guinea fowl book large

Table of ConTenTsIs KeepIng guInea fowl The RIghT ChoICe foR You ...........6To Be Clear .............................................................................. 6Some Reasons to Keep Guinea Fowl .......................................... 7Insect Control ................................................................................... 7Fresh Eggs ...................................................................................... 10Watch Birds .................................................................................... 11Pets ............................................................................................... 11Other Reasons ................................................................................ 12Wrapping it Up ................................................................................ 12Some Considerations About Keeping Guinea Fowl ..................... 12Noise .............................................................................................. 13Feeding .......................................................................................... 13Minimum Flock Size ......................................................................... 14Property Damage ............................................................................ 15Water ............................................................................................. 16Range ............................................................................................ 16Winter costs.................................................................................... 17Shelter ........................................................................................... 17New Guinea Fowl ............................................................................ 17Violence ......................................................................................... 18

how To sTaRT YouR floCK of guInea fowl .......................19Purchasing Keets ............................................................................. 19Incubating Fertile Eggs .................................................................... 23Getting Adult Guinea Fowl ................................................................ 25Guinea Fowl Colors ......................................................................... 27In Closing ....................................................................................... 28

pRepaRIng foR YouR new floCK of guInea fowl ..............30The Brooder.................................................................................... 31Waterers......................................................................................... 35Feeders .......................................................................................... 37Grit ................................................................................................ 38Millet .............................................................................................. 40Feed ............................................................................................... 40Coops ............................................................................................. 42Guide To Buying A Chicken Coop ............................................. 44Build Your Own Coop ....................................................................... 46The Coop Yard ................................................................................ 46Roosts ............................................................................................ 48Nests .............................................................................................. 49

Medicine ......................................................................................... 50Euthanasia ...................................................................................... 51Veterinary Care ............................................................................... 52Online Resources for .............................................................. 54Guinea Fowl Keepers .............................................................. 54

gRowTh sTages of guInea fowl ..........................................55Some Additional Clarifications.................................................. 55Growth Rates .................................................................................. 58Telling Males from Females .............................................................. 60Guinea Fowl Sounds ........................................................................ 62More Photographs of Guinea Fowl at Different Ages .................. 62Additional Resources .............................................................. 70

TRaInIng YouR guInea fowl ................................................72There’s Only One Lesson ................................................................. 72Guinea Fowl Are Not Very Smart ....................................................... 73Training Starts Early ........................................................................ 73They Do Know You .......................................................................... 75Herding Guinea Fowl ....................................................................... 76In Conclusion .................................................................................. 79

guInea fowl eggs ReCIpes InCluded ..................................81How Many Eggs .............................................................................. 81Finding Guinea Fowl Eggs ................................................................ 84Collecting the Eggs .......................................................................... 85Cooking with Guinea Fowl Eggs ........................................................ 87

ReCIpes usIng guInea fowl eggs .......................................88Fast & Easy Recipe for Cheesy Pie ........................................... 88Awesome Overnight French Toast ............................................ 90Coca Cola Cake ...................................................................... 91Fast & Easy Recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake ................. 92Fast & Easy Chocolate Pie ....................................................... 93Guinea Fowl Egg Salad ........................................................... 95Game Day Egg Salad for One .................................................. 96Hard Boiled Guinea Fowl Eggs ................................................. 96Some Final Mentions .............................................................. 96

pRedaToRs ...............................................................................99Know Your Predators ..................................................................... 100The Most Overlooked Predators ...................................................... 101Predators Work Fast and Come Back For More ................................. 102A Partial List of North American Predators ....................................... 105

The Best Predator Defenses ........................................................... 105

lIvIng wITh guInea fowl spRIng & summeR ....................120A photo journalistic look at Guinea fowl during spring & summer

lIvIng wITh guInea fowl fall & wInTeR ........................167A photo journalistic look at Guinea fowl during fall & winter

Living With Guinea Fowl • Chapter IIs Keeping Guinea Fowl the Right Choice for You —

ChapTeR IIs KeepIng guInea fowl

The RIghT ChoICe foR You

To be CleaR

Guinea fowl are also sometimes called Guinea hens, or Guineahens. I think the term Guinea hens is somewhat misleading, since all Guinea fowl are not hens. Also, I am one of very few people who consistently capitalize the “G” in Guinea fowl. I believe Guinea has earned a place in the world of capitalization, aka proper nouns. If you prefer not to capitalize Guinea, you need not worry about criticism.

This book is about helmeted Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris). There are also Jumbo Guinea fowl, Crested Guinea fowl (Guttera pucherani) and Vulterine Guinea fowl (Acryllium vulturinum). Essentially, Jumbo Guinea fowl are merely helmeted Guinea fowl that are bred to a larger standard than the original helmeted Guinea fowl. Vulterine Guinea fowl and Crested Guinea fowl are quite different from helmeted Guinea fowl and can be re-searched conveniently online, starting with artilces in Wikipedia.

There are many excellent reasons to become a Guinea fowl keeper. Some of the reasons are obvious and common. Other reasons are uncom-mon, and not obvious at all. There are also many things to consider before starting a Guinea fowl flock. These considerations will be covered in depth in this chapter.

An adult pearl gray Guinea fowl hen nestles herself in some gravel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulturine_Guineafowl


Here, we’ll briefly touch on some of the reasons to keep these amazing birds. But the primary focus of the chapter is to bring to your attention the realities of keeping Guinea fowl. This is done to fully prepare you for what’s in store as a Guinea fowl keeper in the hopes that your decision to keep these marvelous birds works out to be a positive and rewarding experience for both you and your new flock.

some Reasons To Keep guInea fowl

InseCT ConTRol

The most common reason to keep Guinea fowl is for toxin-free insect control. Guinea fowl excel at the removal of insects, which constitute their primary diet during the seasons that insects are available for consumption.

My wife and I started keeping Guinea fowl for insect control. In our region of Montana, we are plagued with grasshoppers. We also have oth-er insect pests, including the dreaded tick, but grasshoppers are truly the main problem. Some years we’ll have as many as 150-200 grasshoppers per square yard.

We plant a large organic garden every year, and we never use herbi-cides or pesticides. Before our Guinea fowl came along, controlling the an-nual grasshopper infestations was all but impossible. And like many of our

Close up photograph of a grasshopper


neighbors, some years the grasshoppers would completely destroy the entire garden in a matter of 2-4 days.

Since becoming Guinea fowl keepers, we have all but completely elimi-nated the grasshopper threat to our garden. The Guinea fowl visit the garden at least twice every day of the season. After the flock moves through the garden on its daily patrols, it’s practically impossible to find even one grass-hopper alive. Most have been consumed, but a few have received mortal injuries inflicted by the ravenous Guinea fowl.

I am confident in saying that most people who keep Guinea fowl for insect control, do so to eliminate the threat of ticks, or more precisely, the diseases transmitted by ticks. Following is a partial list of tick-born diseases that affect humans.

•Anaplasmosis is transmitted to humans by tick bites primarily from the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) in the northeastern and up-per midwestern U.S. and the western blacklegged tick (Ixodes paci-ficus) along the Pacific coast.

•Babesiosis is transmitted by the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapu-laris) and is found primarily in the eastern U.S.

•Ehrlichiosis is transmitted to humans by the lone star tick (Amby-lomma americanum), found primarily in the southcentral and east-ern U.S.

•Lyme disease is transmitted by the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapu-laris) in the northeastern U.S. and upper Midwestern U.S. and the western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus) along the Pacific coast.

•Rickettsia parkeri Rickettsiosis is transmitted to humans by the Gulf Coast tick (Amblyomma maculatum).

•Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) is transmitted by the Amer-ican dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis), Rocky Mountain wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni), and the brown dog tick (Rhipicephalus sangunineus) in the U.S. The brown dog tick and other tick species are associated with RMSF in Central and South America.

•STARI (Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness) is transmitted via bites from the lone star tick (Ambylomma americanum), found in the southeastern and eastern U.S.

•Tickborne relapsing fever (TBRF) is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected soft ticks. TBRF has been reported in 15 states:


Ticks are shown here on a dog's back. Ticks not only carry diseases, they will reside on a host in ever increasing numbers. The host animal becomes unhealthy

and susceptible to infections and other diseases.

Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming and is associated with sleeping in rustic cabins and vacation homes.

•Tularemia is transmitted to humans by the dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis), the wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni), and the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum). Tularemia occurs throughout the U.S.

•364D Rickettsiosis (Rickettsia phillipi, proposed) is transmitted to humans by the Pacific Coast tick (Dermacentor occidentalis ticks). This is a new disease that has been found in California.

The above information is provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 1600 Clifton Road • Atlanta, GA 30333

Ticks also carry diseases that affect pets and livestock. You can check with your local health officials to ascertain the tick-born diseases indig-enous to your area.


In closing, I will say that there are insects that the Guinea fowl won’t eat. Ours, for example, won’t eat potato beetles. They will kill them, but they won’t eat them. Other Guinea fowl keepers also report that their Guinea fowl won’t eat some specific insects. These less preferred insects seem to almost always be the rarer varieties.

fResh eggs

There’s really nothing quite like fresh eggs from healthy, free ranging Guinea fowl. Guinea fowl eggs are so delicious that many people become Guinea fowl keep-ers simply to have a source of these unique, gourmet eggs.

You don’t necessarily have to al-low your Guinea fowl to free range in order to get good eggs from the hens, but many people – my wife and I included – believe that the fla-vor and texture are better. Science has also proven that eggs from free ranging poultry are higher in nutrition and lower in cholesterol and fats.

Some Guinea fowl keepers, who don’t free range their flock, but do provide quality feeds for their Guinea fowl, get wonderful eggs. We know a couple of people who do this and their eggs are tasty, but lack the really deep richness of color and taste our free ranging eggs have.

Guinea fowl eggs are popularly considered gourmet eggs. In a later chapter, we’ll have some of our favorite Guinea fowl egg recipes. We’ll also discuss the differences in Guinea fowl eggs and store bought chicken eggs.

The point of this discussion on eggs is simply to let you know that peo-ple do keep Guinea fowl just so that they can have their delicious eggs. Mind you, unlike chickens, Guinea fowl will not lay eggs year around – no matter what you do with their lighting.


waTCh bIRds

Guinea fowl are great watch birds. Think watch dog, but with wings, no teeth, and a few other differences. Guinea fowl do not like new things in their environ-ment, and when someone or some-thing new is present, Guinea fowl will make quite a ruckus.

The job of a good watch dog is to alert you to strangers: human or otherwise. Attack dogs are the ones that actually get involved with un-wanted visitors. Guinea fowl will alert their keepers to a vast array of issues including strange people, animals and events. They will then tend to disappear to their safe plac-es.

As an added bonus, larger flocks of Guinea fowl can make such a rau-cous alarm that they scare off unwanted animal visitors. I’ve yet to hear of a human being scared away by the alarm cries of Guinea fowl.

I’ve heard many stories of Guinea fowl killing snakes. I have never wit-nessed this, but our flock will alert us when they find a snake. With snakes, they will make their cries and then circle the snake squawk-ing at it. Since we live in an area where rattlesnakes are common, we appreciate this very much.

peTs

A few people keep Guinea fowl as pets. Some of these Guinea fowl keepers even allow their birds into the house. As you’d expect, such


lucky Guinea fowl get names, special residences and almost all the other amenities afforded to today’s pets.

Most pet Guinea fowl keepers have learned that Guinea fowl are very social animals, and require flock mates. This leads to these keepers having several Guinea fowl as pets.

oTheR Reasons

There are some other reasons that people keep Guinea fowl. They are not at all common reasons, but should be mentioned here. Among these rare reasons are such things as keeping Guinea fowl to balance a flock of chickens.

One farmer I know has Guinea fowl that he keeps in the barn, specifi-cally to keep the pigeons out. Some people are so enamored with the antics of Guinea fowl that they keep them solely for entertainment purposes. Some people keep Guinea fowl for weed control. Guinea fowl eat many kinds of weed seeds and can help with weed problems, but they are not a solution.

wRappIng IT up

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons that people become Guinea fowl keepers. They’re wonderful birds that will gladly earn their keep, if permitted to do so. They help create a safer, less insect laden environment; provide fresh eggs; keep an eye on the homestead and provide their keepers with a steady flow of entertaining behaviors and antics.

some ConsIdeRaTIons abouT KeepIng guInea fowl

Sadly, some people decide to keep animals, and then find out later that the animal and their situation do not work out together. This is a very com-mon occurrence with some of the more exotic and dangerous animals such as snakes, spiders and alligators. It’s also all-too-common an occurrence today with dogs and cats. It also happens with Guinea fowl.

Following are some things you should know about Guinea fowl before you become a keeper. Guinea fowl are great animals to have on your place, but they’re not right for everyone’s lifestyle and situation. Only you can de-


cide if keeping Guinea fowl is right for you. Below is some information to help you decide the answer to the crucial question: is keeping Guinea fowl the right choice for you?

noIse

Guinea fowl make noise. Really! Even devoted Guinea fowl lovers, such as my wife and me, occasionally become irritated by the noise these birds can make.

Guinea fowl are famous for the call of the hens, which is often written as “Buckwheat.” It is an interesting call sound, but when 20-30 hens, or even three or four hens, stand together outside your door making the call for 1½ hours, it becomes grating.

The male call sounds are not as notorious as those of the Guinea fowl hens, but they are quite loud and can be repeated at high volumes for well over an hour at a time. Add these sounds to those of a few hens and you have a cacophony that quickly becomes almost unbearable.

Guinea fowl keepers themselves rarely give up keeping Guinea fowl because of their often disturbing noise. However, continuous complaints from neighbors, and even visits from police, force some people to give up their flock.

To give you an idea of the sound volumes involved, our closest neighbor is over ½ mile away. While the Guinea fowl do not disturb them, they can hear them. From 50 yards (150 feet) away, the noise a flock can make can easily be quite disturbing to non-enthusiasts.

To hear some of our own recorded Guinea fowl sounds, click here. Then go to the Audio & Video section and click on the sound you wish to hear.

feedIng

Your new flock of Guinea fowl will likely require feeding. The types of feed and amounts of feed will vary with the time of year and the flock size.

Guinea fowl feed is not really very expensive. It costs us many times more to feed one of our dogs than it costs to feed all of our Guinea fowl. But purchasing, storing and serving feed should be considered by prospective Guinea fowl keepers.

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/


Our flock requires very, very little feed during the seasons when insects are active. Late fall, winter and early spring are a different story – espe-cially winter. Since the flock cannot forage for protein-rich insects and fresh greens, these things must be provided regularly and in appropriate quanti-ties. Based on our experience, feeding breaks down as follows:

*Winter: 100 pounds per month per 20 adult Guinea fowl. Cost monthly: $27.00. Leafy vegetation: $20 per month.

Fall: 50 pounds per month per 20 adult Guinea fowl. Cost monthly: $13.50. Leafy vegetation: $15 per month.

Spring: 50 pounds per month per 20 adult Guinea fowl. Cost month-ly: $13.50. Leafy vegetation: $10 per month.

Summer: 10 pounds per month per 20 adult Guinea fowl. Cost monthly: $2.76. Leafy vegetation: $00 per month.

*These figures are approximate and based on feed costing $13.50 per 50 pound bag.

mInImum floCK sIze

The minimum number of Guinea fowl a keeper should have is always a good subject to start disagreements with Guinea fowl keepers. Like so many things with Guinea fowl, the answer to the question of minimum flock size is open for debate.

Some people say four Guinea fowl is an acceptable minimum flock size. Most people say the minimum flock size should be six Guinea fowl. Then there are a few who say eight Guinea fowl is adequate for a flock. I cannot

Shown here is part of our first flock of pearl gray Guinea fowl. Some people believe that four Guinea fowl is the minimum number required for a flock. The

author believes that six is the absolute minimum, and suggests at least ten birds.


contest those numbers. I, however, think that ten Guinea fowl would be an ideal minimum flock size – and surely no fewer than eight.

Guinea fowl are social animals. They need companions. They need a flock. From letters I get, things I’ve read and my own experiences, it’s clear that smaller flocks (especially five or fewer birds) have problems not usually encountered by larger flocks. These problems include more frequent and more violent fights that produce injuries; unwanted noise and ‘disturbed’ individual Guinea fowl.

No matter what, don’t plan on having fewer than six Guinea fowl. Ten would be better.

pRopeRTY damage

Guinea fowl damage some things and destroy some others. It’s that sim-ple. There’s no way to prevent it, short of keeping the Guinea fowl perma-nently locked up in a coop and/or coop yard.

There are four primary ways that Guinea fowl damage things: 1) Scratch-ing. 2) Pecking. 3) Manure. 4) Dust bath construction. The last one is caused by numbers 1 and 2, but it deserves its own mention.

