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A bird with meat similar to game, popular in Europe, is now beginning to interest Russian poultry farmers. It's about guinea fowl: a bird with beautiful interesting plumage and a head “for everyone.” Some will find this head scary, others will find it beautiful.
True, Russian poultry farmers do not know one European secret: practical Europeans prefer to raise guinea fowl on special farms located away from housing. And the point is not that guinea fowls cause any problems when kept in a personal yard. The birds are just very noisy and eccentric. Guinea fowls scream at the slightest provocation, and even try to fly. Farm workers enter the room with guinea fowl after putting on earplugs.
But there is a plus to such loudness. In terms of vigilance and level of screaming, guinea fowl surpass even the legendary geese that saved Rome. No one will pass by the guinea fowl unnoticed, and any intruder who enters the poultry house will immediately be betrayed by these birds.
At the same time, breeding guinea fowl at home for beginners is not as difficult as breeding geese, popular in Russia. The fertility rate of guinea fowl is higher, and the incubation of eggs is similar to the incubation of chicken eggs.There are differences, but they are small, so many guinea fowl owners, without bothering with setting up incubators, use the same mode as for hatching chickens. In slightly smaller quantities, but guinea fowl are hatched in this mode. This is often simpler and less expensive than trying to follow the “native” regime, especially if chicken eggs are also laid along with guinea fowl eggs.
Breeding and keeping guinea fowls in your own backyard
Beginning poultry farmers may be afraid to get guinea fowl because they do not know what kind of bird they are.
The common guinea fowl, the wild ancestor of the domestic one, is a shy inhabitant of arid regions, laying a small number of eggs and breeding offspring in secluded places. Birds live in flocks.
In terms of economic characteristics, the domestic guinea fowl is almost no different from the wild one. She began to lay more eggs (60 – 80 per year), but due to the lack of quiet, secluded bushes, she has no desire to incubate them. In fact, the bird is just scared. If it is possible to provide the guinea fowl with conditions similar to wild ones, she will hatch the chicks herself, which is successfully proven guinea fowl in the photo, having the opportunity to hatch chicks in a quiet place.
The guinea fowl have not abandoned their wild habit of going everywhere only in a flock. Sometimes it is very interesting to watch a dozen birds return from a day's “hike”. Yes, even if they are free and know how to fly, they will not go anywhere and will return back in the evening. Of course, unless someone catches them while walking. Even the chicks stay together all the time.
The main thing is to catch the guinea fowl in time during molting and resume wrapping.The second way to prevent flying birds from flying away is to cut the tendons at the wing joint. But this operation must be performed by a veterinarian.
If it is not possible to provide the birds with a life in a spacious enclosure, guinea fowl will have to be bred using an incubator.
To obtain an incubator egg and not a food egg, one Caesar will be required for 5–6 females. But owners have certain problems with determining the sex of guinea fowl. The sexual dimorphism of guinea fowl is weak and one can easily make a mistake.
How to distinguish a female guinea fowl from a male
It is usually recommended to distinguish already sexually mature birds by their earrings and growths on the head.
The growth on the beak of guinea fowl of both sexes usually looks the same.
The earrings are very different.
In theory. In practice, there may be virtually no differences. But the guinea fowl's earrings are often curved and stick out to the sides, while the guinea fowl's are smaller, straighter and pointing downwards.
The second difference: the ridge on the head.
The male's comb is usually smoother and smoother towards the tail. The guinea fowl's crest resembles, rather, a volcanic cone.
These birds also have different calls. The Caesar “cracks,” but the guinea fowl’s cry must be heard.
However, other owners of guinea fowl believe that attempts to determine the sex by the shape of the head are ineffective, since secondary sexual characteristics are often very similar in birds of this species. Guinea fowl also differ little from each other in size, and there is always a risk of mistaking an obese guinea fowl for a male. Therefore, experienced guinea fowl breeders prefer to determine the sex of birds by examining the cloaca.
Determining the sex of guinea fowl
Egg collection and incubation
Without intending to incubate the eggs, guinea fowls can scatter them anywhere within their range, so the owner will have to either limit the guinea fowl's walking area during the laying season, or learn the profession of a searcher. Since no one wants to be a search engine, they usually limit the walking of guinea fowl.
This is where other problems begin. Guinea fowl are very careless with their eggs and can easily bury them in the litter or stain them in droppings. With such treatment from birds, guinea fowl eggs do not shine with cleanliness.
