Guinea's sexing

[JR]

I am new to Guineas and have heard that you can not sex them.Is it true the only way to tell is if they lay eggs they are females?Are the males and females really that much a like?

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

Males screech mostly and hens are the ones that make the famous "buckwheat" call. Both will screech when alarmed though so try to listen when they are calm. I noticed but this isn't always true that males develop larger horns. Though I've had a hen or two with big horns too. I heard something about the wattles too but that escapes me at the moment.

 

[goldensunriseranch]

The adult males have larger cupped wattles, and the females have small wattles in comparison. Also the males have a larger helmet on their head. Other than that they are pretty much identical besides the female's buckwheat call.

 

[goldensunriseranch]

Did a quick search to see if I could come up with a pic that had both genders in it so you could see the difference. This pic has the male above and the hen below. Hope it helps!

http://members.aol.com/CELESTmich/picscel/wattles.jpg
and
http://members.aol.com/celestmich/picscel/henncock.jpg

 

[sandspoultry]

Another way to tell is feel the pelvic bones. Hold the guinea right side up and run your fingers down the keel toward the vent. On the females you can get one or two fingers between the pelvic bones on the male they will be very close together almost touching. We had an "old timer" show us that way and it is very accurate once you do a few and can feel the difference. When you think about it, it makes sense as the hen has to be "wider" to pass eggs.

Steve in NC

 

[goldensunriseranch]

Hey that's a great method! So long as you can catch them I guess!! HEHE
How young does that work? Or is that for adults only?
I love learning new tricks of the trade.

 

[sandspoultry]

About 2 months old you can start to feel the difference, the older they are the easier it is to feel. If you are just learning it's really easy to feel on one that is laying.

Steve in NC