#1 – Scratching. Guinea fowl talons are long, sharp and hard. They will scratch the ground while foraging. This can be quite destructive to flower beds, gardens, lawns, etc.

#2 – Pecking. Guinea fowl have strong, sharp beaks that they use regularly. They can peck dents on outdoor furniture, poke holes in screens and destroy ornamental vegetation and garden plants. They will also sometimes peck the paint off the lower areas of buildings.

#3 – Manure. Fortunately, Guinea fowl manure is quite dry as a rule. It’s not sticky and clears off of areas relatively easily, compared to pigeon, goose or duck manure, for example. Still, expect to find Guinea fowl manure on furnishings, vehicles, walkways, etc.

#4 – Dust bath construction. Taking dust baths is an important part of Guinea fowl personal hygiene and social behavior. They will take them frequently, especially during late spring and summer.

A dust bath is a hollowed out bowl in the ground. Our flock makes dust baths as small as 6" wide, 12" long and 3" deep. They will also make dust baths as large as 18" wide, 30" long and 8" deep. Sometimes a single dust


bath is made in an area. Other times there are several close together. Guinea fowl will continue to build more and more dust baths as time passes. This is to say that Guinea fowl do not select a single dust bathing area for the year. Guinea fowl can excavate dust baths in very short periods of time – less than 10 minutes. Photographs of dust baths are in later chapters.

In some locations, Guinea fowl dust baths are harmless and may even go unnoticed. However, in places like flower beds, gardens and lawns, they can be eyesores – and even present safety hazards for those walking through the area. The dust bath bowls also hold water, which in some areas is utterly undesirable.

waTeR

Guinea fowl drink a lot of water. If you live in an area where freezing occurs during winter, you need to be prepared to somehow provide fresh, liquid water for the flock at all times.

Range

While there are exceptions in either direction, Guinea fowl roam up to ½ mile from their home. This can present the Guinea fowl keeper with a number of problems:

• Your flock’s presence (scratching, pecking, dust baths and manure) may bother neighbors.

• Your flock may forage on roadways, which can be a traffic hazard, as well as dangerous for the birds.

• Hunters may mistake these large, ground dwelling birds for game birds, and shoot them.

• While out wandering, your flock’s noise may disturb neighbors who are otherwise not bothered.


wInTeR CosTs

A flock of Guinea fowl costs much more to maintain during the winter than during the summer. Besides the additional feed, water must be heated to prevent freezing and healthy greens must be provided.

We provide our Guinea fowl with 3rd cutting alfalfa as their winter greens. One 100 pound, square bale will last 20 Guinea fowl about four months. Our flock consumes about 14 bales during winter.

Some people provide mung bean sprouts, lettuce or cabbage for their Guinea fowl in the winter. Others provide spinach, and some chop a variety of vegetables for their flock. Avoid “stringy” vegetables like celery as they may hurt the Guinea fowl.

In extreme climates, your Guinea fowl flock will require some heat in their coop. Most Guinea fowl keepers provide this heat with lamps. The lamps must be purchased and then will consume electricity during the cold-er periods.

shelTeR

There are some Guinea fowl keepers who do not provide shelter for their flocks. They take the “let nature take its course” approach. I can respect that, but I do not advise it for most Guinea fowl keepers – especially those new to keeping these birds or those in areas with predation problems.

Shelter will usually consist of a coop and a coop yard. Sizes of both vary with flock size, available space and budget. A top on the coop yard is advis-able to keep out predators. Coop fencing should be of the type necessary to prevent indigenous predators from entering the area.

new guInea fowl

Be prepared for the arrival of new Guinea fowl during the season. Keets, as Guinea fowl poults are called, can simply appear behind a hen one day. If you intend to let the flock raise the keets, great – if not, be sure to have a brooder, waterer and feeder ready.


vIolenCe

Violence is especially common right before and during mating (egg lay-ing) season. The perception of violence is subjective: my wife thinks that whenever 2 Guinea fowl ‘fight,’ it’s violent – I do not think that at all.

We almost never see any wounds on our flock, despite their apparently vigorous, enthusiastic and sometimes lengthy confrontations. We believe that the lack of serious injuries is predominately due to the large size of our flock. Many Guinea fowl keepers report severe injuries that occur as the result of the violence. Some keepers report fatal injuries from fighting.

Be prepared to witness some violence, and the occasional pursuant inju-ries. We decide to treat, perhaps, one Guinea fowl injury per month during the spring and summer – possibly fewer. There will be more information on simple medical treatments for Guinea fowl in a later chapter.

Four Guinea fowl hens and one male stroll towards lush foraging areas. Keets can show up as soon as a month after laying season begins. Be prepared for their arrival. The Guinea fowl will care for them, if you wish. Some Guinea fowl keep-ers say that Guinea fowl hens are not good mothers. We have not seen anything

that indicates that is true.

Living With Guinea Fowl • Chapter IIHow to Start Your Flock of Guinea Fowl —

ChapTeR IIhow To sTaRT YouR floCK of

guInea fowl

You’ve decided that keeping Guinea fowl is right for you and your situ-ation. Now it’s time to decide how you want to start your new flock. In this chapter we will delve into the three ways you have at your disposal to start a flock. Only you can decide which of the ways is best suited to you, your goals and your personal preferences.

We’ll conclude this chapter with a look at the different colors of Guinea fowl that are available, and cite some considerations when selecting color preferences.

puRChasIng KeeTs

This is definitely the preferred method for starting your flock. It is the method we chose, but not until after we had purchased a nice incubator and made preparations for incubating fertile Guinea fowl eggs.

Guinea fowl keets are shipped via the Postal service. Carriers such as UPS and Fed-Ex will not deliver live Guinea fowl keets. Because of this,

This photo was taken the day our 30 pearl gray Guinea fowl keets arrived. At this time they were still relatively calm, but they were all healthy, thirsty and hungry.

Within a day, their calm ended and they became quite active.


you should select a hatchery that is relatively close to you, so the keets spend less time traveling.

There are many commercial hatcheries around the United States that sell Guinea fowl keets, as well as some private Guinea fowl keepers who sell keets. We purchased our first 30 pearl gray Guinea fowl keets from Cackle Hatchery, and we were very pleased with the service and the quality of the keets.

There are a number of reputable hatcheries, select the one that’s right for your location and can provide the keets you want in a timely man-ner. Not all hatcheries will have all colors of Guinea fowl available for sale. Also, since the season is short and orders can exceed stock, some hatcheries will run out of keets in spring and early summer. Try to place your order in October or No-vember, for delivery the following spring.

Some of your new keets will perhaps die in the first few days after being delivered. As a rule of thumb, losses up to 10% can be expected. All 30 of our first keets survived, but this is the exception, not the rule. I rarely hear of some-one losing 10% of their new keets. It’s usually more along the lines of 2-5%, but don’t feel too badly if you lose 10%. These keet deaths usually occur in the first 10-14 days and very likely have nothing at all to do with the care you provide for them.

Most commercial hatcheries have minimum order sizes. This is to say that you can’t call and order three or five keets. The minimums

This keet is four days old. Handling the keets when they are this young helps

them accept you, and is fun, but in larger groups of keets, such as ours, it quickly becomes impossible to handle all the

birds regularly.


vary. Cackle Hatchery has a minimum order size of 15 keets. The folks at the hatchery informed me that shipping larger numbers of keets greatly enhances the birds’ chances of survival because of the available body heat inside the specialty packaging. Care instructions will arrive with your keets.

If you live in a smaller rural area, or happen to know your postal workers, you can contact them and tell them you have a delivery of live birds coming and would like to be notified as soon as they arrive. Our keets arrived at the post office at 2:30 AM. We picked them up at 4:00 AM. This saved the keets many hours of storage and travel. It’s best to get the keets into their new home and provide them with water, feed and warmth as quickly as possible. The keets will be stressed from their journey, and prompt attention to their needs will ensure a higher survival rate. Water and heat are the first things to provide the keets with. They will be quite thirsty.

Your keets might not know how to drink the water you provide for them. It’s highly advisable that you gently hold a keet and dip its beak carefully into the water. After incubating and raising many keets, we’ve learned that this does not need to be done for all of the keets. If you do a few, the rest will learn quickly by example.

This photo was taken on the second day that our keets were in the brooder. Yes, there really are 30 of them in there! Within a few days of taking this photograph, we removed one of the 60 watt lights and the round feeder shown in the center of the brooder. Note that we are still using paper towels for fast, regular cleanups.


The first 24 hours that your keets are in the brooder, they will be rela-tively lethargic and quiet. This is no doubt due to the rigors of the trip to their new home. It will pass quickly and the keets will soon be sprinting around the brooder and chirping up a storm.

You can check your local newspapers, Craigslist and local feed stores to find private Guinea fowl keepers who sell keets. This is a great way to start a flock. You not only get to see the flock your keets are from, but they will not have to endure the stress of the shipping process. We have sold or given away several hundred keets to people who live within 150 miles. Properly shipping keets is a highly specialized process, and I don’t advise ordering from a private individual who must ship you the keets.

Your new keets should start their lives in a brooder or brooder box. This need not be anything too elaborate, but it should be large enough for the number of keets you have and be able to be made draft-free. Many people use large plastic storage containers as brooders, others use cardboard boxes. I do not recommend the cardboard for sanitation reasons.

We started familiarizing our highly aggressive Akita, Bella, with the keets the day after they arrived. She would stare at the keets for hours, and I am sure that she would have attacked and killed them had we allowed her access to the tiny birds. It took quite some time to train Bella not to harm the keets/Guinea fowl. Now she

is their very good friend and loyal protector.


We constructed a large brooder for our keets. You can view our brooder, and learn much more about how to use one by visiting our website link for the Keet Brooder Box.

Most information on Guinea fowl says that: for the first week, the brood-er box temperature should be 95°F – 100°F. The temperature can be reduced by 5°F every week. We obliged these temperature guidelines for the first two weeks, but then our keets became too much for the brooder and we had to put them into the coop. We provided a heat lamp, so the keets could seek warmer spots if they chose to, but the coop temperature was far below the generally recommended temperature for two week old keets. Our keets did use the heat lamp sometimes, but most of the time they were (by their own choice) in temperatures that ranged from 65°F – 75°F. They did fine.

It is very important that your keets stay dry for the first 3-4 weeks of life. Their downy body covering will quickly become wet – which will likely lead to high mortality rates. Hand-in-hand with staying dry is staying out of drafts. Your keets need fresh air, but their ability to keep themselves warm is limited. Make sure the keets can’t get wet or into drafts during their first 3-4 weeks of life.

NB Guinea fowl, despite being indigenous to warm, dry climates, will adjust quite well to cold weather. Our adult pearl gray Guinea fowl have occasionally chosen to roost outdoors in ambient temperatures as low as -20°F, with wind chills down to -35°F. The birds know full well that the coop affords them heat, but they prefer to remain outdoors in the elements. We still marvel at the ability of these desert dwellers to survive frigid weather.

To read an article on caring for and feeding new keets, visit the article What to Feed Adult Guinea Fowl and Keets on our website.

InCubaTIng feRTIle eggs

Let me start this section by saying that I don’t suggest incubating fertile Guinea fowl eggs to start a flock. The exception would be if you’re experi-enced with egg incubation. If this is your first flock, I heartily discourage this approach to getting started. We very nearly went this route, and now, having incubated many hatches, we’re very glad we didn’t start out this way.

Fertile Guinea fowl eggs are also available from many commercial hatcheries, as well as from some private Guinea fowl keepers. Fertile Guin-ea fowl eggs cost much less than live keets, but the savings end there.

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/keet-brooder-box.html

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/feeding-adults.html


To incubate fertile Guinea fowl eggs, you’ll first need an incubator. You can purchase an incubator for as little as $50, but such an incubator will not have an automatic egg turner or other very useful amenities. For a decent incubator, prices start at around $150. For a really good incubator, expect to pay upwards of $300 – and prices for the higher quality units go up to well over $500.

Please – please do not purchase any incubator that does not have an automatic egg turner. If you oblige nothing else in this book, acquiesce to this one request. During incubation, all of the eggs must be turned sev-eral times per day. Automatic egg turners attend to this. If you have no turner, then you must commit to performing this process several times a day. Not only is this deli-cate process very time consuming, it also allows the temperature of the incubator to fall and the humidity to rapidly change – neither is good for the incubating eggs and will reduce your hatch rate.

I would also caution against purchasing any incubator that does not have an air circulation system. Having the air circulate prevents hot and cold spots inside the incu-bator. For a look at our incubator and setup, visit our website link for Guinea Fowl Egg Incubating. We’ve successfully incubated several hundred fertile Guinea fowl eggs in our in-cubator, which is the Genesis Hova-Bator model #1588 with circulated air and automatic egg turner.

Incubating Guinea fowl eggs takes about 28 days. We’ve had hatches that start on day 26, and hatches as late as 33 days. Our success rate has varied dramatically: between 10% and 73%. A success rate of 50% is what most literature promises.

Temperature and humidity inside the incubator are critical. This means that a) you need quality instruments to tell you what these are and b) the

Here is a photograph of our incuba-tor: the Genesis model 1588 with an automatic egg turner and air circula-

tion system. Temperature is maintained automatically. We later added a digital thermometer and a hygrometer. We did not start our flock by incubating eggs, but we've incubated hundreds of fertile eggs our hens have given us. This incu-bator is an excellent budget model. My only complaint: the styrofoam is some-

what fragile and very hard to clean.

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/incubator.html


incubator needs to be kept somewhere that minimizes adverse effects on either factor. Don’t put your incubator in a cold or damp room, for example. Also, incubators can be a little noisy: first from the egg turner motor and later for the days the new born keets remain in the incubator - often chirp-ing. Take this noise into account when locating your incubator.

Incubating fertile Guinea fowl eggs is an activity all to itself. Many Guinea fowl keepers are all but addicted to the process. They call them-selves “hatchaholics.” Many of these incubating enthusiasts are online, and can offer their many years of experience to those interested in incubating. Here is a link to the Guinea Fowl International Association’s Forum, which has a wealth of information on incubating and other Guinea fowl relative matters.

geTTIng adulT guInea fowl

It is possible, on some occasions, to find someone who will sell or give you adult Guinea fowl. This is not common, but it does happen. Recently, a woman who has kept Guinea fowl for many years had to reduce her flock for personal reasons. She sold 40 of her adult Guinea fowl through the local newspaper.

Getting adult Guinea fowl to start your flock does offer some advantages over the previous two methods, but it also comes with its own problems. I am not against going this route to start your Guinea fowl flock, but you should be mindful of possible problems that may well occur.

The first problem with this method is availability. As I said, people sell-ing a flock’s worth (6 or more) of adult Guinea fowl is rare. That means that you might spend the entire season looking for Guinea fowl and not find them – or find them very late in the season, which is not the time to start a new flock in a new environment.

Here we're adding colored water to the troughs in the bottom of the

Genesis incubator. We tint the water red so that the level can be seen in the clear plastic troughs against the white background of the styrofoam. Before

tinting the water, we had to remove the lid to check the level - which is bad for

temperature and humidity control.

http://www.guineafowlinternational.org/forum/


The second problem is the social nature of Guinea fowl. Unless you get someone’s entire flock, you will most likely have some very stressed out adult Guinea fowl on your hands. A stressed Guinea fowl is not a happy Guinea fowl. This will start your Guinea fowl keeping experience on shaky grounds – for both you and the birds.

We once had to remove a Guinea fowl from our flock for three days in order to give it some minor medical attention. The sequestered Guinea fowl hen did not eat, and only drank very little. She went through long periods of absolute silence, and equally long periods of making loud, ‘unhappy’ calls. She was also lethargic. Oddly, when we put her back with the flock, she went through a 2-day period of obvious rejection by her flock mates. That was the last time we removed a bird from the flock.

Another problem with acquiring adult Guinea fowl is runaways. I get emails about this all the time – from both those starting a flock and from those adding to their existing flock. If the newly acquired adults are not con-tained somehow, it appears they strike out on their own in an attempt to find their original home and/or flock mates. I have never acquired adult Guinea fowl, but if I did, I would plan on confining them for at least eight weeks, and probably ten. This will allow them to properly imprint with their new digs. Remember: Guinea fowl don't like anything new or different, at first.

If you have a flock of Guinea fowl and wish to add adult birds to it, be prepared for numerous confrontations between the Guinea fowl in your existing flock and the new adults. Remember, Guinea fowl are very social creatures, and they don’t readily adapt to or accept ‘new’ flock mates when they are adults.

