The Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) is a native of Africa. It is hardy, makes a good watchdog and is a source of tasty game meat.
The pearl and the lavender Guinea fowl are the two main breeds found in Australia.
Breeding.
Guinea hens start laying in the spring (with increasing daylight) and continue laying for about nine months. The egg-laying period can be extended and early fertility improved by using artificial lighting. The eggs average 40 grams and have very hard shells. Breeders are usually housed on the ground and the mating ratio is one male with four to eight females (five appears to give optimal fertility). If breeders are permanently kept in small pens, low fertility can be a problem early in the season. This can be overcome by the use of artificial light (16 hour day length) about one month before the breeding season. Breeders are usually kept for two or three seasons.
Artificial insemination of breeders has been carried out on some farms in Australia. The birds are kept in cages with males being individually caged. Because of the small volume of semen from Guinea males, domestic roosters (Gallus sp.) are often crossed with guinea hens. The crossbred will grow as large as the fowl parent, while retaining the gamey flavour. Hatchability tends to vary with the strain of rooster used. The progeny of the cross called ‘guin-hens’ are sterile or ‘mules’ and look more like a turkey cross.
If Guinea breeders are to be released daily, release them late in the morning after the birds have laid their eggs.
Incubation.
The normal incubation period for Guinea eggs is 26 to 28 days and 24 to 25 days for the crossbreds. Eggs can be hatc hed either naturally or artificially.
Egg handling prior to incubation is important. Eggs should be collected at least twice daily; discard the very dirty ones. Dry cleaning with fine steel wool is the best method of cleaning eggs for hatching. Eggs should be fumigated shortly after being collected and cleaned. They are then held at 12°C to 15°C for up to seven days before setting. At temperatures above 18°C the embryos can start developing, causing uneven hatc hing or many early embryonic mortalities.
Guinea fowls are not usually good sitters and therefore an ordinary hen is used for preference to hatch a small number of eggs.
When eggs are hatched artificially the temperature should be 37.2°C with a wet bulb reading between 27°C to 31°C for the first 24 days of incubation for pure Guineas or 21 days for crossbreds. The incubator vents are then closed enough to give a wet bulb reading of 32°C to 34°C at hatching while the temperature is dropped to 36.1°C. Eggs must be turned an odd number of times (minimum of three times) each day for the first 24 days for pure Guineas and 21 days for crossbreds.
Peal Pied and Lavender Pied Guinea Fowl.
Eggs should be candled at 9 or 10 days and infertiles and dead embryos removed. The remainder are fumigated. Embryos are susceptible to damage from fumigation between 12 hours and 4 days after setting and when pipping (breaking out of the egg) has commenced.
Rearing.
Guinea chicks are easy to rear although they are subject to chilling during the first few weeks. Keets (young Guineas) can be weaned off heat at four weeks if the weather is suitable.
All types of poultry brooders are suitable for keets. It is recommended that the temperature should be set at 37°C from day-old for the first three weeks, followed by a reduction of 1°C each week for the next two weeks.
Good dry shavings are important if brooding is on the floor. Keets can also brood on wire, the same as chickens. Initially a cover (clean hessian) may need to be placed over the wire mesh to stop the keets from falling through. A smooth cover such as paper is not satisfactory and can lead to leg problems.
Guineas raised in broiler-style housing up to 14 weeks of age require about 900 cm 2 of floor space per bird.
Nutrition.
A suitable diet for Guinea fowls is a commercial turkey diet or a high-energy, non-medicated chicken starter crumble. They have a food conversion ratio of 4:1 to 4.5:1 and are usually marketed at about 14 weeks of age when the males weigh about 1.25 kg and females about 1.2 kg.
A good feeding program uses a turkey starter crumble (0-6 weeks), a turkey grower (6-14 weeks) and a turkey-breeder diet from then on. Turkey diets have the advantage that many contain anti-blackhead medication.
Distinguishing sex.
Next to quietening Guineas, the hardest problem can be to sex them. While sex determination on external characteristics may be difficult, it is easily done on examination of genitalia at maturity.
The adult male has a slightly larger helmet and wattles and a coarser head. In young Guineas, 12 to 15 weeks of age, the males’ wattles are larger, curve out more and have thicker edges than the females. By 15 to 16 weeks, the females’ wattles are also thickening.
The sexes may be distinguished by their cry. The cry of the female resembles ‘buckwheat, buckwheat’, and is decidedly different from the one-syllable shriek of the male. When excited both the male and female emit one-syllable cries, but at no time does the male cry ‘buckwheat, buckwheat’.
Sex can be distinguished by this difference in cry from about two months of age.
Author:
M Bell and K Smith.
