a little more time with them but they still won’t last as long as the heritage. 
I have had guineas before and hated them. They were not nice birds, if I had to catch one for whatever reason that was almost impossible. And they were not just noisy they seriously never shut up! They ended up bringing in every predator and I lost all my free range chickens and then finally them too. I still had snakes come into the yard and I honestly never really saw a difference with bugs.
Ducks people seem to love or hate. I think baby ducks are adorable and if they would just stay small I would have a million of them lol but they don’t and mine ended up in the goats water troughs and they pooped soooo much! They were louder then my chickens but not crazy stupid loud and annoying like the guineas


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

happybleats said:


> We have chickens, ducks, turkey, guineas and geese..they all free range..all have their go to night spot. We don't lock any of them up but the bigger birds tend to stay in the area we raised them in. Chicken ducks and guineas roam more freely. Guineas are loud and obnoxious and I swore I never have any but now I don't want to be without them.. great snake detectors..eat ticks and such but also go crazy when hawks and owls are near. My kids want to eat them. They hate their noise lol. And they are suppose to taste good lol


Having both, how would you compare turkeys to geese? Do you have a natural pond for your ducks and geese?
You don't lock them up at night? No nighttime predator problems?
I like seeing snakes around. Being on Vancouver Island all we have are garter snakes. I've seen the chickens catch a couple of small ones.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

We have our animals between our house and the donkeys..so rarely see predators up close. We did loose a few chickens to coyotes some years back..we have lost other birds who ventured past their yard over the year..a few turkeys, guineas and chickens. Never lost a goose to predators. They can fly some if they choose but Eleanor and Edward are a bit lazy lol. We keep a rubber water trough for them they mate better in water. We also have used kiddy pools. Lots of clean up but we enjoy them. Geese are just yard ornaments but we love duck eggs. Right now we have one Tom and one Turkey hen. Shes brooding right now. We raise for meat. Turkeys are not aggressive when brooding..geese can be very aggressive during brooding time. Geese use more water than turkey. Geese also leave holes in the ground while picking for bugs and roots..Turkey don't. If you have a group of Tom's however they can become aggressive to you. We had to pen a group of boys up until D day because they went after my kids or me when out there. Had to have a stick to push them back when they got brave. But our one Tom is beautiful and not aggressive while his hen is about the same..even brooding.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Here's a few pix.


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## BethJ (May 28, 2019)

I used to have 5 guineas.. Now I have 1 and I'm not sad they are gone! lol they are funny birds and maybe beneficial by eating ticks and stuff but they sure ruined a lot of otherwise peaceful days outdoors. Way to loud and obnoxious for me! Just not worth it imo. The one is significantly quieter by itself.. Most days!

I bought mine as keets a few days old and put them under a broody hen at night. It worked beautifully! I think there was a language barrier the first day but that chicken was determined to mother them and they soon figured it out. They roosted with the chickens and everyone got along fine. As adults they do roam farther than chickens which is probably why 4 dissapeared.


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