If you have a small flock of Guinea fowl and have an opportunity to add some adults to it, be very careful that you don’t introduce new diseases or parasites to your flock. To create an effective quarantine area will require a lot of effort, space and expense. Simply placing a fence between the two flocks will not be adequate or effective. The birds must not be able to access each other in any way – even beak-to-beak.

Even highly experienced Guinea fowl keepers are reluctant to add new adult birds to their flock. Clearly, their reluctance is solidly grounded in valid reasons.


guInea fowl ColoRs

Helmeted Guinea fowl are available in many colors – and new colors are added as time passes. To view some photographs of the different colors available, visit Guinea fowl colors. To give you a preview, the growing list of colors includes the following: bronze, copper, pewter, porcelain, chocolate, buff and many more.

We went with pearl gray Guinea fowl when we started our flock. And we have remained true to this color, which is the original color of helmeted Guinea fowl. We did this because the environment here is brutal, and while breeding dogs and cattle, we’ve learned that less breeding for coloration yields the stronger animals. No doubt, there are contrary arguments to this approach – some of which surely offer some valid points.

Pearl gray Guinea fowl (under blue arrow) are very good at hiding - from preda-tors and from their human keepers. This hen is sitting on a nest with over 30 eggs in it. She built the nest under a pine tree that blew down in a storm. Even though

we could hear her calls, it was hard to find her the first time. Lighter colored Guinea fowl might not have the camouflage advantages of the pearl grays. It was so difficult to access this nest, that we did not harvest any of the eggs. It would be

impossible for a flying predator to see or get at the hen or her eggs.

http://www.guineafowlinternational.org/colorchart/


One primary consideration when choosing a Guinea fowl color is preda-tors. It is much easier for a hawk, raccoon or coyote to spot a porcelain Guinea fowl than a pearl gray Guinea fowl. This was another reason for our color choice.

We have all manner of predators, including eagles. An eagle can swoop down and snatch a Guinea fowl and carry it off without even landing. For-tunately, this has never happened here, but we have many times seen eagles circling above. Guinea fowl watch the skies for flying predators, and sound an alarm call when one is spotted. Our pearl gray Guinea fowl can hide eas-ily, but a white Guinea fowl might not be so lucky.

It should also be noted that some colors of Guinea fowl are quite rare, and not readily available for purchase. In fact, some colors are so rare that it is all but impossible to acquire them.

In the next chapter, we’ll present more in-depth information about pre-paring for the care of your new flock of Guinea fowl.

In ClosIng

Carefully consider how you want to start your flock of Guinea fowl. Make the choice that’s right for you and your situation. Keeping Guinea fowl is a fun and rewarding endeavor. Start things off right, and you’ll surely make your experiences with these amazing birds something you’ll treasure for many years to come.

Our male German Shepherd dog, Buddy, herds the 16 week old Guinea fowl back to the coop for the night. Buddy has saved us lots of walking!


Below are the first pearl gray Guinea fowl keets that we removed from the brood-er and placed into the camper coop conversion we made. There are 14 keets in

this photograph. These keets are 12 days old. Upon being released into the coop, which must have seemed gigantic to them after the brooder, they ran and hid

inside of one of the floor level camper cabinets. We had already put out food and water, so we left the coop and watched them via the closed circuit camera. They

remained hidden for about an hour, then slowly started to come out. By the time 3 hours had passed, the keets were out in the open and running around like crazy. Within a day, they started trying to fly. They would take long runs and at the end

flap their wings furiously and make tiny jumps. This was one of the most fun activities to observe. For a couple of days they would run under the cabinet when we entered the coop, but they quickly learned that we are their friends and they

would come to greet us - making "happy" keet calls. Within the next two days, all of our keets were in the coop together.

http://youtube.com/user/guineafowltv/

http://www.youtube.com/user/guineafowltv/

Living With Guinea Fowl • Chapter IIIPreparing for Your New Flock of Guinea Fowl —

ChapTeR IIIpRepaRIng foR YouR

new floCK of guInea fowl

Guinea fowl are very productive animals that don’t have need of much in the way of facilities, equipment or supplies. For very little in the way of care, Guinea fowl will dramatically reduce insect populations, provide fresh, gourmet eggs during the laying season and act as alarms when their environment changes. Plus, they are just plain fun to observe in their day-to-day behavior. Lastly, if it is your wish, they can provide delicious meat, but this book is not really aimed at keepers who wish to raise Guinea fowl for the purposes of butchering them.

Here in farming and ranching country, many Guinea fowl keepers will only supply their flocks of adults with feed and liquid water during the cold-


er months, when insects are not available. Summer water must be gotten at the stock tanks. Keets are raised by the flock.

Some Guinea fowl keepers have very elaborate coops. I’ve seen some Guinea fowl coops worthy of mention in Architectural Digest. These plush coops feature a variety of amenities like central heating, automated water-ing systems and extra high ceilings.

As you can see, you have lots of latitude in how you prepare for your new flock of Guinea fowl. How you keep your Guinea fowl is dependent on several factors including flock size, budget, space, building code restric-tions, intended purposes of the birds and your personal wishes.

Now, with it made clear that there are many ways to keep Guinea fowl, I’ll proceed with how to prepare for the arrival of your keets. If you ordered fertile eggs and will incubate, the following suggestions can be used when the Guinea fowl eggs hatch. Either way, please consider the following as information and suggestions only – not a group of necessary preparations and equipment. Any exceptions to this will be noted.

The bRoodeR

If a brooder was truly a necessity for keets, then helmeted Guinea fowl would have died off many, many generations ago. After all, there are no brooders available in the wilds of Africa. However, to ensure the highest survival rates for your new keets, I very strongly suggest that you have a brooder ready for your keets when they arrive.

As stated in the last chapter:

“Your new keets should start their lives in a brooder or brooder box. This need not be anything too elaborate, but it should be large enough for the number of keets you have and be able to be made draft-free. Many people use large plastic storage containers as brooders, others use cardboard boxes. I do not recommend the cardboard for sanitation reasons.

We constructed a large brooder for our keets. You can view our brooder in detail, and learn much more about how to use one by visiting our website link for the Keet Brooder Box.”

A brooder should be:

• Easy to clean

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/keet-brooder-box.html


• Draft free

• Dry

• Made of non-toxic material

• Ventilated

• Large enough to safely contain the keets for up to two weeks

The floor of the brooder should not be slick or slippery. Keet legs are weak and if they slip on the brooder floor, irreparable leg, foot or joint dam-age is likely to occur. We found that no-skid material makes excellent floor-ing. It’s inexpensive and easy to work with. We cut enough floor-sized pieces of no-skid to allow for washing and changing – at least two sets.

For the first few days of the keets’ lives, we put cheap paper towels over the no-skid for quicker, less disruptive brooder cleanups. We had 30 keets in a brooder with a 2'x4' (8 square feet) floor. Cleaning the floor of the brooder was necessary, but stressed the keets. Simply replacing paper towels seemed to bother them less, and was much easier for us than removing/replacing the no-skid. Terrycloth towels can be used in place of no-skid material.

This is a photograph of the brooder box that we constructed for our arriving keets. The top removes for easy cleaning, and the front can be opened or easily

removed for viewing. This brooder has started many, many keets' lives.


Some people use textured shelf liner material on the brooder floor. Oth-er people report great success using newspaper to cover the brooder floor. Some lay the newspaper sections out flat on the brooder floor, while others tear the newspaper into strips first.

I have read where many Guinea fowl keepers have tried using wood shavings on the floor of their brooder box. I do not advise this for two rea-sons:

1) The wood or wood treatment products used for the shavings may be toxic to the fragile keets.

2) Keets are not yet discriminate about what they eat, and they will eat some of the shavings and/or the dust. Keets need all the protein, vitamins and minerals they can get during their early development – just like any other animal. If their tiny bellies are stuffed with fillers like wood shavings instead of quality feed, they start life out poorly.

Here are some pearl gray Guinea fowl keets that we incubated from eggs that our hens gave us. If you look in the far right, you can see a small section of shell that has remained stuck to this keet's back since removing it from the brooder two days

earlier. Some experienced Guinea fowl keepers suggest using warm water and cotton swabs to gently remove these shell pieces, but we have found that it almost

invariably works out better all around to just let the shell fall away naturally.


Large plastic containers are most likely the favorite brooder – for new Guinea fowl keepers and old hands alike. They are inexpensive, lightweight, sturdy, easy to move around, clean up well, store nicely, come in many col-ors and last quite some time. They are also relatively easy to modify to accommodate a light for heat, and slits for ventilation. You can customize a large plastic container quickly and easily with a shop knife and a metal straight edge.

It’s all but impossible to evenly heat the entire inside of a brooder. So don’t even try. A plain old incandescent 60-100 watt light bulb will provide ample heat in most any situation. Suspend the light from the top of the brooder 12” – 18” above the floor – out of reach of the keets – so that the area directly beneath the center of the light is the ideal temperature. This way, keets that want more heat will locate directly under the light, while keets not wishing to get so much heat can locate themselves appropriately.

Keets can come out of the brooder whenever you wish it. I suggest the keets spend a minimum of one week in the safety and controlled environ-ment of the brooder. 10-14 days will be better in many instances. Exactly when your keets get to move from the brooder to the coop largely depends on your weather and the environment of the coop itself.

There are many suggestions floating around regarding how much space the keets need in the brooder. We raised 30 pearl gray Guinea fowl keets in a brooder with a 2'x4' floor, which is 1,152 square inches. 1,152/30 = 38.4 square inches per keet. There are 144 square inches in a square foot, so each


of our keets had just under ¼ of a square foot to live and grow in. We found this to be quite ample for the first 14 days of life, but if I had it to do over again, I’d give each keet 45-50 square inches of space – if I intended to leave the keets in the brooder for their entire first two weeks of life.Thank heavens the mathematics part is over!

In closing, after you are done with the brooder, if you intend to use it again, sterilize it with a mild bleach solution and water. Be sure it is com-pletely dry before storing so molds and mildew don’t blossom.

waTeReRs

When we first started keeping Guinea fowl, we bought into the whole poultry waterer thing. I’m too embarrassed to say how many poultry-specific waterers my wife purchased for our flock before we found the ones we liked best. We used those two high end waterers for many months before it dawned on me that we were wasting a lot of time, energy and water - and we switched to a very simple system. More on that later.

I do believe it is important that you have a special waterer for your keets, while they live in the brooder. These small waterers have nice res-ervoirs so you don’t have to keep re-filling the waterer all day long, and the design helps prevent keets from drowning. Adding some marbles to the water trough of these waterers guarantees that no keets will drown.

Poultry waterers come in many sizes, colors and materials. My sug-gestion is that if you are going to

The equipment shown is what we have used. We quickly found little or no

use for the Young Guinea Waterer, the round Keet Feeder or the Rabbit Feeder

- though all of them are well made. Ultimately, we also quit using the large

waterer in the lower photograph. We now use a large rubber bowl in summer

and a heated dog bowl in winter.


purchase a poultry waterer (or several) that it be made of high quality plas-tic. Galvanized steel waterers dent and flake. Aluminum waterers are rare and costly. Cheap plastic waterers quickly fall prey to sun and freezing tem-peratures – and need to be replaced. If the water hard freezes in any of these units, they are likely to become unserviceable due to the damaging effects of the expansion of the ice inside the containers.

I have calculated that our adult pearl gray Guinea fowl will drink water at the following rates:

SUMMER: 1 gallon of water per 10 Guinea fowl per day. (+/- 10%)

WINTER: ¼ gallon of water per 10 Guinea fowl per day. (+/- 10%)

You can use the figures above to determine what size waterer will suite you and your flock. Waterers come in many sizes – up to several gallons. Remember that water weighs almost 8½ pounds per gallon, plus the weight of the waterer. So a filled 5-gallon waterer will weigh at least 45 pounds.

Also, when considering waterers, I highly suggest that you plan to take the flock water no more than once per day. There are automatic watering systems which will ensure that your flock always has water. These systems are great in the summer or for inside heated structures all year long. I have never seen a freeze-proof automatic waterer for poultry, but no doubt such a thing is available somewhere.

I mentioned that I would share how we have evolved regarding the wa-terer issue. It’s time for that now:

SUMMER: Inside the coop we place a 3-gallon, wide-base rubber dish with <1-gallon of water in it. The Guinea fowl don’t spend their days inside the coop during summer, so we only replenish/refresh the water every other day. Outside the coop yard, we have placed the same size wide-base rubber dishes at two spigots. We refill those for the dogs and Guinea fowl as needed – and it’s very convenient.

WINTER: We put an inexpensive, freeze-proof dog waterer in the coop. We replenish water every day using a 1-gallon milk jug for ease of carrying and pouring. We clean the bowl in place weekly and about every six weeks we bring it inside the utility room and clean and sterilize it.

Our new watering systems for winter and summer are so much easier than any of the costly systems we previously tried that I am at a loss to ex-plain how happy we are with them.


feedeRs

When you’re considering which feeder is right for you and your flock, remember that you will almost surely be purchasing two different types of feeders: one for the keets in the brooder and one for the older Guinea fowl out in the coop. Knowing this before you start buying can save you a few dollars.

Like waterers, feeders come in many sizes, shapes and colors – with the largest selection being available in plastic models, not steel. As with water-ers, I prefer the higher quality plastic models, and for the same reasons.

Feeders should make feed constantly and easily available to the birds, and reduce the amount of waste the birds create while eating. Feeders should also be made to withstand abuse and still give years of service. They should be the right size for you and your flock, and you should be able to sterilize them easily when needed.

When I say “you and your flock” I really mean it. The choices you make regarding your Guinea fowl should take your flock AND you into account. Will you be going to the coop three times a day? Twice a day? Once a day? Every other day? Twice a week? Can you carry a filled five gallon waterer to the coop? As you decide about things like feeders, try to visualize yourself caring for the Guinea fowl – to ensure the equipment you select is not only best for the flock, but for you as well.

A hen flies across the garden as it is being tilled. Our Guinea fowl LOVE to fol-low the tractor to get all manner of good things that are turned up.


We purchased a couple of the roller top feeders for our brooder. These feeders are designed to stop the keets from jumping into the feed and mak-ing a mess. Well, they don’t really do that. Keets do get into the feed and then they do make a mess – both inside the feeder and outside the feeder. It’s amazing how much feed a ping-pong ball-sized keet can displace from a feeder. Still, the roller top models have worked out best.

It’s okay to leave the feed that falls out and around the keet feeder for the keets – but I wouldn’t leave it there for more than one day or two. The keets will eat a lot of it, but they will also deposit their manure in it, mak-ing it a less healthy, less nutritious diet. Keep an eye on it, and if the feed to manure ratio becomes undesirable, it’s time to clean up. Under and around the feeder are great places for easy cleanup paper towels, as suggested in an earlier chapter.

I think feeder selection, for both keets and adults, is largely a trade-off between two objectives: cleanliness and availability. Along with cleanliness comes reduced feed waste. If you make the birds eat their feed through tiny holes in the feeder, where they must reach down to get to the feed, you’ll have a lot less waste. However, since the feed is more difficult to reach, your birds might not eat as much, and therefore not be as robust. Certainly, I would never suggest making it difficult for keets to get their feed. Keets grow at an amazing rate, and need all the nutrition they can get.

I have no great suggestions for a feeder for your coop. We have resigned ourselves to accepting the ones we have, which provide easy access to the feed, and to some small extent keep the birds from scratching the feed out of the feeder. The Guinea fowl get a foot or two into the feed and can remove it to the surrounding floor at an utterly phenomenal rate. We accept our feed-ers because the birds always have unfettered access to feed and because they are large enough that we do not need to refill them very often.

gRIT

Poultry need grit. It aids in their digestive process. Grit is available any-where poultry supplies are sold. It’s inexpensive and you don’t need lots of it.

There are arguments for and against all sorts of grits. We started out us-ing a mounted rabbit feeder with grit in it. Our flock used so little of it that


we thought maybe they didn’t like the ‘flavor.’ That was not the case – they just didn’t need much of it.

We have very sandy soil here. We also have true sandstones: made from the sandier soil areas being compressed by tons of earth for countless centuries. We have dug them up during projects, and we keep them all – the Guinea fowl love them! They get on the boul-ders sunbathe, sharpen their talons and beaks and eat the grit. The high sand content explains why our flock needs so little grit provided as a di-etary supplement.

After discovering how well our flock did with just sand, we started telling the folks who purchased

A male Guinea fowl comes in for a landing on a small group of our sandstone boulders. The Guinea fowl visit the boulders regularly throughout the day, during the free ranging season. For the off season, we have a small boulder (36" dia. -

shown in the photo below) inside their coop yard - so they still get their grit.


keets from us to provide them with sand as grit. Buy a bag of sand and oc-casionally throw a shovel full or two of it out on the ground somewhere. They’ll scratch at it, mix it into the dirt and eat all they know they should.

