a few guinea questions ?

[m.hubbard]

hay all iv had guineas for a few months now and was wondering a few things.

i was wondering about a cermercial setup .but im not to sure on a few things .

i now the basics of good house keeping for the birds .

i was just wondering at what age the birds start laying .and at what age you could send them for slaughter?

the only reason im asking is that no one around my area breeds them or sells there eggs and i thought it would be nice to have sumthing diffrent to chicken or turkey.

i would free range them
id make sure id have a place with plenty of bushes for there food in the day i would have them on growers for the night time or layers mash.
plenty of fresh water and nest boxes.
(not that mine use them .lol)
id like to suply people with fertile eggs or chicks to .

if anyone can think of anything iv missed or any advise would be great .m

p.s i live in the uk if this is a hinder im willing to travel sumware hotter.lol

 

[jvls1942]

guineas born this season usually lay eggs the next season.. they lay eggs after it warms up in the spring and stop when it cools off in the fall..

freeranging is a noble thought, but not practical.. there are 101 different predators out to get them.. the light colored ones get it first. like white, slate and light gray..

they can hide a nest like you wouldn't believe . and while they are hiding and hatching their eggs, they are not laying eggs..

they make lousy mothers, and if you do not catch he keets the same day they hatch or within a couple of days after, most of them will die.. the keets have to be kept dry.. the mothers lead them through dew covered grass and they get wet and chill and die..

they do not taste like chicken and you might find it difficult to sell the meat to people who are not familiar with it..

If you are going to sell hatching eggs and live birds, you are going to undermine your market..

just a few thoughts.. IMHO

PS I sell upwards of 300 keets per season..

good luck.. I really hope your plans work out.. go in gradually and don't sink in a lot of money to start

 

[m.hubbard]

wow thanks for the info.

i take it i need to figure out wether or not to have them for meat or eggs ?

the selling keets or eggs was just an idea for bringing in a bit of cash while i was waiting them to either lay or ready for the pot .

the preditor parts not to much of a concern as like rats you expect to see some or lose sum .

.im taking it if i want them for eggs id have to keep them indoors .witch im not that keen on

.iv bin breeeding chickens for a few yrs so iv got my broody hens for incubators and mothers .

and the taste of the birds isnt too much of a concern as iv allready got three local buthers that have game from me .and are willing to try it as thay carnt get enough at the min as it's not breed localy .
thos why id like to give it ago.

wow 300 thats a nice number do you just sell keets or do you have them for meat and eggs.m

 

[jvls1942]

m.hubbard :

wow thanks for the info.

i take it i need to figure out wether or not to have them for meat or eggs ?

the selling keets or eggs was just an idea for bringing in a bit of cash while i was waiting them to either lay or ready for the pot .

the preditor parts not to much of a concern as like rats you expect to see some or lose sum .

.im taking it if i want them for eggs id have to keep them indoors .witch im not that keen on

.iv bin breeeding chickens for a few yrs so iv got my broody hens for incubators and mothers .

and the taste of the birds isnt too much of a concern as iv allready got three local buthers that have game from me .and are willing to try it as thay carnt get enough at the min as it's not breed localy .
thos why id like to give it ago.

wow 300 thats a nice number do you just sell keets or do you have them for meat and eggs.m

You do not have to keep them indoors, just teach them to come in at night, every night..

brooding them with chickens is a good idea.. that is what we do if we intend to keep some.. the chickens have a very calming affect on them. and they learn to do what the chickens do.. especially come into the coop at night..

we cannot sell game .. It is against the hunting laws..

If you have even one butcher shop to sell your birds to, go for it.. you have 3, een better.. guinea is substituted for pheasant in some restaurants.. I prefer guinea for taste..

I hatch every egg I can get my hands on.. I sell only keets.. no eggs, no meat.. I have 3 cabinet incubators running about 8 month out of the year 200 eggs each..

I hatch guineasturkeys,ducks,geese and turkeys.. I have 2 pea fowl eggs going right now, also..​

 

[citrusdreams]

I free range my guineas with my chickens all day and they *usually* come in at night with the chickens and roost in the rafters of the henhouse. Sometimes though, when the weather is nice, they'll roost in a big tree outside the henhouse instead

Otherwise, they stay with the chickens. They range during the day over a few acres. I'd say about 10 acres.

