How much do guinea fowl cost?

The keets at the feed store were $3.35 a keet. A lot cheaper than any where else!

Here in Central Texas ( Austin area) we have 50-75 free range guineas that we find nest and hatch the eggs. We sell day old chicks for $2.50 each, minimum of 10, and they are $2 each for 20 or more. Most people that come will buy all that we have ( hatches range from 40-100). We are not in the Guinea business - we want them gone ASAP to make room for other things.

We usually keep about 20 for ourselves every year to make up for losses. If we had a good year and didn't lose many we will sell grown birds at $12 each.

Bob

bird fowl equin said:

I don't think they are hard to find at all in the us I can go to a local action and buy like six for $5.00 each or less and facebook people sell a lot to so I would look in to local action and things like that and online like craiges list ad ebay even .

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I think you are looking at regular Guineas at your auctions, not Vulturine. Vulturine go for about $1000 - $1500 a pair last time I had seen them for sale. Very hard to raise, very aggressive and super sensitive to everything(so heated house, planted aviaries, special diet etc etc, meaning - don't even look at them sideways that may make them keel over).

Regular guineas around here go for about $10-12 for day-olds to couple month olds, adults depending on colour go from $20(greys)-$75(purples)-$125(slates, coral blues etc) a piece.

The regular helmet Guineas do just fine in Canadian climate, like anything as long as they can get out of drafts they do perfectly fine.

fancyfowl4ever said:

I think you are looking at regular Guineas at your auctions, not Vulturine. Vulturine go for about $1000 - $1500 a pair last time I had seen them for sale. Very hard to raise, very aggressive and super sensitive to everything(so heated house, planted aviaries, special diet etc etc, meaning - don't even look at them sideways that may make them keel over).

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Not sure about your source, but vulturines are not only fairly easy to raise but very docile, even passive, especially compared to helmeted guineas. Your right on as far as price, I will sell this years juveniles for $500 unsexed, $1200 a pair DNA sexed. They do fine in below freezing weather, I live in the mountains above Lake Tahoe, as long as they are protected from the wind. I do heat my barns, but the birds can go outside everyday unless it is windy or there is a storm and I have had no problems.

Vulturinea guineas eat a lot of greens, so my flight cages are bare earth, there are no plants in them, the diet I give them is the same as I give my chickens and jungle fowl, crumble mixed with assorted grain, chicken scratch, and for them and the jungle fowl I add live mealworms, and fresh cut up greens, fruits, and vegetables. I add crushed oyster shell to the crumble for calcium, but no other vitamins or additives. I call them when I feed the mealworms so now when I call they all come running right to me but they are not tame, the won't let me touch them but one will take a mealworm out of my fingers.

Here are a couple of pictures of juveniles from last year.

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philter4 said:

Not sure about your source, but vulturines are not only fairly easy to raise but very docile, even passive, especially compared to helmeted guineas. Your right on as far as price, I will sell this years juveniles for $500 unsexed, $1200 a pair DNA sexed. They do fine in below freezing weather, I live in the mountains above Lake Tahoe, as long as they are protected from the wind. I do heat my barns, but the birds can go outside everyday unless it is windy or there is a storm and I have had no problems.

Vulturinea guineas eat a lot of greens, so my flight cages are bare earth, there are no plants in them, the diet I give them is the same as I give my chickens and jungle fowl, crumble mixed with assorted grain, chicken scratch, and for them and the jungle fowl I add live mealworms, and fresh cut up greens, fruits, and vegetables. I add crushed oyster shell to the crumble for calcium, but no other vitamins or additives. I call them when I feed the mealworms so now when I call they all come running right to me but they are not tame, the won't let me touch them but one will take a mealworm out of my fingers.

Here are a couple of pictures of juveniles from last year.

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An Guy I know has a heck of a time raising them and keeping them alive, and he has had them for years. Only successful setup he had with his was with an almost tropical set-up similar to that for the more sensitive junglefowl.
His seem to attempt to mutilate and kill eachother over everything and don't make eye contact they go through the roof or bust their heads trying.

He originally got them from a zoo which warned him to not have a grain based diet for them that its not good for their system and will kill them eventually.

fancyfowl4ever said:

An Guy I know has a heck of a time raising them and keeping them alive,  and he has had them for years. Only successful setup he had with his was with an almost tropical set-up similar to that for the more sensitive junglefowl.
His seem to attempt to mutilate and kill eachother over everything and don't make eye contact they go through the roof or bust their heads trying.

He originally got them from a zoo which warned him to not have a grain based diet for them that its not good for their system and will kill them eventually.

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Maybe that is why he had so much trouble, they feed on seeds, grasses, and some insects in the wild so a seed and green diet with mealworms is ideal. Also they don't live in the tropics, they live in savanna habitat of east Africa, basically from Ethiopia south to Tanzania. Any quick internet search on diet lists seeds as the main part of the diet along with fresh plants completing the rest of the main food in the wild and the same should be used captivity with good quality crumble added along with fresh alfalfa and greens plus insects also being important.

I have never seen aggression with mine, I have hept them with immature grey jungle fowl and several different pheasant species, the guy I got mine from keeps his breeders with pheasants. I don't doubt under some conditions they can be aggression, especially under stress, but in my experience (I've kept them for over 6 years total split between 2 different times) I've never had trouble except when I moved to FL and the only thing I can figure out is the constant humidity and rain caused them to stop producing eggs, as soon as I brought them back to CA I got eggs again within month.

Just a quick background so you know where I'm coming from, I have raised and bred animals, mostly mammals and reptiles, for breeding projects and zoos for 34 years, so I have sometimes had animals that were not common in captivity, I always study diet of the animal in the wild first, with vulturines I first got mine from breeders in TX and they kept them with caging and diet very similar to what I have now, and the current source of my birds is local so I've seen his set up. I hope this is helpful if someone reading this wants to get vulturine guineas, other then cost they are not too different in care from domestic guineas, but I wouldn't free range them!

I am raising my first batch of keets. I paid 5 for four of them and 3 for the fifth because it was the last one they had. I have achieved crazy keet lady status. They are being brooded indoors. Between food and treats probiotic water mix, I have probably already spent 300 easy. I was buying them crickets (1000 a box for 27 bucks, bought 3 boxes) gut loading them and giving them to them. Not to mention the dried mealworms ( are those things made of gold? 20 bucks for 30oz bags). Mine come when they are called and are pretty easily handled. If I had to put a price nobody would pay it. I would ask 80-100 a bird just for the work, time and money invested, and their exemplary health. Lol. I am sure I would get told where to go by most people. Haha.

I do have an interested buyer crazy enough. I have to transport them from Indiana to Georgia, gas paid for by them. Any tips on transporting them and transitioning them to their less cushy far away digs?

It depends on where you live, time of year, age, and color mutation of the guineas. I breed royal purples and they go for $5 for day olds, $8 for 2-4 week olds, and $15-$20 for adults. Of course this is all during the summer and spring when they are in demand. During fall and winter babies are $5 and adults are $8.

Guinea fowl this year went for 25 (lowest price I saw at auction) this spring. Most went for 30. Pearl gray/Whites. I bought 5 then decided I wanted more. Bought 10 keets for 100. 4 royal purple 2 blue 3 lavender and 1 white. Lost 1. The lady I bought them from sell pairs of adults for 100.