Guinea fowl also love sandy soil for dust bathing – so you can give them a cheap treat by throwing a few shovels of sand into an area for them to dust bathe in. Till it into the soil and it’s even better. They’ll thank you!

mIlleT

White proso millet. It’s the Guinea fowl treat. Tiny, round, white-brown-ish seeds that your flock will immediately learn to love. The first couple of times you feed your flock millet, they will likely approach it slowly. Around the third or fourth time you sprinkle some millet out for the flock, they will quickly gather and ravenously gobble down the Guinea fowl delicacy.

Use millet to reward your Guinea fowl for desirable behavior. You can also use millet to teach your Guinea fowl to come closer to you, or to visit some area you wish them to patrol for insects.

In Chapter V we’ll discuss training your Guinea fowl using millet. It is eminently useful for you to train your Guinea fowl to do two things: 1) come when called 2) return to the safety of the coop as necessary.

feed

If you’d ever like to initiate a discussion that will almost surely become heated, get a group of Guinea fowl keepers talking about which feeds are best for the flock. Following are our recommendations for feeds of Guinea fowl at different ages and different times of the year.

Feed for keets:

•Feed guinea fowl keets a highly enriched, high protein feed, such as Game Bird Starter (not Chick Starter). Look for a starter that con-tains 24% to 26% protein. You can use Chick Starter, but it doesn’t contain the higher protein content growing keets should get.

•If you have other poultry, the keet feed you purchase should also contain Amprolium (AMP). Amprolium is a coccidiostat that con-trols coccidiosis.


•We always recommend the use of a feed for keets that contains AMP to the people who purchase keets from us – whether they have other poultry or not. Even if you only give them one bag of this feed before using non-AMP feeds, it is a good way to be sure the flock starts out healthy.

Feed for adult Guinea fowl:

•Provide adult guinea fowl that are not free-ranging, at least a 16% protein content feed.

•In our harsh, frigid Montana winters, we feed our confined Guinea fowl the more nutritious 24% to 26% protein feeds. This is just our personal choice, but all of our Guinea fowl have wintered well.

•You can give daily, treat-sized servings of millet to your adult flock. They think it’s candy! If you are training your guinea fowl, millet is the perfect training treat.

•A basic bird seed mix is a wonderful supplement, but not meant to be the only source of nutrition for guinea fowl.

•Suet blocks can provide extra fat in the winter months, but not all guinea fowl will eat suet blocks.

•You can also easily make high fat, high protein treats for your guin-ea fowl. See our article Winter Tips for Keeping Guinea Fowl.

•Buy third cutting bales of Alfalfa for winter feeding, when pos-sible. In most states, all the green grasses will be gone and the green Alfalfa is a rare, special and nutritious treat for guinea fowl adults. Lettuce, cabbage, bean sprouts and other leafy vegetables also ap-peal to Guinea fowl and will fulfill their need for vegetation.

•You can call your local seed mill, when possible, and ask if they have any “screenings” on hand for sale. Most of the time you can get the back of a pickup truck filled with wheat, milo or millet screen-ings for very little money. This is great for the guinea fowl and costs only pennies a pound. Storage, however, can be problematic.

•Remember, your guinea fowl are not garbage disposers. Try to only feed them natural grains: without sugar, salt or preservatives.

•Exceptions to feeding eggs to your adult guinea fowl would be if you disguised the eggs with other flavors and textures. Some guinea fowl owners feed eggs back to their birds as a source of calcium

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2557527/winter_tips_for_keeping_guinea_fowl.html?cat=53


by cooking them and mixing up special recipes that include grains, greens, etc. But be care-ful, you don’t want to teach them to eat their own eggs – be-fore you can gather them up and eat them yourself! Guinea fowl eggs are smaller than chicken eggs, but richer and tastier. More on that later.

•It seems that most Guinea fowl really enjoy eating scraps of bread. Ours prefer the scraps to be slightly stale. Ours will eat all types of breads, with wheat being their favorite and rye being their least favorite.

General Guinea Fowl Feeding Suggestions:

•Store your guinea fowl feed in air tight, roident and insect proof containers away from heat sources and direct light. Feed can go bad if it is heated up or allowed to get moist.

•Buy feed in relatively small quantities. The fresher it is, the better it is. Watch out for old sacks of feed at your feed store. Check the manufacturing date for freshness before you carry it out the door.

•Provide more feed to guinea fowl that are not free-ranging. Free-ranging guinea fowl eat enormous amounts of seeds, grass and pro-tein-rich insects while free-ranging. Often, free-ranging guinea fowl don’t require supplemental feed from you during the insect hatching spring and summer months.

Coops

An entire book could easily be devoted to the subject of poultry coops. One of our distant neighbors uses a lean-to that was built decades ago as his Guinea fowl and chicken coop. Some coops are elaborately designed, decorated and equipped. Our coop is an old camper that we gutted and con-verted.

Here is a container of wheat screen-ings. This makes a nice dietary supplement for the Guinea fowl.


Click the link to see photos and read how we made our inexpensive Camper Conversion Coop for our Guinea fowl.

The following is an excellent article about buying coops, reprinted here with the permission of the author, Damien Andrews. Our camper coop con-version was featured in the article.

This photograph was taken inside of our coop, when our first Guinea fowl were still relatively young - about 10 weeks of age. We have plenty of roosting inside

the coop, and the Guinea fowl use all of it - though not all at the same time. These roosts can be quickly disassembled to facilitate easier cleaning of the coop. There are complete, easy instructions for building these convenient, functional ladder

roosts on our website.

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/camper-coop.html


guIde To buYIng a ChICKen Coop

A guide to low, medium and high end chicken coop solutions

By Damien Andrews

The number of families raising poultry for meat and eggs is on the rise in the United States. And so are the sales of chicken coops and poultry supplies. Before you start your own flock of poultry, you’ll need a chicken coop. If building a chicken coop is not an option, you can buy one. You can also turn an assortment of structures into a chicken coop. My guide will give you several options you may not have considered, like turning an old pull-behind camper or a dog house into a chicken coop.

A chicken coop should be predator proof, but it should also provide a dry location for your poultry to roost or sleep in. It does not require four walls and a door in order for your poultry to be happy. I would have to imagine that your poultry don’t really care as long as the food and water are there, and that they are safe from predators, rainy weather and freezing temperatures. There is a general rule about the size of chicken coop to have, for the size and number of poultry you will be housing in it. You should figure that one bird, depending on its size, requires from 2-4 square feet of space inside the coop. So if you have 10 birds, you’ll need between 20 and 40 square feet of space inside your chicken coop.

Pre-Built Shed or Storage Building

If you have the funds, a custom pre-built shed, or building is the Cadillac of chicken coops. In the past 10 years, many companies have been popping up in towns and cities and doing nothing but building custom, pre-built sheds. Even Home-Depot, Lowes and UBC offer their customers custom pre-built sheds. Star Structures in Miles City, Montana will make you a custom portable shed, built to your size specifications and needs. Search your local business listing for sheds, or portable storage buildings. The re-sults should lead you right to a source for getting a chicken coop built and delivered.

Used Camper or Recreational Vehicle

Did you know, or even consider, that a used camper would make a great chicken coop? Well it does. It has windows, doors and insulation already built in. Inside the camper you get the benefit of shelving, counters and book cases, all of which your poultry will enjoy using as roosts, nesting

http://starstructuresmc.com/


spots and gathering areas. And you can use the built-in cabinets for feeds, etc. Search Craigslist for campers made in the 70’s or 80’s. Used campers at this age will usually sell for under $500. After you get it, you can do any customizing you desire, and pull out all the unnecessary furniture and ap-pliances to make more room for your poultry. Here is a step-by-step article on how to convert a camper into a chicken coop.

Pre-Built Chicken Coop

There are dozens of companies on the internet that build chicken coops and ship them right to your door. These chicken coops are super nice, with poultry friendly amenities like easy to clean floor liners, and nest boxes with hinged top doors for easy egg gathering. Some of the chicken coop companies make chicken coops you can easily wheel around your pasture or backyard. For these kinds of details, you will find the price to be a little higher than a pre-built shed or a used camper. A mid-range price for these types of chicken coops is about $1,200.00. One company I found online, that appeared to have a good line of coops and a solid reputation, is EZ Clean Coops, in Genoa, IL.

Before you buy hatching eggs or day-old chicks, make sure you have a chicken coop on the ground and ready to safely house your new flock. If you need to do any work on it, complete it before you put your poultry in there. After your poultry have moved into the chicken coop, is no time for you to be going in there to remodel. Believe me!

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(L) Here our camper conversion coop is shown after being set in place, with some of the work done. (R) Completed coop with coop yard in progress.

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/camper-coop.html

http://www.ezcleancoops.com/Home.aspx

http://www.ezcleancoops.com/Home.aspx


buIld YouR own Coop

If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, constructing a nice coop is a relatively easy and very rewarding project. You can create the plans from your imagination, or you can search online for plans that suit your needs, or that you can easily modify to suit your needs: links provided on the last page of this chapter.

The Coop YaRd

The coop yard, as one might imagine, is attached to the coop. The small-er door, exclusively for the use of the Guinea fowl, opens directly into the coop yard. Frequently, the human’s door into the coop will also be via the coop yard.

This photograph was taken shortly after we allowed the keets to leave the safety of the coop and play outside in the coop yard. As is always the case with Guinea fowl, the keets were reluctant to step out of the coop - an environment they had

come to know and become comfortable with. It took about a half day for all of the keets to finally make it outside. Once the keets had sampled the joys of the great

outdoors, they couldn't get enough of it.


The size of the coop yard is largely dependent on the size of your flock: more Guinea fowl means a larger coop yard. A nice size would be 2-4 square feet per Guinea fowl. Since our Guinea fowl must spend so many months in the confines of the coop and coop yard, our coop yard provides roughly 6 square feet per Guinea fowl.

There are almost as many configurations and specifications for Guinea fowl coop yards as there are for coops. Some people simply have a 4' tall fence. Others have 6' fencing. Many have small ante-areas off the main coop yard, which allow them to separate their Guinea fowl for various reasons.

If you really want to ensure that the Guinea fowl remain inside the coop yard, and are protected from predators, you’ll need at least a 6' fence (as-suming you want to enter the coop yard at any time); a top; tight enough mesh to prevent keets from escaping and predators from entering and some-thing to stop predators from digging into the coop yard.

The top of the coop yard can be covered with chicken wire or mesh that is designed for the purpose. Chicken wire is more difficult to install but is stronger and will tend to last longer.

Chicken wire that is 3-4’ tall also makes a nice addition to the bottom of chain link coop yard fencing – to keep keets inside and most predators outside. Highly determined predators will get through chicken wire! If you have a serious ground predator problem, consider hardware cloth or steel mesh for this purpose. If snakes are a serious problem, only the tightest of meshes will work effectively. ¼” hardware cloth will stop all adult snakes.

To stop predators from burrowing into your coop yard, you can bury any number of types of fencing or wire all around the outer perimeter of the coop yard. We used 3' tall chicken wire for this purpose, but ¼” hardware cloth is better suited to areas where digging predators might be a more seri-ous problem. NB we have lots of predators, but our dogs protect the coop yard from digging predators.

To install the predator-proofing wire around the coop, simply roll out the wire down the edge of the coop yard fence. (See the diagram at the top of the following page.) Get it up tight to the fence! Pull it tight and secure it to the ground using landscaping or tent spikes. Secure the edge to the fence wire using hog rings or outdoor rated wire ties. Grass will quickly grow through it, making it invisible. It is easily mowed over after the wire settles – about ten days.


RoosTs

Guinea fowl love to roost! So, both your coop and coop yard should pro-vide them with adequate roosting space. I’ve read arguments online about what the best size and type of roosting for Guinea fowl is. I have yet to see any single set of parameters that is really “best.”

Here is a link to our article entitled Guinea Fowl Roost Options. It has lots of photos and specifications for your perusal.

Here is a link to our article entitled Ladder Type Roost for Guinea Fowl. This article shows you how, with words and photographs, to make an inex-pensive, space-saving roost for your Guinea fowl.

Here is a link to an article we did that shows how to build what we call The Guinea Fowl Jungle Gym. (Scroll halfway down the page to the perti-nent area of the article.) This is a very cheap and easy to build structure that will allow dozens of Guinea fowl to roost comfortably.

I would not suggest using anything as roosting that has less than 1" of top area for the Guinea fowl. A 2"x4" is actually 1½"x3½" – when turned on edge, a 2"x4" makes a great roost.

Guinea fowl will also roost on large flat surfaces, but ours definitely prefer roosts. Ours spend the night on pine tree limbs that are as large as 14" in diameter. You’ve got lots of latitude with your roosts.

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/roost-options.html

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/roost-ladder.html

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/camper-coop-pg5.html


nesTs

Before we acquired our first Guinea fowl, we read that they really like secluded nest areas inside the coop. So we left some of the cabinets in place and filled them with new straw bedding before the Guinea fowl arrived. I cannot tell you that the Guinea fowl do not use these nests, but I can abso-lutely tell you that they prefer to be out in the open areas of the coop with their flock mates. No eggs have ever been laid in these nests, either.

If you want to build some small, secluded nest areas in your coop, by all means do so. But don’t be too disappointed if they don’t get much use.

For out in the coop yard, and for placement around our property, we did build some little structures intended for nests or for the Guinea fowl to hide from flying predators. You can read the article Tee Pee hide for Guinea Fowl at the link. These little structures are cheap and easy to build, and our Guinea fowl love them. We have added to their numbers every year, and all of them are always in use during the free ranging season. We always get eggs from under these teepees – even the ones inside the coop yard. It’s super-easy egg collection! The teepees are a treat for the Guinea fowl and for us.

A nine month old Guinea fowl hen tends to her nest, which she built inside the coop yard under one of the teepees we built for our flock. As you can see, this

young hen is going well out of her way to tend her clutch of eggs.

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/tee-pees-1.html

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/tee-pees-1.html


medICIne

We keep two medical supplies on hand for our Guinea fowl. 1) Veteri-cyn. 2) Pedialyte.

Vetericyn is used on all external injuries – for both our Guinea fowl and our dogs. Pedialyte is a rehydration solution that we use for keets that seem to be dehydrating, and once for an adult hen who was under the weather. If Pedialyte is used as a substitute for water, stressed keets will perk up quickly. Some experienced Guinea fowl keepers give keets Pedialyte for the first two days in the brooder.

This is the same nest as shown on the previous page, but about two weeks later in the season. Three Guinea fowl hens are sharing this nest, which has over 20 eggs in it at all times. We rob this nest of fresh eggs daily - for our table. There are ac-tually two Guinea fowl hens inside the teepee at this time, with a third waiting to get her turn to fidget, tend and sit. Note the one egg shown on the left side of the front of the teepee area. We had marked this egg, so we always knew which one it was. For some reason, no matter how many times we put it back into the center of

the nest with the other eggs. the Guinea fowl hens would roll it out.


My wife has taken small dishes of Pedialyte to some hens that she feels have sat on their nests for so long that they are risking health is-sues due to dehydration. Whether or not her generous first aid actions have helped or not, I cannot abso-lutely say. I can say the hens will drink from the dishes almost im-mediately, and they drink a lot! Just another reason our flock prefers my wife to me.

euThanasIa

As I stated in the introduction, as Guinea fowl keepers, we fall some-where between ‘pet owners’ and ‘working animal’ owners. We purchased our Guinea fowl to keep our organic garden free of insects, predominately grasshoppers – and that’s a job they have done admirably. We expect them to work. We also very much enjoy the Guinea fowl, and have a somewhat intimate relationship with them – especially my wife. With that said…

Often a keet will start to go downhill in the first ten days of life. Nobody really knows why. As with most young animals, a sick keet’s health declines quickly. If you prefer not to see the keets suffer, there is a very *humane way of euthanizing them. Simply place the ailing keet into a small plastic bag, seal the bag and place it in the coldest place in your deep freezer. The keet will expire quickly.

*An explorer to the pole, a scientist, was part of an ill-fated exploratory trek. The group made its final camp in a fierce blizzard, while trying to find their previously stored supplies. Unknown to the group, and very sadly, their supplies were only a few yards from their camp. The last scientist to die wrote in his journal about the experience of dying from freezing to death. He was found frozen to death, still with his journal and pencil in hand. Ac-cording to his notes, freezing to death was a painless way to die.


veTeRInaRY CaRe

Veterinarians who have experience in working on poultry are uncom-mon. As you might imagine, they are also costly. We will not take our Guin-ea fowl to the vet, no matter what the problem is. This is our way only, and you can certainly take another approach, if that’s your preference.

