Raising Guinea Fowl 101

[nate1the1great1]

I remember my guineas and mine never went broody never had any fertile eggs and had 3 boys 3 girls so maybe bad hens

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I have 5 adults right now, and already at least 30 keets this year. I take the eggs daily, leave a few in the nest to keep them laying in the shed. I found a nest of around 30 eggs hidden outside I will be taking tomorrow. My oldest hens will still hide eggs.

 

[Jaybo]

We'll see how we do. We just got 10 keets a week ago, socializing them with the new chicks.

 

[Sophia5]

My Guinea has never out of her lifespan of 2 years has been broody.

 

[MeepBeep]

I also read somewhere to feed them turkey starter, is turkey starter higher in protein?

For me no local feed store carries turkey or game bird starter, they can order it but I hate the hassle and upcharge for special orders... I will be feeding my keets the same thing I have fed (and do feed) my peafowl chicks, that is standard chicken starter mixed with brewers yeast... I mix 1 cup of yeast to 5lbs of chicken starter, to boost the protein and vitamin levels closer to what you would find in a game bird starter... Not exactly the cheapest option but it works for me and saves me the hassle... I generally order my yeast from Amazon as the local health food stores want a fortune and again my local feed store doesn't carry yeast supplements like some others do, the 22oz KAL brand yeast flakes is reasonably priced on Amazon and that is what I use...

 

[cackler]

I have had guineas for several years. I have incubated their eggs and raised keets and put guinea eggs under broody chickens and raised keets. Now, I have a guinea sitting on a nest of guinea eggs in my coop. I have never allowed any of my guineas to hatch out keets. All of their nests have been out in the elements. If I let this one do this, do I need to try to separate her from the rest of the chickens and guineas or will she be able to protect the little ones in the coop?

 

[potagergirl]

For me no local feed store carries turkey or game bird starter, they can order it but I hate the hassle and upcharge for special orders... I will be feeding my keets the same thing I have fed (and do feed) my peafowl chicks, that is standard chicken starter mixed with brewers yeast... I mix 1 cup of yeast to 5lbs of chicken starter, to boost the protein and vitamin levels closer to what you would find in a game bird starter... Not exactly the cheapest option but it works for me and saves me the hassle... I generally order my yeast from Amazon as the local health food stores want a fortune and again my local feed store doesn't carry yeast supplements like some others do, the 22oz KAL brand yeast flakes is reasonably priced on Amazon and that is what I use...

Thank you for the information. I will keep it in mind.
I did find the turkey starter with 28 percent protein in it at one of the local feed stores. However trying to find white millet to train
my guineas had to be an order. I didn't mind ordering but 50 pounds is a lot of white millet. I know it's only 17.00 but it's not like
I'm feeding this to them I'm only using it for training. I guess I should find some large buckets with lids so I can keep it fresh for as
long as possible. I refuse to feed old stale food even to my birds.

I have been reading past post and have really enjoyed all the information and questions I never thought to ask. Thank you for having
this forum.

 

[MeepBeep]

I guess I should find some large buckets with lids so I can keep it fresh for as long as possible. I refuse to feed old stale food even to my birds.

It might not keep it as 'fresh' as a air tight plastic container, but I will never use anything less than old fashioned metal garbage cans for my feed/seed nowadays if it's to be stored in an outdoor structure like a barn or shed vs in the house... I have seen way too many people lose whole bags of seed/feed to rodents eating through plastic containers, the small investment up front for the metal garbage can easily saves money down the road...

 

[cabinchicky]

X2 on the metal trash cans!!!! Use em for feed, scratch, wild bird seed and three for wood ash.

 

[twoquinns]

Hopefully someone with more experience will answer your question, but I thought I'd mention this since no one else has responded yet. I recently let a guinea incubate six eggs. She was not in the coop but under a set of stairs. A couple of the other guineas kept her company most of the time she was incubating. Pretty much as soon as they hatched and she allowed them out of the nest into the yard, all the other guineas (we have a dozen) appeared from wherever they were wandering. They all just took the youngsters in stride, as if it was the most natural thing in the world...except for the only other female we currently have. She occasionally pecked at the keets, and their mother never seemed to notice. Shortly after this I went ahead and gathered up all the keets since everything we've read says they make such bad mothers, and because everyone, including the mom and keets, had started aiming toward a scrubby area where we never would have been able to find the keets once they got in there. So I can't say what would've happened if we'd allowed her to raise them, but for the most part the adults were not bothering the babies at all.