Guinea Fowl – UK
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Welcome to my website devoted to Guinea Fowl, I hope you find it informative.
Guinea Fowl are a fascinating subject and the more you get to know them, the more amusing you find their quirky ways. I have a small flock of birds which I breed from, I have done so for more than 25 years now, I have written about my experiences in the hope that it will help others who would like to keep guinea fowl.
Guinea fowl come from Africa originally, but have been bred for food in many countries for hundreds of years, there are even drawings of them on the walls of the pyramids.
There are different varieties caused by cross-breeding over the years, and In some countries Guinea Fowl are still seen in the wild, hunted in the same way as pheasant or partridge are in the UK. The domesticated guinea fowl which are popular in this country are called helmeted guinea fowl (numida meleagris) the rare varieties are crested guinea fowl and vulturine guinea fowl but these are not available in the UK, although they can sometimes be seen in zoos.
Many people keep Guinea Fowl as pets or as a hobby, some like to specialise in one colour, others prefer a mixture.
The birds come in a variety of colours, some are solid colours others are pied (white areas). Most are pearled (white spots). The most popular colour is dark grey pearled, but light grey, white, buff, bronze (mulberry) and lavender are available either as solid colours or with spots, also many birds have white breast feathers.
I have found keeping Guinea fowl to be very easy, in small numbers they can be kept with other poultry, I have built mine there own “guinea house”, with two high perches made of rustic branches. Some people will tell you that Guinea fowl are wild and flighty, this can be true if you buy them as older birds, however if you can buy young birds (called Keets) then they will quickly get used to you and are nearly as tame as hens.
Guinea fowl do not like being handled; they will come close to you but will “explode” if you try to pick them up. If you do have to handle your Guineas I find it best after dark when they are in the henhouse, using as little light as possible. The Guineas have very close feathers and are much more slippery than a hen so you will have to hang on tight when you do manage to grab one.
Guinea Fowl can be very noisy when upset, this normally only happens if a stranger is in view but can also be caused by a rat or stoat, also a hawk or carrion crow in the vicinity. They are as good as geese as an early warning system.
Guinea fowl are cheap to keep, they eat a lot of grass and other greenery, so if you can keep them outdoors they won’t need a lot of extra food.
Mine are fed layers pellets in the morning and mixed corn when they are shut in at night, they love the corn and it is an excellent way of persuading them to go to bed in their house. I provide a drinker in the house and also a supply of grit, I use a fine oystershell poultry grit. I also worm my birds twice a year with flubenvet.
Guinea Fowl start laying in the late spring and will lay most days until late summer. One hen bird will lay up to 100 eggs a year, although I find that 50 or 60 is more normal.
They are not fussy about where they lay their eggs and you will find them under bushes or even on open ground. When they decide to build a nest, they will pick a very well hidden spot, usually in some long nettles ! here they scrape a shallow hole in the ground and will lay an egg in the nest almost every day.
Guinea fowl are well known for being poor parents. When the keets hatch the mother walks away and they are expected to follow, needless to say many don’t make it and Guineas often lose up to 75% of their brood this way. Keets are rather soft birds when hatched and will not tolerate damp, if they are on dew covered grass they can die, so it is important to keep them dry for the first few days.
Once I have found a guinea nest, I collect the eggs every evening and leave 3 or 4 rubber eggs in the nest so that the bird keeps laying there. The collected eggs are kept cool and turned daily.
I have found (through trial and error) that many of the temperatures and humidity levels suggested by books are wrong. I have kept careful records throughout the year and have found the optimum temperature to be 99.7 degrees Fahrenheit (37.6 degrees Centigrade), I also found that the humidity was best at 50% and only increased just before hatch. I stop turning the eggs at 24 days and most hatch at 26 days, although they can be a day or two either side.
After 26 days the keets began to hatch. They need careful watching at this point as old broken egg shells need removing from the incubator, otherwise they can get wrapped around a whole egg and give it a double layer, preventing hatching. Guinea fowl eggs are 4 times harder than hen eggs and only fit, healthy keets will hatch. Sometimes keets need a little help after chipping, under the shell is a membrane which quickly dries out and traps the keet inside, I gently prise bits of shell off with my fingernail until the keet can get out of the shell.
It is worth mentioning that keets have delicate legs and must be kept on a surface with enough texture for them to get a grip, newspaper or cardboard is too slippery and they will do the splits. I find very fine wire mesh, cloth or sandpaper is good. Once they have spraddle legs they will not walk properly again.
Once the keets have hatched in the incubator they have a few hours to dry out and “fluff up” they are then transferred into the brooder, this is kept at 30 degrees Centigrade, they have a small feeder and drinker and will stay in the brooder for 2 or 3 days.
Next the keets are transferred to a small run with a heat lamp over them. I use a dull emitter which gives off heat but no light, this is more natural for the birds. The lamp is started about 8 inches off the ground and is raised a little each week to lower the temperature and harden the birds off. The birds are fed chick crumb and have a constant supply of water.
If the weather is warm I would move the birds outside at 6 to 8 weeks, although I cover the run with clear plastic to keep any rain off the young birds
After 6 weeks I change the food from chick crumb onto growers pellets, these have the right balance of ingredients to help the birds from 6 weeks up to about 20 weeks.
Guinea Fowl are impossible to sex as young birds. I found the only way was to wait until they started calling at about 9 weeks. The call is a sure way of telling the Guinea fowl apart as only the females have a two note sound best described as “Pot-rack, Pot-rack”. The male birds produce a single note, be careful though because females can also produce a single call!
Much amusement was had sitting beside the pen waiting for the birds to call and when they did, marking them with the end of a stick dipped in food colouring. You could guarantee that the moment I sat down beside the pen there was not a sound and they all looked at me as if to say, “what are you waiting for?”
When the birds are a bit older the males can be identified by their larger wattles, and bigger helmet on their head.
I hope you have found my Guinea Fowl experiences interesting, and you may decide you would like to try it for yourself.
I sell young birds and hatching eggs during the season, please email me to register your interest and be added to my orders list.
Contact details are :- Andrew Nelson,
email :- guinea.fowl@live.co.uk
I can send eggs anywhere, but young birds need to be collected by you, my postcode is DL8 1TG so you can check the distance.
Eggs are £1.50 each plus p and p, day olds are £5 each and 8 week olds are £12 each.
Birds cannot be sexed as they need to start calling, which is 10 – 12 weeks.
I can try to provide specific colours for young birds to match your needs, however hatching eggs are mixed.
Payment is by paypal, BACS transfer, cheque or cash on collection. A deposit is required when you order birds.
Please give your full name and address with telephone number when you order.
The birds start laying in late April (depending on the weather) so keets will be available from June until October.
Links to useful sites
Guinea fowl international https://www.guineas.com/
Low impact https://www.lowimpact.org/categories/animals/guinea-fowl/
The incubator shop https://www.theincubatorshop.co.uk/
English country life https://englishcountrylife.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopd9A67rYNP8J8VumhGh0X77MsV-cbnNBHv0huPWDllJB6KCeF6
Brinsea incubators https://brinsea.co.uk/
I also have a lovely holiday cottage for two people, here in the Yorkshire Dales. You can stay for a week and see the guinea fowl each day!
Take a look at my website…