Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[Chaneys Ranch]

The lavenders are gorgeous. My neighbor who owns the parents of my guineas just hatched out a random lavender in their last year babies. I'm so jealous. I think Im done with hatching guineas for right now though, I seem to have five male and five female that have paired off and just started mating and laying eggs. I so dont have room for more guineas right now as cute as they are as keets. They are like puppies, they start out little and cute but rapidly get bigger, louder and more challenging. As i write this tonight, I currently have one guinea missing and am worried sick. I think its a female but not 100% sure as two guineas lost thier legbands and cant tell which one is missing right yet..... Hope to shout that she doesnt come home with babies in a month. Gonna launch an all out search for her tomorrow, the weather here is miserable and they are like my kids. She has been gone for a full 24 hours to date. Wierd the male didn't stay with her.....crossing my fingers to fiind her though.

I have 3 this year, they are very attractive! One has imprinted on my pearl and the lavender hen. The other cock has chosen my whites.. all is good for me! White seems to be a dominant color...

 

[Tikkijane]

The lavenders are gorgeous. My neighbor who owns the parents of my guineas just hatched out  a random lavender in their last year babies. I'm so jealous. I think Im done with hatching guineas for right now though, I seem to have five male and five female that have paired off and just started mating and laying eggs. I so dont have room for more guineas right now as cute as they are as keets. They are like puppies, they start out little and cute but rapidly get bigger, louder and more  challenging. As i write this tonight, I currently have one guinea missing and am worried sick. I think its a female but not 100% sure as two guineas lost thier legbands and cant tell which one is missing right yet..... Hope to shout that she doesnt come home with babies in a month. Gonna launch an all out search for her tomorrow, the weather here is miserable and they are like my kids. She has been gone for a full 24 hours to date. Wierd the male didn't stay with her.....crossing my fingers to fiind her though. 

Find her as soon as you can. I waited 2 days. The first night we got into the woods as much as we could; second day looked again. That afternoon, we went looking because I was missing another 2 (neither were her mate, though). I found a pile of her feathers (don't think that pile was survivable) and then my two white males were gone; one of which my border collie found and retrieved the parts which we buried.

I hate to do it, but the rest are mostly cooped (no run because we free range) with limited outside time now until I can either convince them to sit on their new eggs inside or my keets get here at the end of May. Either way, I am not happy with the solution right now because they can't do their jobs, but I'm also not happy about the idea of them getting picked off one by one.

I hope you find her. My girl's mate didn't stay out with her, either, but given the daytime decapitation, I am thinking fox. It was worth the massive bramble sticks/scratches and the ticks we came back with, but I'd still rather not have a repeat. :/

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Hello:

This is a REAL problem with the Guinea Hens. They nest on the ground and use a place that one has a difficult time finding.
Although the hens will lay in the same nest, one of them ends up sitting and incubation takes 28 dang days.
I have found MANY a nest with a few eggs left and a pile of feathers. Knowing that that hen has left this earth always makea me
very sad and a bit angry.
I NOW pin the hens up during egg laying season. I plan on making a large run for them this summer.
I do let them free range in the early spring and late fall.
If i do happen to find a nest I take the eggs except a few and mark the ones left behind so I do not take these.
This way the hens tend to lay, but do not start to sit.
Guinea hens do not like nesting boxes so I put a large pile of hay in their enclosure and let them take care of their nesting needs.
The boys go out and free range all summer.
I wish Guinea Hens were like chicken hens.
Guinea G.

 

[nate1the1great1]

My guineas were raised with my ducks in the same pen until the male kept trying to kill my ducks then we ate him and he was delicious

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

My hens are laying

1st guinea egg today, and its a new layer too!

 

[nate1the1great1]

Thats EGGtastic

 

[Tacampbell1973]

My hens are laying

1st guinea egg today, and its a new layer too!

Congratulations! Well, i didn't find my missing hen, but **** sure I have been waiting to let the hens out until they lay an egg each day. My husband thinks he may have seen her down at the neighbors with her guineas but wasn't sure. When I went to look I couldn't get close enough to see if she had on the spiral legband. I matched all my hens and their mates legbnds by color . The male has the flat wide plastic legband and the female he is mated with has a spiral legband in the corresponding color. (I think I may have slight OCD.

) I take losing a bird very hard. So far I have lost two. I lost one keet to a hawk and this one. I have now had chickens for a year and I know I will surely lose more, but I hate the idea of a life being snuffed out in its prime, especially when it is my job to see that its safe and i fail at it. My birds are like surrogate children and if need be I will sit outside their coop with a shotgun to keep them safe. ON a happy note, my first chicks hatched today and They are cute as a bugs ear....not that I'm biased at all. They are out of my little white cochin hen and by my Gold Laced Cochin Rooster. I am so proud of them. Anywho here are pics of them taken tonight, born this morning. Take care Everyone...

 

[OzoneGuinea]

I absolutely love guineafowl. They are my favorite birds and have had experience with them for over 10 years.
I find their personalities funny if you get the chance to tame them properly. I have one white male guinea right now who is almost 6 years old and he is a sweet heart.
He is a great daddy when ever the females have keets. He protected them from a hawk on a few occasions. I love him so much.

 

[OzoneGuinea]

I know what you mean about the hens nesting out in the wild.
My last and only hen nested out in our pasture and a fox came, killed her, and took her eggs.
That same fox also killed our peahen late morning that same summer.
We got a dog and haven't seen that darn fox since.

 

[Fuxzi]

Hi everyone found this thread and thought I would ask a few questions... so I haven't read anything about chickens hatching out Guinea eggs and wonder if thats possible ive done duck eggs and quail eggs under my broodys but never heard of guinea fowl if it would work I may have to get my hands on some eggs! thanks a lot!