If your Guinea fowl has a minor problem, I suggest looking it up online, where help from other Guinea fowl keepers is abundant. Most small prob-lems such as pasty butt can be adequately attended to by you.

Getting veterinary care, or not, for your Guinea fowl is a very personal choice. Make the choice that is most comfortable for you.

Here are 2 nine month old Guinea fowl males squaring off on each other, as if to do battle. However, these males have not yet reached the point in their lives when

they are really ready for an actual confrontation – followed by some physical contact. In other words, they don't really "fight" yet. This ritual is much like what puppies and other species do to prepare for life's real battles. For about a month, I'd venture to guess, such games were common among the males. At a point, the males all gradually started to change to their adult behaviors, which can include

physical contact - but we've never had any serious injuries. Note the relatively uncommon single white flight feather on the male on the right.


A young male Guinea fowl stands guard on the highest available spot near the flock. This guard will closely watch the ground and air for predators - alerting

the flock as necessary. Sometimes more than one guard is on duty.


onlIne ResouRCes foR

guInea fowl KeepeRs

These links are included solely for your convenience while doing your research on Guinea fowl equipment, supplies and so forth. We have visited these sites, and found them to be free of invasive or malicious software, but we have not shopped at all of them, and therefore cannot make specific rec-ommendations - pro or con.

My Pet Chicken – This link is to their coops, but they carry other supplies.

EZ Clean Coops - Coops

Horizon Structures – Chicken coops

Henspa Chicken Coops - Coops

ChickenCoopSource.com – Chicken coops and poultry equipment

DIY Chicken Coops – A resource site for chicken coops

Backyardchickens.com – Coops, coop plans and lots of advertisements

Farmtek – Equipment and supplies for poultry

Fleming Outdoors - Equipment and supplies for poultry

Stromberg’s Chicks & Gamebirds Unlimited - Equipment and supplies for poultry

Tractor Supply Company - Equipment and supplies for poultry

Purina Mills – Feeds

Nutrena® Animal Feeds – Feeds

Blue Seal - Feeds

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http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Chicken-Coops-c3.aspx

http://www.ezcleancoops.com/

http://www.horizonstructures.com/coop_landing.asp

http://www.henspa.com/

http://www.chickencoopsource.com/?source=googleaw&kwid=chicken coops&tid=exact

http://diychickencoops.com/

http://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html

http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/cat1a;ft1_poultry_equipment.html

http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/poultryfeeders.html

http://www.strombergschickens.com/

http://www.tractorsupply.com/chicken-equipment/

http://poultry.purinamills.com/OURPRODUCTS/Products/CompleteProductList/default.aspx

http://www.nutrenaworld.com/nutrena/

http://www.blueseal.com/poultry/feeds.php

Living With Guinea Fowl • Chapter IVGrowth Stages of Guinea Fowl —

ChapTeR IvgRowTh sTages of guInea fowl

some addITIonal ClaRIfICaTIons

Guinea fowl do not enjoy the benefits that thorough and ongoing re-search, afforded some other poultry such as chickens and turkeys, benefit from. I believe that it is for this reason that there are variations in so much of the information published about Guinea fowl. For example, you can find seemingly authoritative information saying that Guinea fowl should be kept in a brooder until they are approximately six weeks of age. But you can find just as many sources citing that Guinea fowl can be released from the brooder at one week of age. We find it best to release keets from the brooder at about 10-14 days of age.

Here is a 4 day old pearl gray Guinea fowl keet being held in my wife's very small hand. The striping on the head makes it clear this keet is a pearl gray.


I have also read, in numerous places, that Guinea fowl are monogamous animals. Further, it is written that when a Guinea fowl loses its mate, it will often go into mourning for periods of up to several weeks. My wife and I


have seen nothing to indicate that either statement is accurate. One of our males has an annual harem of three hens, which he guards relentlessly and vigorously.

It is always agreed that newly born Guinea fowl are called keets. I’ve also never read anything contradicting the use of the term adult Guinea fowl for mature Guinea fowl. The Guinea fowl that fall between keets and adults – that’s another story. We call this age grouping of Guinea fowl sub-adults.

It is also unclear specifically when a keet becomes a sub-adult, or when a sub-adult becomes an adult Guinea fowl. This same lack of clarity is shared


by a number of animals including puppies/dogs and kittens/cats. If you’ve ever raised a dog or cat from eight weeks of age, you know that you refer to the animal as a puppy or kitten – until one day when you don’t any longer.

We refer to our Guinea fowls’ general ages in pretty much the same way as one does with dogs or cats. First, we call them keets. At around four weeks, give or take, we call them sub-adults, or simply Guinea fowl. Then, at around 10-12 weeks of age we refer to them as adults. At 10-12 weeks of age, Guinea fowl will lose all or almost all of their fuzzy head coverings and their casques or helmets will start to appear much more prominently.

I should add here that there is another completely acceptable term for a very young Guinea fowl: a poult. The term poult refers to any young fowl, though it is most frequently used to reference young turkeys. Keet and poult are interchangeable when referring to Guinea fowl, but keet is utterly specific to Guinea fowl.

gRowTh RaTes

Our Guinea fowl have grown at modestly different rates. This is to say that when we put 10-15 keets, all born on the same day, into the brooder, we clearly see variations in growth between the keets. One thing is consistent, however: the keets all have growth spurts. Keet #3 may have such a growth spurt on


Monday, making it larger than keet #5. On Wednesday, Keet #5 has a growth spurt and again appears somewhat the same as Keet #3 – and so on.

One thing that all Guinea fowl keepers notice about their sub-adult Guinea fowl is the development of the casques. The casque is, after all, the signature feature of the hel-meted Guinea fowl. Some people like to equate the start of the casque with adulthood. That’s certainly as good a yardstick as any other.

Casques grow at significantly different rates. Also, since some Guinea fowl will have much smaller casques than others, the growth rate of the casque, after its initial appearance, is not much of an accurate representation of age. The casques of female Guinea fowl tend to be much less prominent than those of the males, which can also lead to confusion when using casque


growth to determine age. While viewing the photographs in this book, you can easily see the numerous variations in the casques of Guinea fowl.

I believe the fastest growth period for a keet is between birth and day 11 or 12. As you can see from the photographs, keets will go from 2½" tall to 6" tall during this period. That’s almost triple the size in less than two weeks. We have not seen any other growth period that can compare to this. It is quite possible that there are faster growth periods, when using weight as the measure of growth, but we do not have the equipment (or patience) to accurately weigh the keets and make that determination.

TellIng males fRom females

Up until a certain age, it’s simply not possible to look at a Guinea fowl and tell if it is a male or female. They appear identical in all respects. As the Guinea fowl ages, some differences start to appear, but early on, even with the differences, only the most experienced Guinea fowl keepers can differ-entiate the sexes accurately.

The simplest way to differentiate between male and female Guinea fowl is the calls they make. Only the female will make the signature “buckwheat” or “buck-WHEAT” call. Females will often make calls that the males do, and males make a number of calls, but the famous buckwheat call is the

These Guinea fowl are 6 months and 2 weeks of age. They are enjoying some 3rd cutting alfalfa, which we provide for them during the winter months. At this

stage, we are already referring to them as adult Guinea fowl.


exclusive domain of the female. If you can isolate which Guinea fowl is making a buckwheat call, you can differentiate between the sexes when the Guinea fowl is only a few weeks old. Otherwise, you will likely have to wait until they are 12 weeks of age or older – and even then, experience in sexing Guinea fowl is most helpful.

Adult male Guinea fowl tend to stand fully erect much more often, have more prominent casques and appear slightly thinner, with feath-ers normally kept tight to the body. Female adult Guinea fowl spend much of their time bent over, have smaller casques, and their feathers seem to ‘puff’ out slightly in the lower sides. It reminds me of the hooped skirts from the movie Gone With the Wind. When you become experienced, you can also see a dis-tinct femininity, or delicate manner, in the way the female Guinea fowl goes about her daily life.

Above left is an adult male pearl gray Guinea fowl's head. Above right is a fe-male's head. While the casque on the male is a bit more prominent, it's easy to see how using the casque alone to sex Guinea fowl is not going to be 100% accurate.

A close up of a male pearl gray Guinea fowl head and casque at

exactly one year of age.


guInea fowl sounds

We have some excellent recordings of Guinea fowl sounds. To hear some Guinea fowl sounds in MP3, click here. The following Guinea fowl sounds are available at the link above – more are added as we are able to capture them:

Female Guinea Fowl Sounds - BUCKWHEAT

Female When She’s on a Nest!

Male Guinea Fowl Sounds

Sweet, Happy Flock Sounds

There will be more resources placed at the very end of this chapter.

moRe phoTogRaphs of guInea fowl aT dIffeRenT ages

The pearl gray Guinea fowl keets on this page and the next are already learning the ins and outs of dust bathing. Dust bathing is an important part of

the social behavior of Guinea fowl. Good dust bathing begins with excavating a proper dust bath. Earlier, I mentioned that Guinea fowl can be destructive. These photographs illustrate how even small, young Guinea fowl can drastically alter

an area. It's fine when it's in the coop yard or someplace not noticeable, but when it's in the flower beds, ground cover areas or garden, it can be troubling to some.

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/male-call.html


These dust baths were created in just a few minutes, and only used for a couple of days. Then the Guinea fowl find a new location (who knows why?) and

begin new excavation - and the cycle continues.


This is a beautiful 14 week old pearl gray Guinea fowl hen. She is scouting the deadfall of pine trees for a proper nesting site. Throughout the laying season,

this group of trees was home to several nests. The nests were all tucked in so tightly, that we could not get to them. This hen proved to be a fantastic mom!


On this one year old male pearl gray Guinea fowl, the blue is very prominent on his neck. Also, notice how smooth the beak is. As the bird ages, the beak will

become quite roughened from use.


Above - an adult male Guinea fowl stands guard over his mate, who is not visible. The hen is sitting a nest built under the rock - at the end of the arrow

point. This area is filled with large rocks and small boulders, collected over the years. It is a treacherous area for humans, and one of the flock's favorite areas.

Some adults take their new keets for a stroll. Many hours of the day, the new keets are taken around and 'trained' in all manner of Guinea fowl duties.


Here is another adult male standing guard over his hen in the 'rock garden.' The rock garden is a very safe area for the Guinea fowl to nest and forage. The growth is dense, affording good cover, and they have dug out areas under the

rocks so they can hide from flying predators. We have seen many snakes in this area, but the Guineas have apparently had no problems with them.


A young male and female pearl gray Guinea fowl sit atop one of the sand-stone boulders. The boulders are on the regular daily route the birds travel. They will sit on or among the boulders several times during the day. They will sharpen

their talons and eat the grit. They also seem to like hopping or hop/flying from one boulder to another.


This is a great action shot of two young males fighting over the attentions of the hens. Note the dust flying at the one bird's feet - indicating the speed and

sharpness of the turn. These confrontations rarely result in any injuries at all, and the injuries we've seen are very slight nicks and cuts.

http://www.mymilescity.com/guinea/store.html


addITIonal ResouRCes

Here is a link to our website’s growth photographs of the pearl gray Guinea fowl. At this link, you’ll find 24 higher resolution photographs of our flock showing their growth from age 4 days through 1 year. Pearl gray Guinea fowl growth photo link.

We have a YouTube channel called Guinea Fowl TV. There are quite a few videos posted, some humorous, some to show certain behaviors. Below is a list of a few of the episodes of Guinea Fowl TV that show the keets at various stages of development and doing different things. Click on the episode title and you’ll go to YouTube and watch the selected video. Most videos are just a few minutes in length. Enjoy!

Guinea Fowl TV

3-Day Old Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Keets Inside Their Brooder

Guinea Fowl TV

11-Day Old Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Keets

Guinea Fowl TV

14-Day Old Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Keets Learning to Fly

Guinea Fowl TV

18-Day Old Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Keets: Millet Training, Roosting & Hanging Out

Guinea Fowl TV

1-Month Old Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Keets Enjoying A Hot (100°) Summer Day’s Activities

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/age-photos.html

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/age-photos.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9h7tAKv6R0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flOD6ltwTIQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anR4qSFE3FM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCzG40pMPu8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ19XUcFCRs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ19XUcFCRs


Guinea Fowl TV

5-Week Old Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Demolishing Sandstones For Fresh, Crunchy Grit

Guinea Fowl TV

Week 5½ For The Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Who Start To Make Their Adult Calls, Have Their First Fight, And Continue Their Millet Training

Guinea Fowl TV

7-Week Old Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Feeding Frenzies: Millet, Grass-hoppers & Watermelon!

Guinea Fowl TV

Week 9 For The Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Keet-Teenagers. They Are Tak-ing Dust Bathing To A Hole New Level, Plus Enjoying Lettuce For The First Time!

An adult male tucks his head and ruffles his neck

feathers to stay warm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnwhGQKfRw4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnwhGQKfRw4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiA3EYu61dM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG1fPSA6vME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG1fPSA6vME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8nrFpipjS0



Living With Guinea Fowl • Chapter VTraining Your Guinea Fowl —

ChapTeR vTRaInIng YouR guInea fowl

TheRe’s onlY one lesson

If you rushed ahead to this chapter so that you could learn how to teach your Guinea fowl to sit, stay or roll over – you’re going to be disappointed. We’ll only be teaching your Guinea fowl how to do one thing: come to the coop yard when called.

Training your Guinea fowl to come to the coop yard when called is an exceptionally worthwhile endeavor. It takes a little time, a smidgen of pa-tience and some white proso millet, but if you do it, you’ll save countless hours of frustration throughout your Guinea fowl keeping experience. You will also quite likely save lots of walking. I’m all for walking, but not at dusk when the temperature is rapidly dropping, or when it’s misting, and so forth.

Practically every Guinea fowl keeper has to have their flock return to the coop at one time or another for one reason or another throughout the year. Maybe it’s because of inclement weather, visitors on the property or a stray animal wandering around. Many Guinea fowl keepers always put their birds in the coop and coop yard at night because of predators and/or weather. We coop our flock of pearl gray Guinea fowl every night during the harshest winter months, for their own safety and health.

If you do not train your Guinea fowl to come, and you find the need to put them into the coop or coop yard, you will be confronted with the task of herding them to where you want them. After we discuss training the Guinea fowl to come when called, we’ll briefly look at how to herd the birds, should that chore become a necessity.

Dogs with good herding instincts can also be trained to herd the Guinea fowl for you. Our German Shepherd dog, Buddy, excels at this task, and has saved these old legs from taking many undesirable and frustrating walks. If you have the right breed, you might consider some herding training.


guInea fowl aRe noT veRY Smart

Yes, I know that we humans can’t really assess how smart an animal is – because we are doomed to see animal behaviors through our human eyes. I could easily say my German Shepherd dog, Buddy, is not smart because he stays out in the rain. But I know Buddy is very smart, despite the fact that his behaviors don’t always align with my own assessments of how he should live minute-to-minute, day-to-day.

I am the first to admit that Guinea fowl have exceptional survival in-stincts and skills. Their ability to spot dangers and take appropriate evasive action is impressive. They can pluck pinhead-sized insects off of leaves in the blink of an eye, without ever touching the leaves. They know which people and animals are safe to be around, and which are not. With that said, I have never been impressed with how smart Guinea fowl are. I know that many experienced Guinea fowl keepers will take exception to my assess-ment of Guinea fowl intelligence, but I speak from my experiences only.

I first became disenchanted with the purported intelligence of Guinea fowl while watching our flock return to the coop at night. 20 or so of the birds would get inside the coop yard and start savoring their millet reward. The balance of the flock would run around the coop yard screaming to get in – despite the fact that they had been in and out of the coop yard gate many, many times. Often, a bird would get stuck behind the open gate and require special herding to get them into the coop yard. Just as often, birds would run frantically back and forth along one side of the coop yard – never managing to find the gate without help. In time, this behavior stopped, fortunately, but it took quite some time.

You might be thinking “Why should I train my Guinea fowl to come, if they might not ALL actually enter the coop yard when they do come?” That’s easy. It is light years easier to herd a few Guinea fowl into the coop yard from a few feet away than it is to herd the entire flock from points un-known – sometimes points quite distant from the coop yard.

TRaInIng sTaRTs eaRlY

Step one of the training process for Guinea fowl is to get them addicted to the joys of millet. This is a very easy step, indeed, and should begin as soon as the keets are moved from the brooder to the coop. All you need to do is sprinkle some millet out in their area, and then let their curious nature,


hunger and taste buds do the rest. Even a really stubborn keet will only have to sample the tasty millet four times before realizing how much it enjoys the tiny round morsels.

