Guinea fowl breeding – Many people consider to have guinea fowl breeding due to their dual-purposes. Similar with chicken, this bird can produce meat and eggs. The guinea fowl meat and eggs are also delicious and healthy. Moreover, the uniqueness of this bird makes them great to be kept as house pet. And this is not the only things the guinea fowl have! They even do standout job as chemical-free pest control. What a great ability for a bird!
Daftar Isi
Guinea Fowl Breeding
Guinea fowl is originally from sub-Saharan, Africa. Then, the breed was taken by colonists to many other parts of the world. There are several species of guinea fowl, of which the ‘helmeted pearl’ is by far the most common, and obviously the most peculiar looking, with its oddly shaped helmet, white, featherless face, bright red wattles, and also comes with gray spots feathers.
Helmeted guinea fowl
Source: flickr.com
Do you choose guinea fowl breeding rather than chicken? You know, many people choose to raise guinea fowl for some reasons. The villagers like the way they gobble down disease-carrying ticks. Then, the gardeners usually keep them to drive off marauding birds. And farmers put them to work patrolling for crop pests. And this is the best, unlike chicken, the guinea can do all of those jobs without damaging the crops!
If we compare to chicken, the guinea fowl breeding are low-cost and also low-maintenance. people have been caring for chickens for centuries. Nevertheless, domesticating and caring for guinea fowl are definitely trending at this moment. And it is becoming more common to raise Guinea fowl with chicken. So, here are some information about guiena fowl breeding that we put together for you. Enjoy our article! 🙂
The preparation for guinea fowl breeding
1. Know about the bird
Guinea Fowl Breeding Will Give You A Lot Of Benefits
There are many benefits of raising guinea fowl. However, there are also some important thing that you should consider before determining whether this bird is right for your property. First, they are noisy. Guiena fowl sound is so loud that your neighbors migh not appreciate your new flock. Second, you can keep guinea fowl penned, but they will, prefer much to roam freely. As a result, you should have more space to let them roam. The last, they are not as tame as chickens, and are difficult to catch if you let them roam.
2. Have a guinea fowl coop
Just make sure that you have a fully enclosed coop ready before you bring your new guinea home. They are able to fly, so they can escape if you don’t have enclosed coop. It’s true that this bird like to be free-ranged. However, you still need provide a coop at least 3 to 4 square feet of space per bird. Then, be sure to provide food and water in the coop.
3. Provide a night-time shelter
You can protect the guinea fowl from predators such as dogs, foxes, owls, etc by providing a shelter. A shelter is not a coop in that it allows the bird to come and go as they please. If you don’t provide a shelter, your birds will roost in the trees at night. And of course, it will make it easier for predators to prey them. Thus, you can provide stems inside the shelter to let the bird roost there.
4.Provide food and water
Guinea fowl is very easy to feed. What do guinea fowl eat? When you let them road, they will eat all sorts of critters in your yard such as ticks, grasshoppers, snail, and other insects. You can provide them with additional guinea fowl food like mixed grains in their shelter at night if you want to encourage them to spend the night there. Don’t forget to provide them with fresh and clean water.
ARE YOU READY TO KEEP GUINEA FOWL?
How do guinea fowl breed?
Mating season
Source: galor-genetics.com
In the wild, the guinea fowl mate in pairs. It also possible exists among domesticated guineas if there are equal numbers of males and females. Most breeders place one male for every four to five females. Once the breeding season is coming, the pairs of guineas will wander off in search of hidden nesting site. The hens usually make their nests on the ground, but they like to try to conceal the eggs by choosing areas with tall grasses.
The hens usually start laying in March or April and may continue to lay until October. The hens will sit for about 28 days while the males will guard their mates and keep an eye open for danger during the daytime. Guinea fowl eggs is light-brown, sometimes speckled, with the shells that are three times tougher than the chicken eggs shells.
Can guinea fowl breed with chicken?
People often ask if a guinea will mate with a chicken. Yes, it does occur but it is infrequent. And the rare cross-bred offspring (sometimes known as looking like vulturines) are usually sterile. So, can we keep guinea fowl with chickens? Well, the guienas which are raised among chickens are usually tamer. The guinea fowl chicks (keets) that are raised with chickens tend to be gentler and less aggressive. However, it doesn’t mean without any problem.
Guinea Fowl and Chicken in Backward
Source:backyardchickencoops.com
The unpleasant reality of keeping guinea fowl with chickens is when there is any dispute within the coop. The guinea fowl is about to win. The guinea male can be very domineering, bossy, and sometimes they are just downright bullies. This phenomenon can happen when the guinea male come in contact with roosters.
So, if you are about to keep males guinea fowl among chickens, it is best that you monitor or better yet isolate them from other poultry. Other way, you can provide extra coop for the guinea fowl.
What’s next ?
What age do guinea fowl breed?
The guinea fowl is known to be relatively long-lived. They can live for 10 up to 15 tears, Then, this bird can reach their maturity at the egg of 8 months. So, at this time you can start to prepare the guinea fowl breeding. You can put one male in a coop with four to five females. As you already read in the previous section that guinea hens usually start laying in March or April. It can continue until October. A hen from a carefully managed flock can lay 100 or even more eggs a year. In such flocks, the hens usually lay about 30 eggs and then they go broody.
If you have a question just feel free leave the comment in the leave a reply form below
Related:
guinea fowl and snakes, guinea fowl coop, guinea fowl food, guinea fowl eggs, keeping guinea fowl with chickens, guinea fowl for sale, what do guinea fowl eat
