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A common legend is that the name "guinea fowl"comes from the word "cesar", that is, it is a "royal bird", attracts many poultry lovers. The color of the guinea fowl is also very beautiful, although this often depends on the breed of guinea fowl. Most of them have finely speckled feathers, which makes the bird appear sprinkled with small pearls.
The photo shows a guinea fowl of “average” color. They can be white, blue-feathered, or piebald.
The guinea fowl originates from North Africa and was brought to Europe by the ancient Greeks. True, at that time Europe was not delighted with these birds and the number of guinea fowls was reduced to zero. These birds were brought back to Europe by the Portuguese in the 15th century from West Africa.
The guinea fowl does not belong to the pheasant family (chickens, peacocks, pheasants, turkeys); they have their own family, of all genera of which only the common guinea fowl has been domesticated.
Guinea fowl have tasty dietary meat, the quality of which is between game and domestic chicken.
In countries where guinea fowl are raised, the birds are usually stewed or fried over very low heat.
A domesticated guinea fowl is a bad mother. Perhaps the fact is that in captivity a guinea fowl cannot build a nest for itself. In nature, a guinea fowl's nest is a depression in the ground where the bird lays up to 8 eggs. But guinea fowls are very shy. If in nature they can find a secluded place where they can hatch eggs, then in captivity this is almost impossible. And if you frighten a guinea fowl, it will abandon the nest.
It is precisely because of their timidity that guinea fowl are hatched in an incubator in captivity. There is one more point. In nature, guinea fowl breed during periods of drought, as their young are very sensitive to dampness and cold. Such conditions are easy to create for guinea fowl in the southern Mediterranean, but much more difficult in more northern conditions. And even in nature, guinea fowl can easily die, getting wet under the dew that falls in the morning. When all these conditions are taken into account, the incubator is more reliable.
Although it happens that chicken or turkey are used to hatch guinea fowl. You can raise chickens together and raise guinea fowl under the hen. But since guinea fowl take a week longer to hatch than chickens, chicken eggs are placed under the hen a week later. And turkey poults have the same timing as guinea fowl; eggs can be placed under the turkey at the same time.
Incubation of guinea fowl eggs at home
Guinea fowl eggs that have a shelf life of at least a week and weigh at least 38 g are suitable for incubation. The eggs must be brown. Can be either light or dark brown. Mandatory requirement: strong shell.
If the eggs make a rattling sound, they are not suitable for incubation.There are microcracks in their shell that are invisible to the naked eye. Most likely, pathogenic microflora have already penetrated through these microcracks and will quickly multiply in the warm and humid environment of the incubator. Even if there is no infection yet, the liquid will evaporate very quickly through the cracks and the embryo will die in any case.
Guinea fowl begin to lay eggs at 8 months, but the hatching eggs are collected from birds that are one year old. For breeding, eggs begin to be collected only in the third week of laying, since the first eggs may not be fertilized.
Before laying, the future hatching egg is stored in a room with a temperature of 12 to 15 degrees. An old, but still working refrigerator is best suited for the role of a room. If you store guinea fowl eggs in chicken egg cartons, they should be placed with the blunt end facing up. You can store it on its side, but in this case you need to turn the eggs 2-3 times a day.
The guinea fowl is a very messy bird when it comes to nesting litter. To keep the eggs clean, they must be collected 3-4 times a day. In addition to all the troubles, a free-ranging guinea fowl lays eggs anywhere but in the nest prepared for it. From a poultry farmer's point of view, this is an ideal nest for egg laying. Guinea fowl have their own opinions. Therefore, guinea fowl will have to be kept either in an aviary or to look for places where they have decided to build nests for themselves.
When incubating guinea fowl eggs at home, strict hygiene measures must be observed. Primarily due to the untidiness of the birds themselves.
When preparing eggs for incubation, in addition to external inspection, the eggs must be rinsed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.The potassium permanganate solution must be freshly prepared. Contaminated areas are carefully wiped with a soft cloth. It is important to try not to damage the protective film, without which pathogenic bacteria can penetrate inside. After rinsing, the eggs are dried.
Before laying eggs in the incubator, they are examined using an ovoscope. Similar requirements apply if the eggs are planned to be laid under the hen.
Breeding guinea fowl in an incubator
Since guinea fowl are often bred under chicken, and setting up an incubator to suit the needs of each type of bird can be not only difficult, but simply impossible, many poultry farmers believe that incubation of guinea fowl can take place under the same conditions as incubation of chickens.
Successful breeding of guinea fowl:
In fact, the incubation mode for guinea fowl eggs is different from the incubation mode for chicken eggs. This is not surprising given the differences in climate between the regions from which these bird species originate. Not only the incubation periods differ, but also the temperature required for the normal development of the chicks. Although, if it is really necessary, but there is no customizable incubator, then incubate in the “chicken” mode, the number of hatched guinea fowl will be less, but not all will die.