The very first time you serve your flock millet, you should also start the training. As you sprinkle the millet, in a pleasing tone say “Guinea, Guinea, Guinea.” Repeat that several times during the millet serving process. You can even repeat your call while the keets start eating the millet – but don’t keep it up too long after they all start enjoying the treat.

We have a very large space where our Guinea fowl forage and free range. Our flock has sometimes wandered off ½ mile from the coop, and frequently ventures off ¼ mile. That’s just too far to call them – without screaming, which is hardly an inviting sound. So what we did was added the sound of a cowbell to the repeated “Guinea, Guinea, Guinea” call. This has worked exceptionally well for us, and saved both my wife and myself from chronic laryngitis during the summer months. I highly recommend the use of a cowbell to augment your calls! NB A whistle would also do nicely, but since our dogs are trained to the whistle, we chose the cowbell.

The chances are, the first time you give the keets millet, they will be inside the confines of the coop. Be careful not to yell or ring the bell too loudly. The idea is to make the sound of your call, and the sound of the cowbell, very positive things that herald the coming of the delicious millet. Yelling or loud bell ringing might well frighten the keets and be seriously counterproductive to the training process.

Every single time you give the keets millet, make the call and ring the bell – at appropriate volumes. Never ring the bell or call the flock and fail to provide them with their millet reward. Do this for the first few weeks of the keets’ lives, and ever-after. Millet is cheap.

Most Guinea fowl keepers don’t allow their Guinea fowl out to free range until the birds are at least six weeks of age. We waited ten weeks with our starting flock of 30 pearl gray Guinea fowl. So the flock is relatively confined during these first weeks, and therefore never has to go far to get their millet. This works to your advantage.

As your Guinea fowl mature, and their adult behaviors start to kick in, it is advisable that you sprinkle the millet out over an area large enough that dominant birds don’t prevent others from getting to the millet. We will sometimes make two millet feeding spots several feet apart to prevent con-frontations. If you are doing this and you still notice confrontations, try


increasing the distance between the serving areas and the amount of millet you serve. Again, millet is a very cheap treat!

Personally, I would suggest training the birds using the above methods for at least four weeks before allowing them out of the coop yard to free range. Six weeks is much better, and eight weeks pretty much guarantees stellar response by the birds.

TheY do Know You

If you spend any time at all with your Guinea fowl, they will absolutely get to know you. The more time you spend with them, and the more atten-tion you give to them, the more comfortable they will be with you. You can support their familiarity with you by talking to them.

When our Guinea fowl come to the sound of the bell and our calls, my wife and I both repeat the phrase “good Guineas” over and over. We use a soft, soothing tone of voice. This has been very rewarding for us. Some-times a sub-flock will come to where I am working and I’ll go into my “good Guineas” over and over routine. The birds will almost immediately start making their “happy sounds.” It’s quite rewarding for a keeper.

My wife feeds the Guinea fowl and gives them millet much more often than I do. She also spends much more time with the Guinea fowl. They stay around her when she works in the garden. She will also frequently just go outside to be with them. The flock’s reactions to my wife are much friendlier than with me. They will all but sit on her feet, whereas they will only come to within about 4-5' of me. She can kneel and talk gently to them, and they will come right up to her – not so with me. The Guinea fowl like me, but they like my wife much more.

Our Guinea fowl also know our dogs – amazingly well, in fact. Our Ger-man Shepherd dog, Buddy, is 115 pounds and is exceptionally efficient at herding the Guinea fowl and protecting them. Our female Akita, Bella, is 95 pounds, and while she is not a good herder (at all), she is an outstanding pro-tector of her winged charges. Buddy has limitless tolerance for the Guinea fowl, but Bella does not like them to get too close to her or to fight when near her. The Guinea fowl conduct themselves accordingly with both dogs.

On many occasions, the Guinea fowl have been outside the confines of our fenced acreage where the dogs are contained, and been confronted by a danger: eagles, coyotes, fox, hawks, stray dogs and cats, etc. They imme-


diately take flight and head directly for one or both of the dogs. They know they are always safe when they are near the dogs.

heRdIng guInea fowl

Herding Guinea fowl is not dreadfully difficult, but it can be excep-tionally frustrating and include lots and lots of walking. I should note that, herein, I am only referencing herding your own Guinea fowl. Both my wife and I have tried to help people with herding their flocks of Guinea fowl, and it didn’t work out very well. The birds didn’t know us, and were quite skit-tish, thus making our help a bit more of a hindrance than a real help.

I started training our German Shepherd to herd our Guinea fowl the first day the birds were allowed to free range. Buddy is a highly skilled herding dog with lots of experience herding cattle, goats and wild horses. Combined with his centuries of herding instincts, his experience made training fast and easy. Within a few days, Buddy would rapidly set off to the furthest reaches of the fenced acreage and deftly herd the Guinea fowl back to their coop yard. He herds these somewhat nervous birds very quietly, gently and slowly, as opposed to cattle. With cattle, Buddy runs, barks and even nips at the back legs of the really defiant cows.

Bella, our highly aggressive Akita, has no herding instincts or experi-ence. It took several weeks to train Bella not to attack or harass the Guinea fowl. Buddy, on the other hand, never demonstrated any desire to harm the flock.

Bella wanted very much to be a part of what the family (buddy, my wife, me and the Guinea fowl) was doing. So I worked with her a bit. She is not any good at herding, but she does make a nice wall that helps Buddy direct the birds to their final destination a bit faster. She is also a dedicated and formidable protector – as is Buddy.

I digress… Akitas are notorious for not accepting other animals or people. One only needs to read some Akita literature and visit a few Akita forums to see how quickly this breed

Bella watches over the flock from on high, with a winged helper at her side.


will dispatch other animals, even other family pets. Still, it was possible to train Bella to get along very well with the flock. She now clearly sees them as members of her pack. She plays with them often. Misses them when they are cooped for winter and protects them with great vigor. The moral of the story: any dog can be trained to accept your flock of Guinea fowl.

Because we trained our Guinea fowl to come when called, and because Buddy is such an excellent herding dog, my wife and I have only had to herd our flock a very few times. Herding your own Guinea fowl does not take lots of skill or practice – just patience and a pair of herding sticks. As you might expect, two people herding is much more effective than one person herding.

Let’s begin with the equipment: herding sticks. Herding sticks can be anything that is 6-10' in length and light enough for you to carry and easily manipulate. If you visit your lumber store’s trim wood section, you’ll find long sticks of wood that are about ¾" x ¾". These are usually sold in 10' and 20' lengths. They are very light and relatively strong. The sticks act as extensions of your arms.

The Guinea fowl really like Buddy, and so they sometimes think he is there to play with them, not herd them. To get them going, he'll walk into them and gently

nudge them in the right direction with his nose. It's really very cute - and it works! Buddy is an outstanding herding dog and guardian.


A very highly experienced Guinea fowl keeper in North Carolina, Carl, uses a 20' length of ½" PVC. He places the center of the pipe on his back, with half extending out to each of his sides. Carl swears by his herding sticks, and they do have the obvious advantage of lasting indefinitely, where-as wooden herding sticks will need to be replaced occasionally. How often depends largely on where you store them – inside or outside, and whether or not you treat the wood to prevent water logging, warping and twisting.

To move around the Guinea fowl when you don’t want them to move, such as when you are positioning yourself to herd them in the appropriate direction, point the sticks up in the air. When you’re in position, extend your arms and the sticks and ‘usher’ the birds with words and gestures. You need not touch the birds, just slowly move the sticks behind them and they’ll move.

Even in the few times that we herded our Guinea fowl with herding sticks, the birds became more comfortable with the process, and thus it quickly became easier to do. Our talking to the birds during herding con-sisted of the repetition of our primary Guinea fowl phrase: “good Guineas.”

Rarely during herding will all the Guinea fowl in your flock bunch up and move as a tight unit. In fact, I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard that it does happen with flocks that are frequently herded. The loose formation of the flock can be somewhat problematic, especially when herding the Guinea fowl into the coop yard. I suggest that when you get the majority of the flock to walk into the coop yard, you have someone close the gate while, you work to get the rest close to the gate. Next, have your helper open the gate and discourage the cooped birds from escaping while you herd the final birds into the coop yard.

Sometimes when you’re herding your Guinea fowl, one or two birds will unintentionally go outside the realm of your herding sticks and leave the immediate area. I suggest that you finish moving the bulk of the flock and go back for the odd straggler. I have been told by Guinea fowl keepers, who herd their flocks regularly, that this will quit happening after several herding experiences. Guinea fowl want to be with their flock mates.

Herding your birds is helpful in situations other than putting the birds into the coop or coop yard. For example, if your Guinea fowl have decided to start excavating dust baths in your flower beds, herd them out as soon as you notice them there. Repeat this a few times and they will quit going there.


A suggestion… Don’t be too eager to herd your flock of Guinea fowl away from your garden. Guinea fowl will help keep your garden’s bounty free of insects. If you have a garden, and you want your Guinea fowl to pa-trol it for insects, never feed them anything that grows in the garden. That would encourage them to eat the plants while they grow. Guinea fowl will eat some vegetables no matter what. We quit planting lettuce and green beans because the Guinea fowl ate the leaves – quite enthusiastically. We be-lieve this is a small price to pay for a toxin-free, insect-free organic garden with tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, and more.

In ConClusIon

Train your Guinea fowl to come to your voice and a unique sound, such as a cowbell or whistle. You’ll be glad you did – over and over.

If you watched the video links at the end of Chapter IV, then you saw videos about training the Guineas to come to you. If not, you might want to watch those videos - links and titles below.

Guinea Fowl TV

18-Day Old Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Keets: Millet Training, Roosting & Hanging Out

Guinea Fowl TV

Week 5½ For The Pearl Grey Guinea Fowl Who Start To Make Their Adult Calls, Have Their First Fight, And Continue Their Millet Training

Older nests often become cluttered with feathers.






These two keets are from the very last incubated group of eggs in 2010. They are shown here at 3 days of age. Note the small white ring on the beak of the lead keet. This is often referred to as an 'egg tooth.' The ring will fade away quickly

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/book.html

Living With Guinea Fowl • Chapter VIGuinea Fowl Eggs – Recipes Included —

ChapTeR vIguInea fowl eggs

ReCIpes InCluded

how manY eggs

Healthy, adult Guinea fowl hens will lay about one egg per day. If the hen has been fertilized by a male Guinea fowl, the eggs will be fertile and can be incubated or left for the hen to hatch. There is no way to tell, by looking at the outside of the egg, whether the egg is fertile or not. However, if you have males in your flock, the eggs will all likely be fertile sometime after the first two weeks of laying season.

Unlike chickens, Guinea fowl can’t be tricked into laying eggs all year long. Sometime in the spring they will begin to lay eggs, and sometime in the fall they will quit laying eggs. Leaving lights on in the coop and con-structing elaborate nesting boxes will not change this.

This is one of our very favorites nests. A hen built it inside the coop yard under one of the teepees we built for them - so it's very well protected and easy for us

to get to. It is occupied all season long by 3-5 hens and yields at least 3 eggs per day. The rest of the eggs we leave for the hens, to encourage laying.


During the laying season, it’s important that your Guinea fowl hens get enough calcium. Calcium is necessary for the proper forma-tion of the eggshell. Your feed sup-plier will have feeds expressly de-signed for poultry during the laying season. This feed is just fine for both the hens and the males.

We have a lot of calcium in our water, and our Guinea fowl free range daily in an insect-rich envi-ronment, so we don’t need to pro-vide calcium supplements during the laying season.

Guinea fowl eggs differ greatly from the chicken eggs you can purchase at the grocery store. The two differences that will immediately strike you are the size and colors. Guinea fowl eggs are smaller than Grade A Large chicken eggs, and they are most often of the brown/tan color tones. You will also come to realize that Guinea fowl eggshells are much, much tougher than chicken eggshells. Guinea fowl eggs are also much more flavorful than chicken eggs – even farm raised, free range chicken eggs. Guinea fowl eggs

This disc indicates that this Guinea fowl egg was indeed fertile.

As you can easily see, Guinea fowl eggs come in all sizes, shapes and colors.


also vary in size, much more than you’re used to seeing in the grocery store – where all the eggs have passed inspection for size and weight. Finally, the yolk (yellow) of the Guinea fowl egg is much deeper and richer – bordering almost on an orange.

I’ll tell you here that your Guinea fowl will lay eggs that have unique patterns and colorations. We can tell which hen has laid an egg by its ap-pearance. After you collect several thousand Guinea fowl eggs, you’ll be able to tell the same thing yourself.

A word of caution: Guinea fowl eggshells are really tough and hard. You’ll know why if you watch the Guinea fowl hens caring for the eggs. Hens are not at all gentle, and lesser shells would not endure her daily egg care routines. When you break a Guinea fowl egg for cooking, don’t use something made of a breakable material like glass or stoneware. You can break the dish, or at the very least chip the coating off. We use a metal mix-ing bowl or the dull side of a table knife for cracking these Mother Nature-engineered safes.

Some Guinea fowl nests, such as this one in Yuccas, are very hard to get to.


fIndIng guInea fowl eggs

You’ll find the Guinea fowl eggs in their nests. Now, how do you find the nests? My wife, who I sometimes refer to as the Guinea fowl whisperer, is almost uncanny in her ability to discover Guinea fowl nests. She sits outside, moving from place to place over time, and listens for the sounds the hens make when they are on the nests. She then follows the sounds and finds the nests. You can hear an MP3 recording she made of those sounds at this link.

Before my wife learned to locate the nests in the manner described above, we simply had to watch the Guinea fowl – a lot! This is easier for us than many folks because during spring and summer we’re outside working – her in her garden and me on the tractor. Look for a male, standing tall to guard his nesting mate. Watch for a bird to disappear into a thicket and not come out within a few minutes. Then go investigate the area.

Guinea fowl nests can be exceptionally difficult to see. So be sure to check suspected nesting areas thoroughly. If you locate a hen on a nest, don’t be surprised if she doesn’t extend a warm welcome. Sometimes the

This nest was very hard to get to. It was built on the side of a very steep hillside among some prickly brush. The hen has rejected the one egg seen lower center.

When we find such rejects, we collect them for the dogs.

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/guinea-fowl-sounds.html


hens will even charge at you. None of our hens have ever made physical contact with us, but we’ve heard of many people who have actually been contacted by their hens. I am unaware of any serious injuries resulting from these contacts.

ColleCTIng The eggs

Collecting eggs is a daily exercise: to ensure fresh eggs for the table. If you collect all the eggs from a hen’s nest, she is likely to find a new nest-ing area – which only makes sense. This means you will once again have to search for nests. You will most likely have to search for nests more than once a year per hen as they do like to relocate occasionally.

When we find a nest with eggs, we mark the eggs in the nest with a brown dot, which we make with a Sharpie pen. We tried black marks, but the hens frequently abandoned the nests after we marked the eggs. The small brown dot does not seem to alarm the hens. Then we use a simple map we create and maintain during the laying season to note the location of the nest, the date and the number of eggs marked. The following day, we retrieve the unmarked eggs from that nest – if there are any.

This is one of the smallest eggs we've ever collected. We opened it out of curiosity and found that it appeared normal - save for its size and fragile shell.


It is a common occurrence to find 3-4 new eggs in a nest, all laid within 24-hours. This is because Guinea fowl will share nests – and later share keet raising responsibilities.

When a hen decides to sit on a clutch of eggs until they hatch, she’s referred to as being broody. How a hen behaves when she is broody varies from hen to hen. We have hens that will simply not leave the nest at all – for

any reason. Other hens will leave during the day to forage and get water. Some broody hens will become quite aggressive if you try to remove any eggs while they are on the nest, others don’t seem to mind at all. Because of these differences, only you can decide if collecting the eggs from under an aggressive hen is a worthwhile endeavor. We tend to leave those eggs to be hatched by the obviously dedicated mother hen.

After you’ve collected your fresh Guinea fowl eggs, rinse them in cool water, pat them dry and refrigerate them. We’ve had no problems storing fresh Guinea fowl eggs in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. We use several egg containers to group eggs by the week they were collected. This helps us to keep our eating eggs fresh.

These 31 eggs were collected in one day. This is about the right number for a day's egg take around here. We can't possibly eat all of them, so we give them to neighbors or cook a bunch of them up for the dogs. The dogs love Guinea eggs!


Another word of caution… there is an old expression among dog own-ers: an egg eater. This refers to a dog that has tasted fresh poultry eggs and ever after hunts for them and consumes them – at an alarming rate. They will eat the eggs, shell and all – or sometimes leave the shell, or part of it, behind. Bella, our Akita, had a phase as an egg eater. This is highly undesir-able behavior – at least in our situation, where we eagerly greet the Guinea fowl egg season and savor the rich, delicious bounty of the hens.

