Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[kynewbchickie]

Yep - I changed the bedding out yesterday for my 4-weekers to large flake bedding, and I've doused the entire brooder and feed trough with chick grit because I saw bedding pecking going on. Ornery little pearls!

I've got the separation/introduction area in the big coop ready to go for them in a couple of weeks - just wondering how long I should leave them in there before turning them out with the others? Or should I go ahead and put them out there now? Our weather has straightened up, holding 70-80 daytime and 60s nighttime temps. They're fully-feathered, just still smaller than my full-size poultry so I know better than to just turn them out. They'd get pecked to death, or worse - fly the pasture and take off completely!

 

[BlueMouse]

Yeah, mine were busily eating the bedding too, but I think they were actually more digging through it? anyhow, I've liberally sprinkled their food with grit every other day since and no one has become impacted. It's pretty funny to watch them "dust bathe" in the shavings though! I think they've pretty much stopped both eating the bedding and trying to eat each other's feet. (convinced toes are worms I guess??) Mine are french pearl and they're almost completely feathered at three weaks, it's nuts! I'm not sure when they'll be hardy enough to go outside though, they're home will be a tractor, and it's not really enclosed, although one end is sheltered. I have them down between 75 and 80 under the heat lamp in the brooder now. They like it for "sunbathing" but don't seem to huddle under it anymore. They much prefer the roosts at night.

 

[PeepsCA]

Yep - I changed the bedding out yesterday for my 4-weekers to large flake bedding, and I've doused the entire brooder and feed trough with chick grit because I saw bedding pecking going on. Ornery little pearls!

I've got the separation/introduction area in the big coop ready to go for them in a couple of weeks - just wondering how long I should leave them in there before turning them out with the others? Or should I go ahead and put them out there now? Our weather has straightened up, holding 70-80 daytime and 60s nighttime temps. They're fully-feathered, just still smaller than my full-size poultry so I know better than to just turn them out. They'd get pecked to death, or worse - fly the pasture and take off completely!

If they are younger than 6 wks old, even if they look it they aren't fully feathered, and they cannot regulate their own body temps. If they are at least 4 wks old, the area in the coop for them is well sheltered and you can provide a heat source for them to use at night (or on cold days) if they want/need it then you may get away with putting them outside now (or sooner than 6 wks old). But you don't want them to get chilled. Providing a heat source for them to use a little longer is better than not providing one long enough. Chilled cold keets do not thrive, they are not as active, do not eat as much, use up all of their energy trying to stay warm and will lose weight and condition quickly.

As for letting them integrate with the flock it's a good idea to house them side by side, separated by wire for 6 wks so they imprint on the coop as their home and they get used to and are hopefully accepted by your other birds. If you let them integrate too soon your adult birds may kill them, or chase them off and you'll never see them again. If you have a covered run attached to the coop it would be ok to let them out in that during the day after the rest of your birds are out. Plus that helps you get them each evening easier, and develop a routine of them going in at coop up time. If it's not covered tho, there is a good chance they will scatter and fly off.

 

[gardengoats11]

Lots of good information. Thanks for sharing, everyone. May have to get some to use as alarms especially if they will actually run off predators. (We have problems with raccons and coyotes.)

 

[PeepsCA]

Lots of good information. Thanks for sharing, everyone. May have to get some to use as alarms especially if they will actually run off predators. (We have problems with raccons and coyotes.)

Raccoons are typically nocturnal predators and will eat your Guineas if they can get to them, the Guineas will not alert to predators at night tho, (they are blind in the dark). The only time they really sound off at night is if a predator is in the coop with them... and killing birds.

My experience with when coyotes come around for a free meal is that it varies, so whether the coyotes come around during the day, early AM or at dusk, they will most likely just snatch a bird and run off with it run. You will hear the commotion from the rest of the flock when there's a predator attack.

Guineas don't typically run off predators of any kind... they just alert you to the fact that one is near or that one of your flock just got taken.

 

[kynewbchickie]

Thank you for the advice! I'll keep them in the brooder until the eggs I've got coming in the next day or so get close to hatch time, which will put the keets at around 6 1/2 weeks old. I'll move them out to the coop, keep them in the introduction area (completely fenced in, you can see what I mean by checking out "My Coop") for 4-6 weeks, and go from there. I can't cover their pasture as it's too large of an area...the husband will be clipping all the birds' flight feathers once they're 8-10 weeks old. We're having to move the coop and pasture area to another part of the yard due to the fact that where it was delivered and set up, is right on TOP of the septic tank area. The plat of the house/lines lied. The new pasture will be approx. 24'x64' once we get it moved and fenced again. UGH.

