Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[PeepsCA]

The hassle I was refering to was the retraining of grown birds. I would not want guineas that have to remain caged all day. I like to watch them, they eat ticks, and of course have a better diet and eat less store bought food. I have mine in now because the few I have left are getting killed. They did not have enough time with a good flock to teach them to come home. As noted elsewhere, it's better to start over.

I wouldn't rely on your remaining Guineas to teach their keets to return to the coop each evening, or you may never have more than a few Guineas. A little effort put into some consistent treat training and establishing a coop-up routine with your birds can really go a long way when it comes maintaining a flock of Guineas that don't end up as predator food.

What a bummer that what's left of your flock now has to be penned/caged full-time (and possibly culled).

 

[RavenWood]

Your smaller Pearl Grey male and the Slate could be younger birds, which would account for the size difference. Looks like their casques are both a little less developed than the other birds' (which can be an indication of age). I'd say you are mostly correct on your gender guesses, but from what I see the Slate could go either way... young male or a Hen. Maybe try separating it to where it can't see the rest of the Guineas (or you) and see if it buck-wheats to the others. Hens will start usually singing right away from the separation anxiety. Great pics

Thanks PeepsCA - That was my thought on the slate too ... it calls a lot but never buck-wheat and yes, it's 'casques' (those are the wattle thingys I gather?) are smaller and sort of hang down rather than stick out. I guess we'll see. I have secured another hen so at least I'll have 2 or 3 if the slate turns out to be a female.

 

[PeepsCA]

The casque is the horn-like growth on top of their head.

The wattles are the cupped or flat red (or red and white) fleshy growths on each side of their face.

I see your Slate has flat, kind of rounded, lobe shaped wattles, but regardless of the shape wattles aren't always reliably indicator of the bird's sex. Usually the big huge cupped wattles means the bird is a male in my flocks, but the Hens can have the large cupped type too (tho usually not as large as the males' cupped wattles), both sexes can have the flat type, and either sex can have one of each kind... making sex confirmation difficult. Then there are the flat rounded lobe shape too, and I have had birds of both sexes with those as well.

Males typically have a more upright posture and an over all cocky/aggressive attitude, and the Hens are usually less aggressive, less alert to their surroundings and kind of hover closer to the ground most of the time (when they aren't standing up tall buck-wheating their heads off, lol). But I do have a few Hens that will mimic the male posture and aggressive behaviors (but they definitely buck-wheat and/or lay eggs, lol). I really only rely on the buck-wheat call as being 100% fail-proof to ID the Hens tho (or if I see them lay an egg).

Congrats on your 2nd Hen, hope you get lots of eggs this season.

 

[ms4runr]

I wouldn't rely on your remaining Guineas to teach their keets to return to the coop each evening, or you may never have more than a few Guineas. A little effort put into some consistent treat training and establishing a coop-up routine with your birds can really go a long way when it comes maintaining a flock of Guineas that don't end up as predator food.

What a bummer that what's left of your flock now has to be penned/caged full-time (and possibly culled).

I agree but it's been necessary this winter to save them. I still lost one because it flew out of the yard early evening and something got it by morning. I found one other out. Now I have 3 and only 1 or 2 are females to start another flock this summer. I'm putting fishing wire over the yard as soon as I can. I will start to let them out now that it's spring again. However, last Fall it was a losing battle to get them in at night. As posted before, I had to catch them at their 4-5pm feeding and close them in, even though dusk was not til 7pm. I'll do what I can, I prefer them out in the yard also. With only 3 birds I'm having to be more careful. I do not want to raise babies myself again. The mother does a fine job if she has some things controlled for her, in my opinion.

 

[hobbychicken]

I have a male chocolate and 2 chocolate hens and a white hen. For some reason only the whites eggs are fertile. Anyone know if the chocolates are harder to hatch? Also crossing chocolate to white what color will the offspring be ?

 

[PeepsCA]

I have a male chocolate and 2 chocolate hens and a white hen. For some reason only the whites eggs are fertile. Anyone know if the chocolates are harder to hatch? Also crossing chocolate to white what color will the offspring be ?

Mine aren't, so my guess is that your Chocolate male prefers your White Hen and is just not breeding the other 2 Hens.

