Category Archives: Guinea Fowl

Some interesting facts and benefits of raising guinea fowl

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After experiencing a lot of interesting facts about little guys – guinea fowls, I thought of sharing them with all those who are interested in raising them. I would start the guinea fowl facts with the story through which I got to learn a lot about this beautiful and interesting creature.

My father bought beautifully dressed in grayish suits, proud game birds – since then,  I have noticed the guinea fowls scuttling up and down through the driveway. I have always been very observant that is why I was interested in knowing the behavior of these little guys too; as soon as its cockcrow, they start scouring the entire my father planted garden for nasty insects like ticks, locusts, beetles, and spiders etc. in fact, I have seen them running and eating the disgusting roaches and centipedes too. They act like the perfect watchdog, and trust me; they work even better than the stupid insecticides. Recently, I have noticed the guinea fowls in the pursuit for wasps, cutworms, snails, grubs and flies. They patrol the backyard completely and make sure nothing intrudes their adobe. They are truly relentless in their chase (prey).

I remember the time when we are guinea-less; trust me, had to suffer a lot because the most of the crops and the other plants were denuded by the devil beetles and grubs. However, soon the little gray fellows changed our lives because they gave us two important benefits;

  • Watchdog
  • Pleasant meal – the guinea fowl meat is really good – tempting indeed
  • Guinea fowl eggs: they have strong outer covering but taste like chicken eggs, so many keep them for this purpose as well.

 

guine fowl eating insects

Raising the guinea fowls:

One thing that bothers me much – many people haven’t even heard about this beautiful and useful bird. Even today the keeping guinea fowl isn’t much common; the first time visitors inquire instantly, “is this a turkey?” you cannot say it’s a bad judgement because it belongs to the family (genre) which is a chicken look alike. They are Africans – I mean guinea fowl is an African native. To your surprise, there are 7 guinea fowl species; “helmeted Pearl” is the most known one because it has a weird sort of a helmet, with gray sexy dotted body, and has a face without any feathers.

These little fellows are more in plundering all the time. Also, they are sensible enough to catch the prey without damaging the plantation and crops. Interestingly, these fellows are less troublemakers. They require almost no medical treatment, as they are robust enough to stand against the diseases. Also, they adapt the changing weather conditions. Because of the dominant acts and authoritative nature, this fowl is still not really popular like chicken. However, need to shelter arises in order to keep the fowls safe from the dogs, cats and owls.

Endearing habits:

A few habits which make these birds a little less adoring is, the guinea fowl sound – they are the noisiest birds I have seen. If you have high-strung neighbors, you cannot keep them even in your backyard. Specially, the residential areas like proper housing societies cannot afford to keep such a noisy bunch of fellows; it seems as if they are too talkative. Also, guinea fowl (hen) egg can only be acquired seasonally; also, the newly born babies are way sensitive and need lot of attention. Another bad thing about this bird, it won’t ever be loyal to you – they are not pal type of birds; they would eat what you serve, would tolerate you when around, but won’t ever be your pal. This is something that’s in the bird naturally – they are fond of prowling and love the freedom.

Deciphering sound and gender:

Interesting thing to note here – when the fowl is newly born (baby guinea is known as Keets) you won’t be able to figure out the gender until it gets 8 weeks. Later, you will distinguish between the hen and the cock based on their voices (sound);

·         Cock cry is something like “chi-chi-chi-“; this sound is followed by a strong “Chrrrr” sound.

·         The hen cry is somewhat similar to “comeback”, many even say it’s similar to “good-luck”

It is said that when a guinea hen is angry or upset about something, it may sound like a cock; however, cock never depicts a hen, sounds like too arrogant from the male gender. In a nutshell, the bird is interesting to be with; not only this, it’s an ideal watchdog and does not bother much.

guinea fowl sound

Hatching ability:

Guinea fowl are not excellent broody hens. Often guinea fowl leaves their nest as soon as some eggs are hatched, don’t wait for other eggs to be hatched, so it is better to hatch eggs under some broody chicken hen or using an incubator.

guinea fowl sitting on eggs

Rearing, Incubation and brooding Guinea Fowl

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Have you ever noticed what exactly guinea bird looks like? They have that nosy and officious look because their body has gray fur over all, which makes it look like a baggy grayish suit. Most of the time I have seen guinea haste through the backyard. Moreover, as soon as it’s dawn, they start to scour the garden for ticks, locust, beetles, and other similar insects. They are the perfect watchdog for the orchard because many times they even catch the roaches, ants, termites, snails, cutworms and flies. I must say, they’re patrolling is absolutely perfect, even better than the insecticides. This creature is absolutely ruthless when on pursuit.