To stop Bella from consuming our eggs, we put her in her kennel, re-trieved some eggs, soaked them for about 20 minutes in Tabasco sauce and then placed them back into the nests. This hot sauce treatment, in combina-tion with some verbal corrections, put an end to her egg eater phase quite quickly.

CooKIng wITh guInea fowl eggs

Some Guinea fowl keepers swear by a specific formula for using Guinea fowl eggs versus chicken eggs in recipes. Many say to use 2 Guinea fowl eggs for every 1 egg the recipe calls for. Others say 3:2 is the best ratio.

My wife loves to cook, and she is very good at it – as can be attested to by my girth. She says that the perfect ratio depends on two things: 1) What the recipe is for and 2) the size of the Guinea fowl eggs that will be used. Remember, Guinea fowl eggs vary in size much more than store bought chicken eggs!

Above left: we found this egg the same day it was laid by the hen. It is the only egg we've ever seen like this. We discarded this egg. Above right: we do get some bumpy eggs, but this one holds the record for being the bumpiest of them all. The

dogs got this one - and enjoyed it.


When the Guinea fowl are not laying eggs, and my wife fixes me fried eggs, she fixes me two chicken eggs. During the Guinea fowl laying season, she fries me four eggs – a ratio of 2:1. For her amazingly delicious Guinea fowl egg salad, she uses 3:1. (It’s to die for!) For a cake recipe, or other bak-ing, she will select the largest of the Guinea fowl eggs and use a 3:2 ratio.

I love hard boiled eggs, and my wife has prepared hard boiled Guinea fowl eggs for me several times. I love the taste, but the fight to get the shell off has discouraged me from asking for these treats. She has also made me some mouth watering deviled eggs using Guinea fowl eggs, but she too finds removing the bounty from the shells to be a bit too taxing to do regu-larly. ‘Nuff said…

Below are some of my wife’s favorite recipes using Guinea fowl eggs. No matter what dish you use Guinea fowl eggs in, the final dishes will abso-lutely taste different than when chicken eggs are used – even with cupcakes and pancakes.

ReCIpes usIng guInea fowl eggs fasT & easY ReCIpe foR CheesY pIe

A Delicious Treat For Cheese Lovers Of All Ages

Cheese is one of those foods that everyone, whose stomach can tolerate it, will eat when it is placed in front of them. Even kids with picky palates keep cheese on a short list of foods they will eat without “cutting a deal with mom.” My Cheesy Pie recipe combines three different types of cheese; Cheddar, Mozzarella and Monterrey Jack. This recipe makes a delicious hot meal which can be served anytime of the day.

If you keep guinea fowl and are looking for recipes to utilize your mounting stash of fresh guinea fowl eggs, then you will love this simple recipe. Just remember that one large size chicken egg is the equivalent of two guinea fowl eggs. I’ve made this Cheesy Pie recipe using rich, delicious guinea fowl eggs. Try it, you won’t be disappointed!

What You Will Need:

1 cup of shredded Cheddar Cheese (about 4 ounces)

1 cup of shredded Mozzarella Cheese (about 4 ounces)

1 cup of shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese (about 4 ounces)


1 medium onion, chopped (about ½ cup)

2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

8 guinea fowl eggs

1 cup of milk

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon of yellow mustard

½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 medium tomatoes, sliced (for garnish)

Grease a 10 inch quiche dish or a 9 inch pie pan. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix all the cheeses together. Add the onion and flour. Mix until every-thing is coated lightly with flour. Spread the cheese mixture on the bottom of the pie pan.

Beat the eggs slightly, and then beat in the milk, salt, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Pour this mixture over the top of the cheese mixture. Bake uncovered, in a 350°F oven for about 40 minutes. Check on the pie

A freshly cooked cheesy pie, served with fresh, organically grown tomatoes.


about 5 minutes before time is up. Make sure not to burn the top. Remove from oven and let it stand for about 10 minutes.

If you find that you need a little meat with your meal, try adding some pre-cooked pork sausage to the cheese mixture before it goes into the oven. I’ve even added leftover turkey meat; you know the little bits and pieces that are leftover after the turkey has been picked over? They are the tenderest nuggets to be found on a cooked turkey. Add about ¼ cup of cooked meat into the cheese mixture before you place it into the oven. Or you can simply fry up some meat to be served along side the Cheesy Pie.

You can serve Cheesy Pie with sliced tomatoes on the side, or with a spoon full of your favorite salsa on top. For busy moms and dads, try mak-ing it the day before, then refrigerate until you are ready to serve. Cut the pie into serving slices and microwave for about one minute per slice. My recipe for Cheesy Pie will serve about 8 folks. Bon Appetite!

awesome oveRnIghT fRenCh ToasT

Make this recipe the night before and then cook and serve it the next morning. It’s terrific for weekend mornings with your kids or even the morning after a slumber party. For an extra treat, make it using homemade bread, baked and then sliced.

What you will need:

9"x12" glass pan

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 stick of butter or margarine equivalent

1 cup brown sugar, packed

12 slices of white bread

10 Guinea fowl eggs

1½ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the butter, corn syrup and brown sugar in a small sauce pan, over a low heat. Stir and simmer until it is easy to pour. Pour the syrup mix-


ture into the bottom of a 9"x12" Pyrex dish. Place pieces of bread on top of the syrup. Beat together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Pour that over the bread. Cover the dish and place it into the refrigerator overnight.

Preheat your oven to 350° F. Remove the French toast from the refrig-erator. Remove the covering you placed on it. Put it into the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Remove from oven, cut into squares and serve warm.

This recipe makes enough to serve 3 to 4 people.

CoCa Cola CaKe

What you will need:

1 cup butter

2 cups flour

1 ¾ cups sugar

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 Guinea fowl eggs

½ cup buttermilk

1 cup Coca Cola

1 ½ cups small marshmallows

What you will need for the Frosting:

½ cup softened butter

3 tablespoons cocoa

1/3 cup Coca Cola

4 cups powdered sugar

1 cup pecans, toasted


Mix first 9 ingredients and beat well. Stir in marshmallows by hand. Bake in a greased 9” x 13” pan at 350° for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool 30 min-utes or so before frosting. To prepare frosting, mix together first 4 ingredi-ents and stir in pecans which have been toasted in a 300° oven until brown. Spread over cake.

Serves about 12 folks

fasT & easY ReCIpe foR pIneapple upsIde down CaKe

Homemade Pineapple Upside Down Cake That Starts With An Easy Mix

Although this desert calls for an oven proof skillet or cast iron skillet to bake the cake in, you can still make Pineapple Upside Down Cake without one. But if you do have a cast iron skillet, what a flavor and texture differ-ence it will make! The caramelized brown sugar topping on a Pineapple Upside Down Cake is so much better if you use a well seasoned cast iron skillet to bake it in.

What you will need:

1/3 cup butter

½ cup brown sugar

8 slices of pineapple

Maraschino cherries

Pecan halves

1 box of Betty Crocker yellow cake mix

1¼ cup water (see back of cake mix for exact quantity)

1/3 cup vegetable oil (see back of cake mix for exact quantity)

6 Guinea fowl eggs

In a 10” oven proof skillet or cast iron skillet*, melt the butter over a medium high heat. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the melted butter. Arrange the pineapple slices so that they cover the bottom of the skillet, adding cherries to the center of each pineapple. It’s fine to cut some of the


pineapple slices in half to get the best coverage. Now place the pecan slices between the pineapple slices. Set the skillet aside.

In a mixing bowl, add the box of yellow cake mix to the water, oil and eggs. Mix according to the instructions on the cake mix box. Slowly pour the properly mixed and beaten cake batter on top of the pineapple arrange-ment in the bottom of the cast iron skillet.

Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Hold a large plate firmly against the top of the skillet and then quickly flip them over to get the cake onto the plate. Set the plate aside for 20 minutes to allow all the goodies to fall down and into place. Refrigerate leftovers, which can be served cold or reheated.

This is a real crowd pleaser!

*If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, simply melt the butter in a sauce pan. Then pour the melted butter into the bottom of a Bundt type cake pan or any round cake pan that has at least 3” tall sides. Continue with the recipe as directed above.

fasT & easY ChoColaTe pIe

An Old Fashion Family Favorite

Some chocolate pie recipes don’t include a meringue topping, but mine does. I’ve eaten chocolate pies without a meringue topping, but they are just not as rich and eye-pleasing. This chocolate pie recipe is fast and easy and contains many ingredients which you probably already have in your pantry.

What you will need:

1½ cups of white sugar

2 cups of milk

½ stick or 4 tablespoons of butter

4 tablespoons of cocoa

¼ teaspoon salt


4 tablespoons flour

6 Guinea fowl egg yolk

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1 pre-made 9" baked pie crust shell

Bake the pie shell, as per the instructions. Then combine all of the ingre-dients (except the pie crust) in a large pot on medium heat. Use a hand mixer or beater at the beginning of this process to ensure that you have thoroughly mixed all of the ingredients. Cook until the pie filling begins to thicken. When the chocolate pie filling is done, it should resemble the consistency of custard. Pour the chocolate pie filling into the cool, baked pie shell.

Optional (but highly suggested) Meringue Topping: This chocolate pie recipe includes a meringue topping, but you do not have to make it. Skip it if you want. The chocolate pie, sans meringue, is still quite delicious. If you decide to go with the meringue, before you make it, preheat the oven to 350°. Again, I highly suggest using the meringue – your family will love it!

What you will need for the Meringue Topping:

6 Guinea fowl egg whites

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

6 tablespoons of white sugar

½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

Use an electric beater, or even better, an electric stand mixer when mak-ing a meringue as it will give you the best results. Beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar in a large bowl (2 quarts or larger) until it becomes foamy. Now beat in the white sugar; 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue beat-ing until the mixture becomes stiff and glossy. Do not under-beat the mix-ture. Now beat in the vanilla extract. That’s it. You’ve made the meringue for your chocolate pie.

Add the meringue to the top of your chocolate pie before cooking, cre-ating attractive peaks with your spatula. Bake the pie in a 350° oven for 10 minutes. Make sure you stay close and keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn.


You only want the meringue to brown up a bit, especially the tips of the peaks.

Cool your chocolate pie on a wire rack after you take it out of the oven. For best results, refrigerate the chocolate pie for a few hours before slicing and serving. Bon Appétit!

guInea fowl egg salad

Perfect for sandwiches or on your favorite crackers

What you will need:

15 Guinea fowl eggs

¼ teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon celery salt

½ cup of Miracle Whip or mayonnaise

1 teaspoon of prepared yellow mustard

¼ cup of medium chopped green onion

Pinch of salt

Pepper to taste

Place all of the Guinea fowl eggs into a saucepan and cover them with cold water. Bring the water in the pan to a vigorous boil and then immedi-ately remove the pan from the heat. Cover the pan and allow the eggs stand in the hot water for 8-10 minutes. Remove the eggs from the hot water, cool, peel and chop them.

Place the freshly chopped eggs in a bowl. Stir in the Miracle Whip or mayonnaise, the prepared mustard and the green onion. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir gently and serve with your favorite bread or crackers.

Serve along with thinly sliced tomatoes and crisp iceberg lettuce for sandwich makers. This egg salad is great on any cracker, but we most enjoy it on Triscuits®. Because this egg salad is made with the richer Guinea fowl eggs, the flavor easily stands up to the bold Triscuit® flavor.


game daY egg salad foR one

Fast Easy Egg Salad Snack SpreadWhat you will need:

5 Guinea fowl eggs – hard boiled and chopped medium coarse

3 Tablespoons sweet pickle relish

2 Tablespoons of Miracle Whip or mayonnaise

1 Dash of Tabasco

Salt & pepper to taste

Place the freshly chopped eggs in a bowl and gently blend in the Miracle Whip or mayonnaise, Tabasco and the sweet pickle relish. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve chilled with your favorite crackers.

haRd boIled guInea fowl eggs

Guinea fowl eggs are smaller and have less mass. This means that Guin-ea fowl eggs will cook faster in the shell than store bought chicken eggs. Here is a fail safe method for making hard boiled Guinea fowl eggs:

Bring the water in the pan to a vigorous boil and then immediately re-move the pan from the heat. Cover the pan and allow the eggs to stand in the hot water for 8-10 minutes: 8 minutes for smaller Guinea fowl eggs, 10 minutes for larger Guinea fowl eggs. Remove the eggs from the hot water and cool them down.

some fInal menTIons

We’ve served Guinea fowl eggs and Guinea fowl egg dishes to many friends and acquaintances. Never once has anyone said anything negative about the flavor of the Guinea fowl eggs, while most notice and comment on the difference in richness and flavor. However, if you start eating the Guinea fowl eggs regularly during the laying season, when you must return to the store bought chicken eggs, your taste buds will not be happy.

It’s entirely possible to cook a soft boiled Guinea fowl egg. But your three minute egg timer will yield something more akin to a hard boiled egg.


2:15 (2 minutes and 15 seconds) is my wife's recommended time for soft boiling these slightly smaller eggs.

As I mentioned earlier, peeling hard boiled Guinea fowl eggs is some-what harder and more time consuming than peeling hard boiled chicken eggs. Because of this, when you are using lots of hard boiled Guinea fowl eggs in a recipe, such as the egg salad above, allow some extra time for the kitchen adventure.

Early on I mentioned that Guinea fowl do not get the scientific attention that some other poultry receive. This makes gathering scientifically proven and accurate information somewhat difficult. However, science has proven that eggs coming from free ranging poultry are lower in cholesterol and fats, and higher in vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids. Short version: free range Guinea fowl eggs are better for you than store bought chicken eggs.

This is one of our prize photographs. It shows the inside of a Guinea fowl's mouth, or as I like to call it - the last thing a lot of insects get to see in their lives. We have dozens of great photographs and information on our website, and hope

you'll visit it when time permits.

Living With Guinea Fowl • Chapter VIIPredators —

ChapTeR vIIpRedaToRs

I cannot direct you to a scientific study proving it, but I am fully con-fident saying that the vast majority of Guinea fowl deaths in the US are caused by various predators. From interacting with countless Guinea fowl keepers, I estimate that only about 3% of Guinea fowl deaths are due to dis-eases or injuries sustained when fighting with flock members.

Almost all Guinea fowl keepers like their feathered friends. As such, we provide shelter, food, water and safety. This is great, but it takes some of the edge off of the Guinea fowl’s natural predator-wariness. We fall squarely into this group, despite the fact that our place is largely natural woodlands and prairie.

A fox skirts the area outside of our fenced acreage, scouting for an easy Guinea fowl meal. The dogs keep the predators at bay, but they can only get to the invad-

ers if they somehow manage to enter the fenced area.


We, like many other Guinea fowl keepers, also make our flocks familiar with ourselves (people) and our pets (dogs and cats). Unfortunately, this can also lead to more predation than Guinea fowl would experience were they wild. The Guinea fowl are not as wary of people, dogs and cats as they perhaps should be. Here in hunting country, startled bird hunters have shot several Guinea fowl – thinking they were flushed game birds. Fortunately, this has never happened to any of our flock.

Perhaps the worst familiarity we create in our beloved Guinea fowl is with our dogs and cats. We have no cats, but we do have two dogs. This makes our Guinea fowl a little less wary of other dogs, as well as coyotes. We have a huge local coyote population, and especially during the winter months, these highly skilled predators can decimate a flock overnight.

Know YouR pRedaToRs

There are different predators that inhabit different parts of the US. We, for example, have eagles, several species of hawks, bears, owls and moun-tain lions – among many other predators. You likely will have some hawk

Our dogs are very clear about their responsibilities regarding the Guinea fowl. Sometimes the dogs will interact with the birds - seeming to play with them.

Other times, such as when they spot a flying or walking predator, they will go to where the birds are and keep a close watch over them.


species, but not eagles. The predators you must be concerned with will be determined by where you live. You can ascertain the predators of your area by contacting the Fish & Game people, or doing some online research.

Once you know your predators, you can take effective actions to help protect your flock from their attacks. If you have flying predators, for ex-ample, you’ll probably want a top on your coop yard. If you have digging predators like raccoons, badgers and wolverines, you’ll want to use strong fencing on the ground around your coop and coop yard. And so forth.

The mosT oveRlooKed pRedaToRs

Feral dogs and cats are serious problems in some parts of the US. They are formidable predators that lack the instinctive fear of humans that non-dometicated wild animals have. They also ‘know’ human habits and areas such as barns, outbuildings, coops, etc. If your area has problems with these feral animals, take appropriate protective steps.