The basic rules for breeding guinea fowl in an incubator are no different from the rules that are used when breeding other species of birds:
- cleaning from dirt;
- disinfection;
- ovoscope examination;
- laying in the incubator;
- maintaining optimal temperature and humidity during different periods of incubation;
- maintaining the incubation period.
The penultimate point requires some explanation, since the optimal temperature and humidity for each species are different.
Table of incubation mode for guinea fowl eggs compared with incubation mode for chicken eggs
For guinea fowl:
For chickens:
The tables show that chickens have significantly lower humidity requirements than guinea fowl, and higher requirements for turning eggs.
On a note! The table shows that incubation of guinea fowl eggs can last 26 days. But this will happen if the temperature in the incubator is higher than optimal. In this case, the guinea fowl will hatch underdeveloped. It is better if the incubation takes longer, but the chicks will be healthy.
If you put the tables together, you get:
| guinea fowl | chickens | |
|---|---|---|
| Incubation period, days | 28 | 21 |
| Incubator temperature | From 38° at the beginning it decreases to 37 at the end | From 37.6 at the beginning to 37.2 at the end |
| Humidity | Fluctuates depending on the incubation period, maximum at the end of incubation 70% | From 50% increases to 80% |
| Ovoscopy | 8, 15, 24 days of incubation* | 7, 12, 19 days of incubation |
*There is advice to ovoscope and remove infertile guinea fowl eggs only on the 24th day before hatching.
Second option: at 8, remove unfertilized ones; on 15 – those in which a blood stain appeared; at 24 – eggs with a frozen embryo
Both methods have pros and cons. During operation, it is very undesirable to open the incubator so as not to disturb the thermal regime. With this approach, the advice of ovoscopy only on the 24th day has the right to exist. But if there were cracks in the egg and it went rotten much earlier, then in 3 weeks the contents will have time to leak out and infect healthy eggs.
There is nothing to worry about if the batch of eggs is very large and the hatched chicks will be placed in different brooders. In this case, you can lay some of the eggs later.Eggs placed in the incubator later than the main batch must be marked in order to know how many days the “fresh” eggs have been incubating and on what day they should be checked with an ovoscope.
The main requirement: there must be guinea fowl of the same age in one brooder. Otherwise, the younger ones may be trampled.
So it is up to the owners to decide which method to choose, although it is sometimes annoying to drive around an incubator that is not completely filled.
Typically, in an automatic incubator, eggs should be placed with the blunt end facing up. When turning by hand, the eggs are placed on their side, just as they would be under a hen. To avoid confusion with turning over, it is better to mark one side with a marker.
Guinea fowl hatching
On the 27th day or even earlier, pecks may appear on the eggs. It will take about a day for the guinea fowl to complete its formation and hatching. If the incubation regime was not violated, then the conclusion will be friendly. But, depending on the development of the guinea fowl, some may jump up almost immediately and try to run, others will lie quietly and gain strength. Those who try to run must be caught and moved to the brooder. Guinea chickens are very mobile and can fit into any hole. The calm ones should be left in the incubator for some time.
How to increase humidity in an incubator
If a poultry farmer has an expensive programmable incubator, he can set the desired humidity, temperature and number of egg turns per day.
But what to do if all you have is a cheap “basin with a fan” or a homemade incubator from an old refrigerator or styrofoam box? In the latter cases, you can only increase the area from which water will evaporate by placing a cuvette filled with water in the incubator. Or two.In a foam box, you can pour water into the bottom of the box.
The recommended spraying of eggs to increase humidity will only be effective with an external fan. But to spray, the owner will have to open the incubator.
If the incubator is “semi-automatic” with a built-in fan, then spraying anything inside is simply dangerous, since water can get on the electrical system, and you can pour more than enough water into it anyway. In this case, “warming” the incubator helps. The more isolated such an incubator is from the environment, the higher the humidity in it. But it still won’t be possible to raise it to 80%. And it’s not really necessary.
In homemade incubators without an automatic detector, humidity is calculated from a table based on the temperature difference between the “dry” and “wet” thermometer. A “wet” thermometer is a thermometer whose lower tip is wrapped in a cloth wick. The other end of the wick is lowered into a container of water.
If the incubator is large enough, you can place a container of hot water in it to increase humidity. But this will lead to an increase in temperature, which can harm the chicks.
Underheating or overheating of hatching eggs
To reduce humidity, it will be enough to reduce the water “mirror” or remove the “insulation”.
Conclusion
Since guinea fowl eggs do not require a high percentage of moisture like duck or goose eggs, the hatchability rate of guinea fowl eggs is higher. And even with the “chicken” incubation mode, breeding guinea fowl will be quite a profitable activity.