The rules for laying eggs in an incubator require washing dirty eggs before incubation and disinfecting them with a solution of potassium permanganate. But when washing, it is easy to erase the protective film that protects the eggs from bacteria entering them. The incubator, no matter how you disinfect it before each laying of eggs, will not be able to clean everything 100%. Yes, and there are bacteria in the air too.
Therefore, whether or not to wash eggs can be decided experimentally by breeding two batches of guinea fowl from clean and dirty eggs. But in any case, if you manage to place a hen even on dirty eggs, the hatchability rate will be higher, since the bird can provide the care and temperature conditions necessary for the eggs. An incubator, even the most advanced one, is not capable of such fine adjustments.
Medium-sized eggs are laid for incubation. Small eggs will most likely give birth to an underdeveloped chick, while large eggs may end up with a double yolk. The eggs should be of the correct shape and brownish in color. Guinea fowl eggs are usually cream-colored, but the color of the shell can largely depend on the individual characteristics of the bird.
Incubation of guinea fowl eggs lasts longer than chicken eggs, but less than duck or turkey eggs. It must be taken into account that often incubation data may deviate in one direction or another. This largely depends on the temperature in the incubator. If it is too high, the chicks will hatch earlier, but many of them will not be viable. At a lower temperature, incubation will last longer, but the chicks will emerge fully developed. Of course, the maximum and minimum temperatures should not deviate too much from the recommended values. Typically this is ±0.5°C.
Guinea fowl eggs need to be turned at least 4 times a day. The incubator, depending on the model, either turns the eggs on its own, or it can be programmed for a certain number of turns, or the eggs in it must be turned manually
In underdeveloped chicks, upon hatching, a significant part of the yolk remains in the egg, which either dries out or manages to be retracted into the abdomen.
You can also experiment and try to breed different birds in one incubator. For this method, you need two incubators, in one of which the main incubation process will take place, and in the second, at a lower temperature, those chicks for whom the time has come will hatch.
Joint incubation of eggs from different types of poultry
To avoid confusion about which eggs were placed in the incubator when, the date is written on them.
Requirements for keeping and caring for guinea fowl
After hatching, the chicks are transferred to a brooder. You can leave the chicks in the incubator until they dry out, or you can immediately transfer them to the brooder. Usually the chicks are left to dry completely.
After being placed in the brooder, the guinea fowl are cared for in the same way as chickens. There is no particular difference between these two types of birds, so everything that is suitable for chicken is also suitable for guinea fowl.
At first, the chicks are kept at a fairly high temperature of at least 30°C. However, this is not a dogma and it is better to focus on the behavior of the chicks themselves, especially if there is no thermometer. If the chicks are cold, they huddle together, squeak and try to get into the middle of the flock. If the chicks calmly wander around the brooder, periodically trying to peck at something, it means they are comfortable at this temperature. It’s worse if the chicks run to the corners, lie down and breathe heavily. They are overheating. It is quite easy to warm up a frozen chick. It is very difficult to cool quickly without dipping it in water. And when swimming in water, the chick will get hypothermia.
When hatched in an incubator, chicks often develop problems such as improper development of limbs. Often chicks are born with their paws in different directions. You can try to tie the legs with electrical tape, but with a high degree of probability such a chick will die anyway.
Maintenance and care of adult guinea fowls
Like chickens, guinea fowl fledge and grow very quickly. Grown-up chicks are transferred to an aviary, and almost adult birds are released into the general flock.You need to remember that they begin to distinguish birds by sex only when they mature, and you need to immediately decide which part of the flock to send for slaughter and which to leave for breeding. If the young are not slaughtered at 3 months, the birds may become obese. The French broiler breed is especially good at gaining fat.
These birds do not require any special care. A poultry house for guinea fowl is organized in the same way as for chickens. Both of these types of birds love to sleep on perches, so a roosting area must be equipped in the poultry house.
Guinea fowl are not particularly afraid of winter. The main thing is to have food, deep bedding and protection from the cold wind.
Keeping guinea fowl. Indoor aviary.
In Europe they love guinea fowl meat, and most importantly, they know how to cook it, since the meat of these birds, if cooked inappropriately, will be tough, although tasty. But today it is no longer difficult to find recipes for preparing guinea fowl meat in France or Italy, so guinea fowl can diversify the dishes on the Russian table.
