Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[malinois]

Very interesting indeed. My first batch of Guineas were mail order, hatched inthe mail. Only one hen remains from that group..she is .3 yrs old, and she was different fromthe start. Noticeably.Those birds got hit by cars, taken by haawks, and raccoons. Current flock was raised by a mama guinea. Of 8 i have 7 left....they are going on two yrs old. The one that passed had a leg issue. These birds are being "pretty" smart or savy when it comes to survival, although i have one hen sitting on eggs, in the woods i think, in late october, in sw penna...not sure how smart that is.
Watching this thread. Thanks.

 

[duluthralphie]

I think you will find the mother doing a better job of raising them is a rare thing unless the mother and babies are locked up.

I have a much better hatch rate than the mothers here. In 2016 I hatched over 90%. My last batch was 72 eggs and I hatched 69. I think I lost 2 before I sold them at 8 weeks. I kept 25 of these for next years breeders.


As far as predators go, I think that is a local thing depending on how many predators you have and how easy other prey is to get. I lose most of my Guineas when they attempt to pull a highway robbery or decide to play chicken with the milk trucks.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I too have had better hatch rates with the incubator, but then again I've only had one (guinea) hen hatch out keets. Out of the five I let her keep she lost for the first day she took them for a walk about. My incubator keets go to an outdoor brooder that abutts the run on day 2 or 3 and start free ranging with the rest of the flock for a bit each day starting around 7-10 days. So far I have had much better results than I did with my traditionally brooded keets I got through mail order last summer.

 

[R2elk]

I think you will find the mother doing a better job of raising them is a rare thing unless the mother and babies are locked up.

I have a much better hatch rate than the mothers here. In 2016 I hatched over 90%. My last batch was 72 eggs and I hatched 69. I think I lost 2 before I sold them at 8 weeks. I kept 25 of these for next years breeders.


As far as predators go, I think that is a local thing depending on how many predators you have and how easy other prey is to get. I lose most of my Guineas when they attempt to pull a highway robbery or decide to play chicken with the milk trucks.

I get up to 100% hatch rate when I put my guinea eggs under my super broody chicken hens. This was the first year I allowed my guinea hens to hatch any eggs. (First time they ever went broody in the coop.) The hatch was so long and drawn out because of new eggs added every day that I had to put the last of the eggs in the incubator when the hens finally abandoned the nest. Those keets were already sold before they hatched so I kept taking the newly hatched keets on a daily basis to prevent anything happening to them. By the time the hatch ended, the first hatched keets were almost 2 weeks older than the last ones.

I have only lost one of my guineas to predators since I got back into raising them. The first flock was lost 100% to owls. The one I lost this time was lost because he spent the night outside of the coop (Couldn't find him at coop time.). I constantly remove predators other than birds of prey by keeping a live trap baited with an egg open to them at all times. I coop all the guineas at night to protect them from owls.

 

[Nickeyo]

Another interesting difference I've noted between broody hen reared vs brooder reared is thenguineas that have had a mother hen to follow seem to have much better stamina and, although mine are no different in temperament, if anything hen reared are tamer, the broody hen reared Guineas seem to be more inclined to go into trees, even if raised inside a run with nothing to fly onto. I've never tried raising them with a broody guinea fowl but as far as free ranging goes if they have a mother hen mine seem to be a lot better in general, even down to development. My chicks with a hen have much better quality feathering, with wing feathers much tougher and well formed where as brooder chicks seem to grow more sparse feathers. Next year I intended to get pictures of chicks of same age but different rearing methods to compare development, and survival rates and tactics.

 

[guineapeeps]

Another interesting difference I've noted between broody hen reared vs brooder reared is thenguineas that have had a mother hen to follow seem to have much better stamina and, although mine are no different in temperament, if anything hen reared are tamer, the broody hen reared Guineas seem to be more inclined to go into trees, even if raised inside a run with nothing to fly onto. I've never tried raising them with a broody guinea fowl but as far as free ranging goes if they have a mother hen mine seem to be a lot better in general, even down to development. My chicks with a hen have much better quality feathering, with wing feathers much tougher and well formed where as brooder chicks seem to grow more sparse feathers. Next year I intended to get pictures of chicks of same age but different rearing methods to compare development, and survival rates and tactics.

That is interesting. You will have to share your findings and pictures next year.
My keets that are raised under a broody guinea seem to be more wild, but less "freaky" overall, than ones that I've incubated. A few years ago I incubated a few batches of eggs. When the keets were old enough to free range, they were too scared to leave the coop for weeks. Once they did go out, they wouldn't eat any bugs. Finally the following spring, when they were almost a year old, they would go out and eat bugs with with others, like "normal" guineas.
I do think that the guinea raised keets are healthier, hardier, and grow much faster than the others but I'm guessing this is because they have a much higher protein diet since they are out eating mostly bugs from the time they are a few days old. I wonder if this affects things like the feathering differences you've seen as well?

 

[duluthralphie]

R2elk brought up something I overlooked. While I prefer incubator hatches to Guinea hen hatches, because I get better hatch rates and because guinea seem to think they get points for killing off their young fast...


My most preferred way to hatch and raise guineas is with a broody chicken. They do the best hatch rate, they protect the keets.better than a guinea does. They also socialize the keets to act semi normal. I have had keets follow their "adopted mother" for over a year. They have such a strong pack sense they just seem to imprint on the chicken for years.

I think they avoid committing highway robbery for a few months too.

 

[GlennLee]

R2elk brought up something I overlooked. While I prefer incubator hatches to Guinea hen hatches, because I get better hatch rates and because guinea seem to think they get points for killing off their young fast...


My most preferred way to hatch and raise guineas is with a broody chicken. They do the best hatch rate, they protect the keets.better than a guinea does. They also socialize the keets to act semi normal. I have had keets follow their "adopted mother" for over a year. They have such a strong pack sense they just seem to imprint on the chicken for years.

I think they avoid committing highway robbery for a few months too.

Many people have good luck using Silkies to hatch and raise Guineas. Are there other breeds of chickens that people use as well with good results?

 

[holm25]

One of my "pied" Guineas. She is the loudest of them all! But we love their racket!

 

[duluthralphie]

Looks like good stock

Where is the white on this one? The one of the left is cool