Domesticated vs Indigenous Helmeted Guinea Fowl

[R2elk]

How many broods do free-range domestic guineas have in one breeding season?

Normally just one. Not all domestic guinea hens will go broody.

 

[Gill-b]

How long is the breeding season where you are @R2elk ?

 

[Gill-b]

I witnessed my first live (in person) Guinea Fowl courtship and mating display this morning, and it was between two Guineas that already have keets which are been looked after mainly by the male. So I am wondering if I can rightly assume that the female is back on a nest?

The courtship involved a lot of chasing and light pecking. The female pecked the male a few times and this seemed to excite him.

 

[R2elk]

How long is the breeding season where you are @R2elk ?

Egg laying may not start until a month or more after breeding starts.

Egg laying for yearling hens may start near the end of March and run through October. As the hens get older, they may not start laying until the end of May and finish in September.

Broody season may not start until late June or July.

 

[R2elk]

I witnessed my first live (in person) Guinea Fowl courtship and mating display this morning, and it was between two Guineas that already have keets which are been looked after mainly by the male. So I am wondering if I can rightly assume that the female is back on a nest?

The courtship involved a lot of chasing and light pecking. The female pecked the male a few times and this seemed to excite him.

Breeding will take place well before egg laying starts. Egg laying starts well before being broody starts.

She may not go broody for another month.

 

[Gill-b]

I wonder if there are many domestic guineas kept in your area, and if they differ at all from the domestic guineas we can get here.

A friend of mine who lives in Swakopmund, which is a coastal town in Namibia, sent me some photographs of Guinea Fowl that had wandered into his garden this past weekend.

[For those that might not know, Namibia is a neighbouring county north of South Africa.]

Namibia_South_Africa_Locator.png

• Gill-b
• Today at 7:20 AM

I was interested to see that the Guineas in his pictures are hybrids (between domesticated and wild guineafowl)...

2025-11-30 Namibia 05.jpg

• Gill-b
• Today at 7:20 AM

2025-11-30 Namibia 04.jpg

• Gill-b
• Today at 7:20 AM

2025-11-30 Namibia 03.jpg

• Gill-b
• Today at 7:20 AM

2025-11-30 Namibia 02.jpg

• Gill-b
• Today at 7:20 AM

2025-11-30 Namibia 01.jpg

• Gill-b
• Today at 7:20 AM

 

[R2elk]

They may be crosses but are not hybrids since both versions are Helmeted guinea fowl.

 

[Gill-b]

They may be crosses but are not hybrids since both versions are Helmeted guinea fowl.

Not so according to the University article on the subject, which I posted a link to in this thread...

The FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, were grated permission by Africa Geographic to post PDFs of the "News from the FitzPatrick Institute" pages from the bimonthly "Africa - Birds & Birding" magazine on the Institute's website. Unfortunately, the magazine was discontinued in 2012, but selected articles contributed by FitzPatrick staff and students are still available for download. While browsing through their website I came across this interesting article about domesticated and indigenous Helmeted Guinea Fowl:

Hybridisation and the Helmeted Guineafowl

 

[R2elk]

Not so according to the University article on the subject, which I posted a link to in this thread...

They are both the same breed. The use of the term hybrid is inappropriate when applied to a cross between two different varieties of the same breed.

You can see this misuse very often as an advertising tool when White Leghorns are advertised as hybrids. They use selective line breeding to cross four different lines of White Leghorns to produce the final high production White Leghorns they are selling as hybrids. They aren't hybrids because all of the birds involved are White Leghorns.