Keep and raising guinea fowl in your backyard or farm is surely a good trade. Guinea fowls are also known as “speckled hens” belong to family Numididae. These fowls are native to Africa and are also considered as one of the oldest birds of order Gallinaceous. T
These birds are also known as guineas and are very common. Many types of guinea fowls belong to this family but most common or they are helmeted guinea fowl that have a helmet like a knob on its head. Another common type is crested guinea fowl. Besides different types, guinea fowls also occur in different colors. The most common colors are pearl, bronze, coral blue, white, chocolate, and royal purple. In short, they exhibit great diversity among them.
So raising a guinea fowl is one of the beneficial deals that one can make. Here are some tips and tricks required to raise the fowls very efficiently and easily.
Raising Guinea Fowl- All you Need to Know
Aside from their appearance guinea fowls are very hardy, active, vigorous, and free of disease fowls. Moreover, keeping guinea fowls has many benefits, for example, raising a fowl will help to protect farms from rodents and other animals, they also make noise whenever there is some danger that can help to protect the land. One of the most important benefits of guinea fowl is there pest control ability.
Yes! Guinea fowl feed on pests and small insects that largely effect garden so they are one of the effective and eco-friendly ways to control pest in farmland. They remove pests so efficiently that they do not affect the flowers or vegetation.
They are also known to consume wood ticks, grasshoppers, slugs, crickets, and deer ticks that are responsible for causing Lyme disease in the farmers.
Raising Guinea Fowl Keets:
If you are interested in raising guinea fowl then buy keets, not the adults. Keets are easy to acclimatize and tame. They require initial care but after that, they are easily adjusted in the environment you provide for them.
Whereas adult fowls require time to adjust themselves in totally new conditions. Moreover, they are hardy and it’s difficult to train them.
Proper shelter:
One of the most important things required for raising guinea fowl is providing Shelter. This shelter protects them from heat, cold, wind, sun, and rain. It also protects them from predators.
If shelter is not there guinea will roost and rest into the tress away from the farm and scattered. So shelter is very important to keep them close under supervision.
Acclimatize shelter:
The shelter can be a barn room, a cage, or a shed made up of simple wires. The cage must have enough space so it should not suffocate or stress the fowl. Moreover, the floor must be covered with some absorbent material. This material can include wood splinters, straw, and hay. This absorbent must be kept dry because guinea prefers to roost in dry places. Moreover, the moist floor cannot remove cold effectively, and further, it can also cause many respiratory problems in the birds.
Maintaining optimum temperature is necessary
Another reason to keep Guinea in captivity is the fact that they are mind-blowing runners and like to wander on their feet. They can also fly up to 400-500 ft. and hence are good fliers as well. So it is very crucial to keep them in a place where they cannot run away.
To provide an appropriate shelter is one of the most important tips for raising guinea fowl.
Feed for raising Guinea Fowl:
The feed is the most important factor for raising any pet or animals. The feed must consist of required food items to fulfill the nutrients requirements. Guinea fowls mostly feed on their own. Adult fowls forage and eat a variety of things including pests, insects, slugs, ticks, beetles, and worms. They also consume some grass, weed, dandelions, wheat, sorghum, and few other vegetation to maintain good digestion. Moreover, they also require grit for proper digestion.
Feed & Diet
So, these food requirements are very necessary for raising guinea fowl. Another important tip regarding their food requirement is that if they are not allowed to forage themselves you must use manufactured diet free of any medication to fulfill their nutritional requirements.
Protein levels:
Guinea fowl require more protein content than chicken so poultry diet must fulfill this.
Keets require 24 to 26% of the protein in their feed initially and after 8 weeks this content can be reduced to 16%. So you must adjust protein levels when raising guinea fowl.
Easy to raise:
Although some conditions must be met for raising guinea fowl especially for keets. But once they are grown-up you do not have to take care of their feed all the time they manage to fulfill their requirement by consuming bugs and insects.
Keets are easy to train
You have to take care of them in winters when there are no bugs. Otherwise, they are not very sensitive and can be raised easily.
Nest boxes for Raising Guinea fowl:
If you are raising guinea fowl to increase the breed you must keep nest boxes in the shelter. For keeping the fowl into the box try to keep them in the nest or hen boxes from morning to noon so they will lay eggs in the boxes and not outside.
Brooding & Nurturing:
The breeding season of Guinea fowl starts from March and ends in October. A guinea fowl managed properly can lay up to 100 eggs in a year. The incubation period for these fowls is 26-28 days. So if you want a proper brood condition must be optimized according to their requirement.
The most crucial time comes after the eggs are hatched. Chicks of these fowls are very susceptible to the moisture that it can kill them. So for raising guinea fowl keets, the temperature must be optimized. For example, during the first two weeks of hatching temperature must be kept at 95°F and after that, you must lower it by 5°F every week.
Temperature optimization
To attain such temperature infrared lamps can be used. These are the easiest way to provide heat for nurturing the keets. Use two bulbs in case one is burn out then the other is present to keep them warm and dry.
Hang these lamps properly and adjust the temperature by adjusting their lengths.
Moreover, keets’ behavior helps you to decide whether the temperature is good or not. For example, if keets are collected under the lamp they are too cold, if they are sitting far away from the lamp they are feeling too hot. If the keets are evenly distributed around the area then the temperature is moderate and even throughout the room. So you must keep an eye on them and protect them from extreme weather conditions until they are fully feathered.
Guinea keets are easy to tame. So once they reached the feathered stage start training them. Keep them in captivity as they are excellent fliers and roost up in trees if they need them. Clip their feathers properly so they cannot fly until they are tamed.
After clipping feathers keep them in an open but netted area so they get used to it and remain on the ground in a confined area.
Let them free:
Guinea fowls do not like human interruption too much. Once you have cut their feathers let them free. Let them do what they want to do. They like to roam around finding bugs, pests and insects so do not try to hold them.
Control Pests:
Raising guinea fowl is very beneficial. They are excellent bug zappers. They will run here and there in your garden or yard to catch them so let them do so your garden will be free of bugs.
Moreover, they are efficient for consuming pests and killing snakes in your garden/farm. So if you are raising Guinea fowls you do not need to worry about the small irritating creatures.
Good Instinct:
Guinea fowls as compared to chickens have a very good instinct of predators. They can smell them far before they are reaching. After that, they not only hide and protect themselves but also the chickens living with them.
So if you are raising guinea fowl you do not need to worry much about the predator attack. So taking care of these fowls is a bit easy.
Conclusion:
Guinea fowls are very common and are easily domesticated. They do not require great efforts to raise them. Moreover after reading these simple and effective tips one can easily manage to raise these birds in their yards. They are not just pet birds but are also very beneficial to the one raising them
I am an Environmentalist & a Teacher. I have completed my masters from the University of Punjab & I like birds because of their beauty and ability to fly high. I freelance at Fiverr as well.
I am an Environmentalist & a Teacher. I have completed my masters from the University of Punjab & I like birds because of their beauty and ability to fly high. I freelance at Fiverr as well.
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