I can never find their eggs though, so good luck

They browse for their food, plus they get layer mash with the chickens.

 

[jvls1942]

do you know what they call a guinea who roosts in a tree at night?? lunch !!

mine freerange with the chickens and lay their eggs in the coop nests.. and we make sure they are in at night..

 

[Aj1911]

there is no day time predator that will tangle with a guinea and live to tell the tale if there's enough of them, my 4 will chase cats/dogs. i've heard of them nearly killing hawks as they swoop down to take 1.

now at night thats when you can lose them so its best to train them to come in at night.

 

[Debbienmousey]

"at what age the birds start laying?"
Guineas will normally start laying the spring after they were hatched. (If you have them just hatched or young now, they won't lay till spring of 2010.)

"at what age you could send them for slaughter?"
As for slaughtering them, I don't know what age you'd do it. Probably as soon as their full grown. I've never eaten/killed a guinea but I hear they are good eats and I'm sure that if we ever get "too many" (haha like that can happen right?) then we'll start eating them.

"i would free range them"
Guineas do great free-ranging! Actually, I don't think they're happy with anything less. Of course how many you lose will depend on your area and predator population. I do not agree that guineas are easy targets. The only times a guinea is an easy target is A) when it's young and B) when it's nesting. Out of all my guineas that have been eaten by predators, only 1 was eaten when she was not nesting. We have never lost a guinea cock to a predator. Now, we also have free-range chickens and the predators take a big toll on them.

"id make sure id have a place with plenty of bushes for there food in the day i would have them on growers for the night time or layers mash."
You will probably want a coop for the guineas to come back to every night. You can keep there feeder in the coop. Grower will be fine until they reach adulthood and then they should have laying pellets/mash during the laying season (Although pretty much all my guinea hens lay an egg a day if they have a nest. I assume they would with or without layer pellets also.). On the off season just get them some sort of a complete regular feed(Sorry I don't know what kind..We have guineas and chickens mixed together so the chickens always get layer pellets and scratch.)

"plenty of fresh water and nest boxes."
You definitely want the fresh water, but I doubt they'll use the nest boxes. Now, if you make the nest boxes so that they're moreso just pieces of wood against the wall with some clean hay inside, they might get used. Will this be a guinea only flock? If so then it's fairly likely that some of the guinea hens will nest in their coop. (Mine have tried to nest in the coop but the chickens scratch out their nest!!!)

"id like to supply people with fertile eggs or chicks to"
It's sounds like you'd have a really good market for at least the first year. I know of one guy who has been doing guineas are years and selling both hatching eggs and keets. He still gets lots of business every year and even though we already have guineas we would buy some more from him if he had colors that we didn't have. I would definitely go mainly with broody chickens if you can. Guinea eggs seem to hatch better under chickens than in the incubator. (At least for me they do)

Overall, I think you'll do really good with guineas. Of course we do need some pictures of them..

 

[jvls1942]

foxes, owls, hawks, fishers, weasels,mink, coyotes wolves, are just a few daytime predators that will gladly take a guinea hen or rooster and live to come back for more..

guineas will use nest boxes in a coop to lay eggs in as well as to hatch eggs..

just because one person's don't do it does not make it a hard rule..

as a matter of fact, just today I had a guinea and a chicken each laying an egg together in the same nest inside the coop.. this is not an isolated occurance around here.. my royal palm hens and muscovy ducks frequently lay their eggs in the chicken nests.....

 

[Debbienmousey]

I'm sorry that I came across that way.

Of course I did not mean that guineas won't use nest boxes. It's obvious that some do because yours do and actually, mine have laid in the nest boxes twice, they just don't do it often. I was speaking my personal opinion from my personal experiences with my birds. Every bird is different. Every flock is different. Just like I wanted to get across that guineas are not always easy targets during the day. If you have chickens then the hawks, foxes, and most other predators will likely go for them instead of the guineas.