Most of the people seem to rear this bird because of the ultimate benefits it has for the humans – firstly, the major reason for raising guinea fowl is its taste and alluring flesh; also, the meat is highly tender and provides an absolutely perfect taste like other birds. Doctors say that the guinea fowl meat is low in cholesterol but rich in fatty acids; so overall, it’s good for a healthier life. In contrast to this, many adore guinea fowl farming because of its ornamental value which is really high. Usually, these birds are robust enough to bear all the harsh weather conditions and that is why one does not need to spend much on their medical.

Guinea Fowl is a noisy bird, that is why people don’t prefer them rearing in their residential areas because neighbors complain about the unwanted noise.

Now, have a look at the pivotal aspects related to the guinea fowl bird – in case you want to have them in your backyard, this piece of knowledge would help you do that;

Rearing:

Keets are known as baby guinea fowls; newly born keets ( guinea fowl chicks) are supposed to be taken care for about one month else they would die from cold. In order to know much about temperature changes about the keets, you should check out website and blogs which deal with poultry breeds.

If you check out rearing in more detail, you would get to know about three common types of rearing systems;

Free range:  In this method only drinking water is given to the keets.

Semi – free rearing: In this method a basic house is provided so that first three weeks of the life are secured. Later, they are shifted to a house which has perches inside; finally, the keets are shifted to an aviary. Also, the entire house is surrounded by 3 meter high fences so that the escaping is not easy.

Intensive rearing: This system provides darkness or low lighting conditions which helps in better performance of birds. This type of rearing can be made on the floor. In modern units rearing is also done on battery surfaces.

Guinea Fowl feeding:

You can say that the diet of the fowl is divided into phases;

  • Starting: for at least the first four weeks the chicks must be given 24 percent protein
  • From the 4th till 8th week, the protein percentage for feeding must be 20.
  • Finisher diet should be 16 percent; it should be continued till the fowl gets 16 weeks.
  • By the 16th week, the average weight of the guinea must be two kg.

Some interesting facts that I would like to share here;

During the course of life, the guinea fowl in takes around 43 kilograms of feed – out of this, 12kg is consumed during the growth age, and the rest during the laying tenure.

guinea fowl feed

Eggs:

If properly looked after, the guinea hens (soil reared) have the tendency to lay around 100 eggs. The other type (reared on cage) can produce up to 170 eggs in a year. However, the guinea fowl has the ability to lay eggs at the age of 17th week and especially during the rainy season.  The egg shell     is very strong– in fact, many times judgment about the egg‘s fertility through candling even gets chaotic.

Hatching eggs:

Most of the care takers collect the hatching eggs of guinea hen four times during the day. Also, an important thing to note down here, the eggs must be stored under the temperature of 15 to 18 degree Celsius.

Period of Incubation:

The normal incubation tenure of a guinea hen is around 28 days or a little more. More of time the broody chicken hen is used for hatching guinea eggs because of its wild behavior. The normal behavior of the bird is such that, as soon as some keets are hatched, the guinea hen leaves the nest; also the keets start to leave their places after hatched. The un-hatched eggs can be put under any other hen for the warmth; else incubator can be used too. The temperature of the incubator must not be more than 37 degrees Celsius and the humidity ratio must be around 58 percent. Further, incubating guinea eggs must especially be taken care for best results.

guinea fowl sitting on eggs

Brooding:

The guinea keets need to be brooded for first 4 weeks of the age using any incubator, the temperature should be between 37oC to 37.5oC and need to be reduced 4oC each week. Day old keets should be provided 20/m2   space for moving as to keep them away from brooder if the temperature gets too hot. You can use wood shaving for brooding. Place a rough cover onto wire mesh if brooding is done on a wire floor to protect them from falling. A plain cover is not recommending as it may leads to legs problems.

brooding guinea keets