Chocolate bred to White should produce all Pied Chocolate keets, but depending on what base color the White (Pied) is covering up on your White Hen, and what your Chocolate male may be carrying I can't say for sure what you will get. If the Hen is Pearl Grey based you may only get Pied Pearl Grey keets, but regardless of the color all of the keets should be Pied.

 

[hobbychicken]

[COLOR=4B0082]Mine aren't, so my guess is that your Chocolate male prefers your White Hen and is just not breeding the other 2 Hens.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=4B0082]Chocolate bred to White should produce all Pied Chocolate keets, but depending on what base color the White (Pied) is covering up on your White Hen, and what your Chocolate male may be carrying I can't say for sure what you will get. If the Hen is Pearl Grey based you may only get Pied Pearl Grey keets, but regardless of the color all of the keets should be Pied.[/COLOR]

thanks for the info. I am going to try and find another male to see if that helps.the white hen is out of whites so I guess I have chocolate pied keets , I am happy with that. I would love to find a buff male but they are non existing around here. Most people just have pearl grays.

 

[PeepsCA]

thanks for the info. I am going to try and find another male to see if that helps.the white hen is out of whites so I guess I have chocolate pied keets , I am happy with that. I would love to find a buff male but they are non existing around here. Most people just have pearl grays.

She may be out of pure White parents, but those pure Whites were covering up a base color just as she is. White is not really an actual color per say, it's more like a cover-up. Some believe it takes 2 copies of the Pied gene to produce pure Whites, some believe it takes 1 copy of Pied and one copy of a different type of (White) gene to produce White keets. In my flocks I get pure Whites from both types of breedings. Either way tho, the White is only covering up the base color of the bird, the color genes are still there and will show themselves in the hatches (unless the Hen is bred to another pure White bird).

It's not that likely you will get any Buffs in your hatches (and if by some chance you do, they will be Pied)... in order to hatch Buffs from your Hen's hatches she would need to be a genetically partially-pearled variety (covered up by the Pied/White) and then both parents would also have to be carrying the Buff color gene (hidden). The Pied gene only covers up the base colors tho, it doesn't dilute/lighten the colors.

The extra male should help the fertility problem (eventually after he is accepted by the flock), but your current male should eventually start breeding the other Hens. A single male Guinea can effectively cover up to 5 Hens with no problem... so I'd say he is either choosing not to breed them, or they are just not receptive to him, yet. Maybe they have fertility issues or something else going on with them, but it's hard to say. Are they all young birds?

 

[hobbychicken]

[COLOR=4B0082]She may be out of pure White parents, but those pure Whites were covering up a base color just as she is. White is not really an actual color per say, it's more like a cover-up. Some believe it takes 2 copies of the Pied gene to produce pure Whites, some believe it takes 1 copy of Pied and one copy of a different type of (White) gene to produce White keets. In my flocks I get pure Whites from both types of breedings. Either way tho, the White is only covering up the base color of the bird, the color genes are still there and will show themselves in the hatches (unless the Hen is bred to another pure White bird).[/COLOR]

[COLOR=4B0082]It's not that likely you will get any Buffs in your hatches (and if by some chance you do, they will be Pied)... in order to hatch Buffs from your Hen's hatches she would need to be a genetically partially-pearled variety (covered up by the Pied/White) and then both parents would also have to be carrying the Buff color gene (hidden). The Pied gene only covers up the base colors tho, it doesn't dilute/lighten the colors.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=4B0082]The extra male should help the fertility problem (eventually after he is accepted by the flock), but your current male should eventually start breeding the other Hens. A single male Guinea can effectively cover up to 5 Hens with no problem... so I'd say he is either choosing not to breed them, or they are just not receptive to him, yet. Maybe they have fertility issues or something else going on with them, but it's hard to say. Are they all young birds? [/COLOR]

this is the second breeding season for the white hen but the chocolates are less than a yr old. I figured that he just doesn't have it down yet or he is to obsessed with a Cornish hen that he sticks with all the time....lol

 

[hobbychicken]

I wish I could find info on colors. Like if you breed this to this you get this kinda thing. What colors produce what. I have searched the internet but not really anything that I have found.