The hawks here are the worst, yet I think we've figured out why they don't fly over our yard or try to mess with our flock...

This is my stepfather-in-law's property. He has raised roller/fantail/parlor roller/competition pigeons for probably over 30 years now. Before he moved his birds out to his mom's farm last summer, he'd had them out here in three big huge pens in the backyard (we're talking over 300 birds). Since it's zoned for Ag, shooting is allowed as long as you're not shooting towards anyone's home. As our backyard backs up to an unoccupied hay field, bordered in the rear by a huge creek and then the beginning of the Appalachians, nothing out behind us is in any harm's way.

Apparently, killing enough diving hawks and other raptors on your own property that are preying on your birds isn't against the law, per se...and they'd get hung on the fence line once they were killed. He even had a buzzard try to take a hunk out of one of his kits that he'd let out to fly one afternoon - it didn't last long, needless to say, and wound up in a metal drum in the backyard that had been used for a burn can. We still have feathers of various hawks, buzzards, etc. hanging in the fence line out back. The older folk around here say that it will deter other birds looking to prey on your birds, due to the territorial smell from the oils that stays on those feathers for years afterwards. I haven't been able to find much research to support the claim, but to this day, we've not had one hawk or other raptor fly over our home, yard, or anywhere nearby. The closest we've seen one is about 1/4 mile up from us, that apparently likes to hunt from an old dead tree in the middle of a cattle pasture. It's a red-tail, and beautiful...just not wanted here and he won't come close.

 

[PeepsCA]

Your keets need their flight feathers to escape predators. I am SO not a fan of clipping wings, so if you can't insure their safety from predators 100% then I do NOT advise clipping wings, ever, period. Build a small covered pen off of the coop for the Guineas, and keep them protected until they can efficiently fend for themselves (which IMO is at least 12 wks old).

 

[BlueMouse]

Even the French Pearl's aren't feathered enough to go outside until 6 weeks? I mean, they're ready to butcher at 12, so it seems like they'd be ready to go out before then.... but maybe I'm crazy. we had to get the minimum shipment of 15, so we're butchering some and keeping some. No way do we need 15 guineas on our 4 acres. Not to mention I don't have a proper building big enough to house that many!

 

[Mmmatt13]

BlueMouse, just curious where you ordered from? The only minimum number I've ever seen is 30.

 

[PeepsCA]

Even the French Pearl's aren't feathered enough to go outside until 6 weeks? I mean, they're ready to butcher at 12, so it seems like they'd be ready to go out before then.... but maybe I'm crazy. we had to get the minimum shipment of 15, so we're butchering some and keeping some. No way do we need 15 guineas on our 4 acres. Not to mention I don't have a proper building big enough to house that many!

A Guinea is a Guinea, and the French variety are just bigger framed birds/keets to start out with that were hatched out of bigger eggs (kinda like large fowl vs standard fowl or bantams). So the French variety are ready to process for a bigger carcass at a young age. They do not feather out or grow at different rates vs the standard sized Guineas (if both varieties are fed the same high protein diet). French Guineas are called the "meatbird of Guineas", but they aren't like the cornish or cornishX meat birds that grow crazy huge in just 8 wks.

"Going outside" is a pretty generalized term so it depends a lot on the coop/shelter set up, and your outside day and night temps... and whether or not you can provide a heat source for them to use at night if they need/want it. If they are well sheltered and are warm (at night) there won't be any issues, but if they are cold while they are still growing/maturing they won't be ready to process at 12 wks, since they will be using all of their energy trying to stay warm instead of putting on body mass (meat). But as I've mentioned, keets cannot regulate their own bodytemp until 6 wks old, no matter how many feathers they appear to have and no matter the variety. FWIW, you may actually want to wait until they are closer to the 16 wk old mark to process them to get the full potential of a larger bird for the table.

If you don't keep a big enough flock out of your 15, you may have the same issues that so many others have complained about here on BYC... with the male Guineas picking on chickens and other poultry once they mature, and especially next breeding season. Most French Guineas do not breed naturally due to their size, so if you don't have your heart set on hatching keets out of the birds you keep then you may get away with a smaller flock if you only keep one male and a few Hens, or just keep all Hens (which are a little smaller than the males anyway). But every situation is different.