Guinea fowl can walk, run, and fly. In the wild, they usually roost rest and sleep in trees at night. As many as 2, of these birds may be seen roosting together in a single large tree.
On farms, they are often seen perched high up outside or inside barns. In certain species, however, a male may mate with more than one female.
A male may also hump his back when he has an unfriendly meeting with another male. The female usually lays a clutch of 12 to 15 small dark eggs in a nest scratched into the ground, which may be hidden among a clump of weeds or some other cover. Some clutches may contain as many as 30 eggs. Both parents take care of the keets. Raising Keets For the first few weeks of their lives, keets need to stay warm and dry, or else they may die. When they are a few weeks old, however, they become very hardy birds.
The young birds are then usually moved into a safe nursery area, where they are introduced to the older birds of the flock while protected behind a wire divider. After a few weeks in the nursery, they are released into the main flock.
Lifespan The average lifespan of a guinea fowl is approximately 10 to 15 years. The lamps should hang so that the bottoms are 18 to 24 in. Lamps can be raised or lowered depending on temperature conditions.
The use of more than one heat lamp is often recommended, especially during cold weather, so the keets will not be without heat if a bulb burns out. There are two-bulb units that come with a thermostat that can make it easier to control the temperature in the room. It is important to remember, however, that you are heating the keets and not the air, so measurements of air temperature may not be the best guide when using infrared lamps.
If the keets are piling up under the heat source, they are too cold. If they are trying to get as far away from the heat source as possible, the temperature is too hot. If the keets are evenly dispersed throughout the brooding area, the temperature is just right. After the keets are fully feathered, they are typically able to tolerate extremes in weather fairly well.
In the wild, guinea fowl mate in pairs. This tendency also exists among domesticated guineas if there are equal numbers of males and females.
As the breeding season approaches, pairs of guineas will wander off in search of hidden nesting sites. It is not necessary, however, to have equal numbers of females and males to obtain fertile eggs.
For most flocks, one male is usually kept for every four to five females. When guineas are kept in close confinement, one male may be mated with six to eight females. Guineas usually start laying in March or April and may continue to lay until October.
A hen from a carefully managed flock may lay or more eggs a year. Breeders generally produce well for two or three years. They can be kept four to five years in small farm flocks. In such flocks, hens usually lay about 30 eggs and then go broody. The incubation period for guinea eggs is 26 to 28 days, similar to the incubation period for turkeys.
If available, broody chickens can be used to hatch guinea eggs. Typical bantam chicken hens can sit on 12 to 15 guinea eggs, while a large chicken hen can sit on 20 to 28 guinea eggs. Guinea hens do not always make good mothers.
Chicken hens tend to be much better mothers, and a large chicken can brood up to 25 guinea keets. When allowed to incubate eggs naturally, guinea hens normally do not go broody until the nest has around 30 eggs. A healthy guinea hen will lay an egg a day. If the eggs are removed from the nest, she will most likely make a nest somewhere else. If all but four or five eggs marked for identification are removed, she may return to the same nest and continue laying.
Eggs from confined guineas, however, can be collected daily with no problems—you do not have to worry about going on a scavenger hunt every day in search of new nest sites. Guinea eggs are smaller and have thicker shells than chicken eggs.
As a result, it is difficult to candle the eggs until 10 days of incubation. I now have only one. His or her partner disappeared a couple of weeks ago, sadly. They always roostedin trees, but now he is roosting under the eves of my house, which is great, because he will no longer get rained on.
But I am worried about him because we are just about to get really cold weather…22 degrees. I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out a way to keep him warmer. Any suggestions? I bought a string of large-bulb outdoor lights today thinking I could string them under his perch for a little warmth.
But I do wonder if the light will prevent him from wanting to perch there. I have 4 guineas, 3 male and 1 female. I coop-raised them, so they will go inside when I let them out, usually after minutes- which time span will surely lengthen as the spring season approaches. I live on top of a mountain where it is not unusual for it to get to 9 degrees in the dead of winter.
These guys stay outside in their run almost always but they do hate rain. Guineas have a love of roosting under things when they are vulnerable at night, tree limbs, barns, coops, any kind of hiding place.
If you have sufficient shelter for him, he will be alright temp-wise. As far as light, they have very poor night-vision so they are more than happy to have some light. The light thrown from routine bulbs is not the greatest. They seem to prefer a red light nightlight. I think the outdoor lights might be too intense for him, both physically and because they stress over everything, as you well know by now! So sad he lost his partner. We have 8 guineas which are about 7 months old.
Got them in July They are doing there job well. He is not to fond of them in the trees on his property line due to some of the guests he has over and has a fire going along with some beer drinking getting a little loud at times which riles the guineas to their screech which really ticks them of, so he said to change where they roost or he will take further action. So, my question is how do I get the guinea to change roosting area away from the property line?
This is on about 87 acres of family owned property which is divided to about a tad over an acre a piece. There is no one to the other side of our property. I have been raising Guinea for past several years. Lost my first flock to owls a d coyotes. Now Im always counting and trying to keep them close.
