Are French Guineas More Profitable?

[babalubird]

We are starting poultry in hopes of making profit. So far we have Production red chickens for egg production, barred rocks for egg and chick sales, a small start of Khaki Campbell ducks for duck egg and chick production. We want to add guineas for both insect and snake control and sales. We plan to add broiler chickens next spring so I figured starting w/French guineas would be better so excess could be slaughtered and sold for meat or the eggs or off=spring sold as well. Any input as to whether we are on the right or wrong track on this would be greatly appreciated. Yes, I know in most cases the French have to be artificially inseminated. Thanks.

Connie

 

[PeepsCA]

If you don't want to deal with AI, the Jumbo Guineas are a larger bird like the French Guineas, but are said to breed naturally IF they are allowed to free range a lot.

 

[Sandara]

Are you sure about the AI issue in french guineas? I talked to a guy last week who raised them for a while and said he had no problems naturally hatching his! He said that when you free range your guineas there are no problems. Just wondering, because I have 57 four week old french guineas!

 

[PeepsCA]

No, I've never raised them, but that's the info I've read on several sites, and on some breeder's websites too. Supposedly the Frenches have problems completing the act of breeding due to their size.

I assume that the free ranged Jumbos being able to breed/reproduce fine is due to the free ranging slimming the birds down some (which kind of defeats the meat bird purpose) allowing them to breed naturally, so this may pertain to French Guineas as well. Most breeders that raise Frenches for meat production raise them in pens to maximize size and weight, rather than free ranging them tho.


Since you have so many babalu, maybe you could try both situations and see how they do

 

[babalubird]

Thanks, everyone. Well, I was interested in the Jumbos, but I understand they take longer to reach the same weights, therefore not as good on the food to production ratio.

Yes, I've read if the French free-range, there is a better chance of successful breediing. If I can learn the art of IA though, not sure I want to leave it all to chance. There was a good video on Youtube at one time on how to "AI" the guineas. It didn't look that difficult.

Thanks, everyone, again. Connie

 

[Sandara]

That is one thing about Guineas, everyone out there seems to be saying different things. You could be right about the size of the bird, but since I am raising them to eat ticks and bugs and not meet size is not an issue. We'll just have to wait and see what happens... Thanks for your input.
BTY, I only ordered 30, they messed up and sent 61! I sold 4 to someone nearby. Got my hands full!

 

[rhodesfarm]

We have free range French guineas. Before we read that they need to be AI'd to breed, we tried to hatch many of their eggs in an incubator and candled them. Not a single one has been fertile. Granted, we are not super experienced with hatching, but one would expect at least one of the 50-60 eggs would have be fertile. So, our experiences have been consistent with the opinion that French guineas are not great at natural repro- even in a free range state.

 

[zita]

I hope this is the right place to put this question. Couldn't you mix in normal sized guinea males with the french guineas to obtain fertilized eggs?

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:
If you find the formula to make a profit, please let us know!

Most here sell eggs and chicks, poults, keets, ect just to help out with the high feed bills.

 

[racuda]

Quote:
If you find the formula to make a profit, please let us know!

Most here sell eggs and chicks, poults, keets, ect just to help out with the high feed bills.

I'm happy to break even! This year I'm finally doing it. I've spent $350 on feed and made $450 on chicks, keets and eggs. By the end of the year I should be just about even. The thing that has helped me the most is selling guinea eggs on ebay. I've sold about 20 dozen so far.