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We have eight Helmeted Guinea Fowl that have been with us since they were babies. Sam and his “army of soldiers” march around the property eating the bugs and making sure that no one disturbs the horses or us!
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Guinea
Fowl are native to Africa and are of
the same family of birds as the pheasants, turkeys and other game birds. Guineas
are a very interesting useful and entertaining addition to any horse ranch or
farm. They will become your “Ranch Watch Dogs.” They are very noisy birds that
look like a bunch of AWOL army helmets marching across the yard and pastures.
SEXING guineas is not easy to do by looking at the birds, although in the older adults the helmet and wattles of the males are usually larger. The easiest way to determine the sex is by listening to their voice. Both males and females make a one syllable, machine-gun like alarm call, but only the females have a two-syllable call. It sounds like they are saying “buck-wheat.” Also, as they mature the females have a row of white feathers under their wings. I have noticed this on our Pearl Grays. I am not sure if this is true of the other colors.
BENEFITS: They are insect eating birds and are said to be good for controlling the Lyme-Disease-bearing deer tick. They are great for clearing your pastures of insects and a wonderful side benefit is that they distribute the poop while digging and scratching through it!!!! They will discourage rodents with their call and kill and eat mice and small rats. Guineas will spot and find snakes and some will kill them.
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Guineas roost in trees. Once they have
picked their roosting tree they always “retire” to that same tree. We have eight
guineas and they all fly up into the big granddaddy oak tree by the house. I had
been told that they always ascend in the same pattern. The leader always goes
first and the rest following in the same order and pattern of ascension. This
is not true with our flock. There seems to be no order of “who goes first.” In
the beginning Sam (who had been with us for a while) showed the rest of the
flock how and when to fly up into the tree. Several months later there was no
pattern of ascent and Sam often hung out with me until the rest had roosted.
GUARD BIRDS: They are excellent guard birds. They will alert you to anything unusual going on…day or night. The Waddles Gang has become very protective of the horses. They stand around the horses when we have lessons or have the horses out for any reason. Sam will walk up to Capi’s tail and pull on one little tail hair while we are having a grooming lesson. She does not seem to mind and for some reason or other Sam does not do this to any other horse! The kids love the guineas and get a big kick out of their antics. They truly are entertaining. Sam follows me around like a puppy dog and comes when he is called. They do not bother the gardens or plants, however if you keep bees you do not want guinea fowl. They will stand by the beehive and snap up the bees as they come out. Needless to say we have no bees at the Casa de Gloria!
Guinea Fowl come in a variety of COLORS including various shades of Blue, Royal Purple, Lavender, Buff Dundotte, Porcline, Slate, Chocolate and Coral Blue and Pearl Gray, as well as pure White. The Waddles Gang is Pearl Gray, which is the most common color.
RAISING GUINEAS:
If you purchase new
guineas that are a few weeks old, don’t let them out right away or they may well
disappear down the road! One of the ways that I acclimated
them to the property was to pen them up in an outdoor screened and protected
cage where they can see the area that they will be living in. You have to be
really careful to keep them safe from “night prowling” critters. I lost some
young lavender guineas to a fox before they were old enough to fly.
After they have been penned for two or three weeks let one out. Guineas HATE to be alone, so that one won’t go far, but it will learn its way around your place. After a few days, let another one out to run with it. If they stay around it’s usually safe to let the rest out soon after. I catch the ones that I have left out during the day and put them back in the cage at night, as they are not able to fly up into a tree yet and they will not leave their caged buddies. They are then sitting “ducks” for the “night critters.” This is all a bit of a bother as they are not easy to catch!!!
Guineas often lay their EGGS out in the fields and hatch their young by themselves. If you do find the eggs and wish to incubate them the time period is 26 to 28 days. You treat them the same as chicken eggs. Young guineas are called “keets.” Being native to dry areas of Africa, they are susceptible to dampness during their first two weeks. They can die from following their mother through dewy grass. After two weeks of age they are probably the hardiest of all domestic fowl.
I hope that this information has sparked your interest in Guinea Fowl. They are truly amazing and entertaining birds!!! For further information you can go to the following websites.
http://members.aol.com/celestmich/guinea.html