I obtained 3 peacocks around the time one of my Guinea had babies and they were kept close while aclimating the peacocks and now my last 2 babies either think they belong to the female peadowl or she thinks she is a Guinea not sure which but they are always together even roosting together. These birds are a scourge, and definitely not for people with neighbours.
Avoid at all costs. While you do get the rare guinea hater, this board is probably the wrong place to express really negative opinions- just the facts and people can decide for themselves. And yes, they are noisy- what I see as excellent predator protection for my animals and a good alarm for me will not be as appreciated by anyone else who has to listen to it on their property. That is a very important consideration…. I bought 1. I have bugs—ticks. Can I release two adult females and just see what happens?
No coop. No nothing. Do I need more birds? Male and female? Northeast Florida. Our vet said about getting them to control the tick population. Yes, just keep in mind they are quite… Edible.
I have a fox problem here that has gotten quite a few of mibe. We have 11 acres as well. We have had them often outside of our property. They do not respect boundaries. I am thinking of getting some Guineas. I have only 1. I want them to free roam for bug control and just to watch them. I know I need to start with keets. What do you feed the keets while growing? I am looking forward to this. I have a fenced back yard for my dogs. I am hoping these birds learn not to go into fenced area.
I can hope dogs will chase them. Do I need to put up coop for nights or will they be fine in the wooded area? Is the sex of the guinea fowl identified by the color?
Are the white ones the female and dark male? I would get that because its medicated to treat common ailments that affect chicks and keets. I have two acres in New Mexico. Looking to get a couple guinea hens mostly for Pest Control squash bugs in my garden. Garden is about a quarter of an acre. Is it safe to release them with growing vegetables? I know this post is older, but for anyone else wondering. I could not tell you if they like one over another but I would make sure your crops are fully established then you decide if the damage done to crop is more than the benefits of the bugs they eat attacking your crop because they will go for the bugs first.
I believe you can but only when they are keets, an online search could help you with the difference. I have a guinie chick she hurt her leg I have her in a cage separate from everyone else. After about a week or 2 she seemed to be doing better then she hurt herself again.
The female has been missing for several days. The male is still hanging around the house. Will he be ok by himself? He hangs around the chickens more. Or do you think a coyote got her? Most likely nesting. You would have heard him screaming for days if something had happened to her. They are extremely attached to each other and when one goes missing they will screech for some time trying to locate the one missing. They also screech to each other when hawks or other predators approach.
Curious I wanted to know more. And I found your article well written with an abundance of information. I thank you kindle. Too many previous comments to read so I may be repeating a previous post. Never approach a nest.
They will attack and they fly straight toward the face. They are not great mothers when they hatch, so you will absolutely need to collect them distracting the hen until they have feathers. Watch your children around the nests. If you have keets be careful that they are secure. I Lost several to snakes able to get in but not out after eating a keet that was 6 to 8 weeks old.
Having at least one adult is perfect for releasing when big enough. Male or female they will protect them from the start. A fully grown male Guinea that was not raised with the others can be dangerous to them as well as your chickens. These birds in general can be extremely aggresive.
Some sites claiming to be experts say that roosters and guinea cocks will not live together peacefully but this is not true if they are raised together, all farm birds establish a pecking order. It takes time for new additions to form a communal bond.
If you ever see an individual bird no matter the species being ganged up on, seriously injured or not thriving in a manner that could cause eventual death, it is time to intervene. Find a sanctuary or rehome the one suffering or the one offending.
A guinea walked into my yard 2 nights ago. It ignored the barking of my two dogs and yelled back at them. Eventually both simmered down. I do not know anyone in the area that has them. I will need to lookup what they eat, so far it is dog food and it seems to like it. It just started back up. It will sound for another minutes. How do you get rid of guinea hens? We live in a residential area and one neighbor left them for the neighborhood when he left.
They love my yard and are trying to lay eggs in my front bushes. We have about 20 of them but only started with two. I have 26 hens and 3 roosters. The ticks are terrible where we live. We have 10 acres and our neighbor actually asked if we were getting guinea hens to help with the tick population so we know they are ok with it.
Will the guinea hens lifestyle draw my chickens out deeper into the woods and entice them to not come into the coop at night? Or can I just have a flock of females? We live in an area with lots of trees, and thus, we have mosquitoes. We just installed a pool, and are worried about being carried off by the evil creatures.
My husband has had guineas in the past, that he got as keets. They free ranged and never wandered off. Recently, we purchased 7 guineas. They are young, but not extremely. After issues with raccoons, we are left with 3. We want to let them free range. But we are afraid they will all find new homes.
The man we got them from, said to keep them confined for a week, then let one out for a week. Then, another and so on. Do you have any better advice?
Also, there is one bird, that another bird harasses. Should I not worry about that? According to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, pesticides and diseases play a role in guinea fowl life expectancy as well as the loss of a suitable habitat and food resources. Increased poaching, especially in their native Africa, affects their life expectancy as well. Amanda Williams has been writing since on various writing websites and blogging since She enjoys writing about health, medicine, education and home and garden topics.
0コメント