Neighborhood dogs and cats can also be very serious problems for Guinea fowl keepers. The first problem is that the Guinea fowl keeper rarely even looks at the possibility that their flock (and/or the flock’s eggs) is being

Not all predators are indigenous to all areas of the US. A little research online will let you know which predators hunt your region.


killed and/or eaten by area pets. Make no mistake about it, dogs and cats are predators – despite being domesticated pets. Their predator instincts can easily be triggered by a squawking flock of plump, nearby Guinea fowl.

pRedaToRs woRK fasT and Come baCK foR moRe

Just as Guinea fowl are eminently well equipped for catching and eating even the tiniest and fastest insects, predators are highly skilled at getting their meals and escaping unscathed. And once they find a place that has a food source, they’ll be back until the food is gone or something else discour-ages their return. Unfortunately, this means that once you have a predator problem, it will be much harder to stop than it would have been to prevent.

I’ve been privy to countless tales of woe from Guinea fowl keepers who have had their flocks nearly wiped out by predators. And some stories about whole flocks being killed. Sometimes the damage occurs over a short period of time, sometimes over a long time and sometimes in less than a day.

Owls will pick a flock apart a little at a time – one or two Guinea fowl a night. Most all flying predators will slowly work down the flock’s popula-tion. Coyotes, raccoons, wolverines, badgers and some other predators can wipe out an entire flock in one day or night. Feral dogs and cats can go either way, depending on the situation, how many animals are in the pack and so forth. Neighborhood dogs and cats will tend to take out 1-3 Guinea fowl at a

This raptor has caught its meal. It hides the carcass from other predators as it eats. After finishing this small treat, the bird is likely to go back for seconds.


time – usually at night or when nobody is home. These domesticated preda-tors know human habits, and are aware that you are away or asleep.

If you discover that your flock is being victimized by a predator, you must either take action quickly or risk losing the entire flock. Predators always return to viable food sources. To stop this cycle, action is required. What action you take will depend on the predator involved, local laws, your personal preferences, situation, etc.

You can learn a lot about predator control and elimination online. Fo-rums and blogs that focus on Guinea fowl are a pretty good place to start. Pest control companies have information and there is a lot of useful infor-mation published by state and federal agencies. Your local animal control officers and the Fish & Game service in your state are excellent sources of quality information.

Sometimes ending the terror of a predator is a simple matter. Other times, in fact most times, it is not simple at all. Is the predator protected by law? Do you wish to trap, scare the predator away or kill the predator? Is the predator nocturnal, thus making it necessary for you to keep watch all night

There are many species of owls. Owls are among the very hardest predators to stop from attacking your flock. Once an owl knows the food is there, it will return

often to eat, until you stop it. Many owls are protected species.


If you happen to live in an area that has badgers, you should absolutely make sure that your coop yard cannot be dug into - using the instructions shown in a previous chapter. Badgers are absolutely amazing excavators. An adult badger

can easily dig into an unprotected coop yard in 2-3 minutes - even in hard soils. They are also formidable opponents for dogs - even the larger, more aggressive

dogs run a risk of serious injury when confronting a badger.

instead of sleeping? If your predator strikes during the day, can someone take off from work to watch for and deal with it?

Because of the many possible solutions, legal restrictions and situation ramifications, I will not be discussing how to cope with predators. Our pri-mary predator deterrent is our dogs. We also have a top on our Guinea fowl coop yard, a very secure coop and ranching neighbors who eliminate larg-er predators to protect their stock, especially the new spring calves. Truly, where predators are concerned, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

In closing this section, I will add that if you have a problem with flying predators, you might want to search for a “bird scare gun” online. These guns fire devices into the air that achieve an altitude and then explode. They are extremely effective at driving away flying predators without causing them any harm.


Guinea fowl constantly scan the skies for predators. I do not know if they

do this everywhere, but since we have several hawk and falcon species, as

well as eagles, they do it here.

a paRTIal lIsT of noRTh ameRICan pRedaToRs

NB there are several species of some of the following animals.

Dog

Cat

Fox

Wolf

Coyote

Hawk

Eagle

Fisher

Raccoon

Opossum

Skunk

Owl

Lynx

Bear

Mountain lion

Fisher Cat

Weasel

Mink

Wolverine

Badger

Snakes

Bobcat

The besT pRedaToR defenses

Earlier in this book I described how to construct a predator proof coop yard. This is really the best defense against predators destroying your flock.


A family of opossums can enter a coop at night and leave very few survivors in the morning. They will dig in or drop in from above.

If you start losing Guinea fowl to predators, lock them inside the coop for a week or two. No – they won’t like it, but they will survive and the predator will realize the food source is gone and depart for places where it can get a meal. Then your Guinea fowl can once again free range.

If it’s practical, good dogs are the best predator deterrent I know of. You don’t need highly aggressive dogs, such as we have, either. Many of the herding breeds make outstanding protectors and gentle, loving family pets.

Lights! Like burglars, nighttime predators don’t like light. Lights that fully illuminate the coop and coop yard are great deterrents. Motion acti-vated lights are also excellent deterrents. A light suddenly coming on will quickly scare off most predators. Motion activated lights can also alert you to the presence of a predator.

Closed circuit cameras can be very useful for watching over your coop and coop yard. We have two: one inside the coop and one directed at the coop yard. We have them to observe Guinea fowl behaviors without star-tling the birds. But they can also be used to watch for predators that are trying to enter the cop yard or coop. I do not recommend these for predator prevention, but if you ever have a problem, they can be useful in catching and eliminating the problem.


Raccoons are common throughout the US. They are exceptionally adept at break-ing and entering - even relatively secure coop yards and coops.


Coyotes are in all 48 lower states. Wolves once kept coyote populations in check, but as wolves were eliminated from regions, coyotes moved in. Coyotes are excep-

tionally skilled predators capable of quickly decimating a flock.


Wolves only inhabit very small areas of the US, and they enjoy protection from hunting. While wolves prefer taking down larger game, as is evidenced by the

bottom photograph, they will hunt anything that satisfies the pack's hunger. These pack hunters are efficient, and dangerous for humans and dogs alike.


Bears! You may not have a problem with these apex predators in your region. As you can see, your birds can't necessarily escape black bears by roosting in trees. Bears will tend not to hunt Guinea fowl as they are so small, but there have been exceptions. If you have bears in your area, speak to professionals about control.

http://mymilescity.com/guinea/store.html


Flying predators, raptors, are among the hardest to protect your flock from. Above, a large bald eagle flies over an area in search of food. These very large birds can easily swoop down and grab a Guinea with their long, sharp talons -

and carry it away in a matter of seconds. Below, a lesser raptor flies close to the deck to find any animals that might be hiding in the tall prairie grasses.


This lone coyote is suffering the effects of a long, hard winter - and is hungry. When these skilled predators get hungry, they will become quite brazen in their

stalks and attacks. Recently, coyotes have started hunting our area in small packs, which makes them an even more effective predator.


There are several species of fox. All of them are exceptionally efficient predators. They are also well equipped to hide in plain sight, as can be seen in the photo-graph below. If you have fox in your area, and you don't have a dog, you'll need

to keep a close eye on your flock. I have seen fox ambush hunt and stalk their prey - both very effectively. These relatives of the dog are very good at finding and

grabbing ground dwelling birds such as turkey, pheasant and Guinea fowl.


Owls are formidable predators, and many of them are protected. If you have an owl problem, seek professional assistance.


Above: a raptor watches our flock from the top of a very steep, tall hill. Below: close up telephoto shot of the raptor. He left without a meal.


Wildcats are very dangerous predators - for animals and humans. They are silent, quick, fearless and very smart. Below: close up of a raptor's deadly beak.


Mountain lions are the most dangerous cats in the US. These large apex preda-tors hunt large and small game alike. These cats are not afraid of humans or

large dogs, and can easily dispatch all but the most experienced and formidable dogs. If you have a mountain lion problem, I suggest that you seek some profes-sional assistance with control or removal. We have mountain lions here, but they

prefer larger game, such as the deer shown below.


Just a few more predator photographs...

Living With Guinea Fowl • Chapter VIIILiving with Guinea Fowl Spring & Summer —

Our first pearl gray Guinea fowl keets, shown here at about 8 weeks of age, wasted little time destroying the screen door of the coop. They started tearing the screen with their beaks, slowly at first, and then with a vengeance. Guinea fowl

can be destructive, something to keep in mind.

ChapTeR vIIIlIvIng wITh guInea fowl

spRIng & summeR

a phoTo jouRnalIsTIC looK aT guInea fowl duRIng spRIng & summeR


Note the top photo, the area highlighted with yellow. Then again in the lower photo. This branch broke while we were taking photographs of the Guineas up on

the side of a very steep hill. A lucky shot indeed!


Above are two keets hatching from the same clutch of eggs. We incubated the eggs in our Genesis. Note the difference in the looks of these two keets, despite both of them being at the same stage of escape from their eggs. Both keets are also pearl

gray Guinea fowl from our hens. Such differences are to be expected.


Note the number "31" on this keet's shell. This keet is also shown on the previ-ous page. Some keets, like this one, must work very long and hard to escape the confines of their shell. Some keets pop right out and start walking around inside the incubator. We occasionally observed some very tiny cuts on the undersides of keets that had experienced the hardest times getting free of their shell. We some-times treated those tiny cuts with a single application of spray-on Vetericyn, but

only when the cuts seemed to warrant the attention.


This was the final photo we took of #31 in that incubation group. Shortly after this photo was taken, this keet emerged strong and healthy. You can see he has

his foot planted firmly on the bottom of the shell, which allowed him to have the leverage needed to finally escape. We will sometimes, but only very rarely, assist

a keet with getting out of its shell. Most people who incubate Guinea fowl suggest helping any keet that is having a problem. If you incubate your own eggs, you'll

have to make that decision for yourself - as needed.


Above is a keet that we did help get out of his shell. He spent the better part of a day free of the shell, except for his head, which was securely stuck to the lining of the egg. The shell prevented the keet from being able to see. We gently crushed the shell and then removed it by wetting the area with warm water and gently tugging until it was all gone. The liner of the egg shell, as it dries, will stick tightly to al-most anything. Warm water - about 95°F - loosens the adhesive properties of the liner. We use the cut up egg cartons to hold the eggs erect and stable so the keets can brake free more easily. If the egg rolls around on the bottom of the incubator while the keet tries to escape, the keet must struggle a lot more to free itself. The downside is that the egg cartons create a somewhat rugged terrain for the newly

hatched keets. Still,we prefer using them.


These 42 Guinea fowl eggs have been placed in large egg cartons and then placed on a table to come to room temperature before incubating. Each egg shell is lightly marked with a pencil to let us know when it was collected. We mark the shells of eggs we leave in the nest with a Sharpie, but we prefer a pencil for eggs that we incubate. We collect enough eggs to fill our Genesis incubator in 3 days,

and we will never use eggs more than 4 days old for incubating. Many people who incubate a lot more than we do say that eggs can be stored for up to 7 days

before incubating.


When they are ready to leave the shell, keets will first make a tiny hole in the egg shell. This is called pipping. Once the keet pips, they then proceed to go around the egg, using their egg tooth to create a nice, neat separation. At a point, they

will push upwards and break away the smaller part of the egg. We've always mar-veled at how nicely the keets are able to break the egg shell for their escapes.



The keet on this page emerged from its shell with relative ease, but looked very poorly. Note the areas of bare skin showing. To our pleasant surprise, this little

fella grew up to be a beautiful, healthy male.


Candling eggs is something done by folks who incubate eggs. A light is shined into the egg so that it can be determined if a keet is developing or not. Some

people candle as early as 7 days. Most wait until around day 14. Eggs that don’t appear to be developing are removed from the incubator. I look at candling like reading x-rays: experience is everything! We are not very good at it, and only candle on around the 16th day of incubation. There is only one bad egg in the group above: top row, third from the left. The egg shows clear – so no keet is

developing. The other eggs show dark areas where the keet is growing and a clear area where the air sac is. If you want to get into candling, research “candling

chicken eggs” online. There’s lots of great information.

Below, after candling the eggs, we remove the bad ones and continue the process. When candling, be sure not to let the open incubator cool down too much. The

day before hatching starts, we'll remove the automatic turner and put cut up egg cartons on the incubator floor.


These four keets are only 3 days old. They were hatched by some of our hens. They are out with two hens, one of which may be the mother. Here are some

interesting things to know: 1) these keets were 200' from the nest they were born in. 2) When this photograph was taken, it was only 68°F. 3) The keets will stay ac-tive almost the entire day. 4) Our hens have a higher success rate with hatching

than we do. 5) Keets hatched and raised by the flock do not need to go through an acceptance process with the flock. 6) Males and females help with parenting and

teaching the keets about Guinea fowl life on our ranch.


These two pearl gray Guinea fowl keets are part of a clutch of 17 eggs that were hatched in a nest that was built in some very dense underbrush and grasses.

Every day the hens would walk the keets out of the grass and around the prop-erty. It’s amazing how strong and tenacious these keets are. Getting out of the

grass was a real struggle for them. The hens would wait for them, but not assist in any way. Then, at the end of a day of schooling, they had to go back through the

grasses to get to the nest.


Once we opened the coop door and allowed the Guinea fowl out into the coop yard for the first time, it took the better part of a day for all of them to finally

leave the familiarity of the coop. Guineas don't like "new" things. Several days after the Guineas were allowed outside, some of them were still reluctant to

venture out quickly or first. A few more days passed and they couldn't wait to get outside - every day - as fast as possible!


The top and bottom photographs are of a community dust bath. This type of behavior is common in keets, sub-adults and adults. The adults seem to prefer slightly smaller community dust baths: 2-5 birds. Dust bathing is important for Guinea fowl health, and is also a pronounced social behavior. The piece of the

ear of corn was something we tried feeding them as a treat - but they didn't much care for it. They did scarf down the leafy celery tops.


Guinea fowl are not prone to sharing their delicacies, even when they are keets. This keet grabbed this piece of celery top and made off from the group, but with three other birds in pursuit. We watched this play out for about 10 minutes, dur-ing which time, the Guinea fowl now holding the greens lost his prize – a small

piece at a time. The other birds would grab it and tear part of it away and run to eat it. We wished we’d had our video cameras instead of our still cameras.

A very serious keet.


Compared to their adult coun-terparts, pearl gray Guinea fowl keets are very drab in coloration.

We believe this is to help them hide from predators when they

are young and unable to fly well. Mother Nature does provide.


This sub-adult Guinea fowl was kind enough to strike a pose for the camera.


This young sub-adult or old keet was exactly 7 weeks old the day this photograph was taken. Note the casque has started to protrude and the head still has lots

of the downy soft keet covering – which will all disappear soon. Also notice the white flight feather. We have read that this indicates that this pearl gray Guinea fowl has the genetic material to make a “pied” Guinea fowl. A pied Guinea fowl

has at least two distinct color groups on it, one of which is solid white.


Above: We learned early on that our Guinea fowl won’t eat potato beetles. But they do like to watch them for a while, and play a sort of cat and mouse game

with them – before killing them. Below: At 7 weeks this Guinea is just starting to show its wattles - the drooping protrusions behind the beak.


Our coop is relatively small, but even this 10 week old Guinea fowl is able to take off from the highest roost and fly across to another roost of equal height. Clear-ance between the top roosts and the ceiling is only about 15". Guinea fowl are not known for great flying, but this feat does indeed call for some aerial skill.

Guinea fowl Flight

As is the case with many species of ground dwelling birds, Guinea fowl are not very good at flying, but they excel at the art of gliding. We rarely see our Guinea fowl take off from the ground. They like to have some height before they initiate flight. Sometimes they will launch from a building, roost or the top of a boulder. The longest glides we’ve seen the Guinea fowl perform start from a high branch on a tree. The birds in a group will jump/fly up to a low branch, then to a higher

one, then higher and so forth. They might roost in the tree for a few minutes or up to a couple of hours. Then, all at once, they will take off from the tree, glide up to

¼ mile and then land in the same general area.


This photograph was taken a few days after we finally released our Guinea fowl to free range. These two sub-adults are scouring the garden for insects to eat.

They’ll find plenty of them – mostly grasshoppers. In a few more days the garden will be almost cleared of grasshoppers – thanks to our feathered friends and their ravenous appetites for juicy insects. While our Guinea fowl were still cooped up, we collected jars of grasshoppers for them – to teach them to eat them. To this

day, grasshoppers are their favorites insects.


The photograph above, and the photographs on the following two pages, comprise an action sequence showing a pearl gray Guinea fowl hen tucking her head. We call it the “Guinea fowl head tuck.” We have only noticed the Guinea fowl doing this when it is either very cold, rainy, snowing or in a stiff wind. In this instance,

it was a stiff wind – about 45 MPH. In this photo, the head tuck begins.


This photograph shows step 2 of the Guinea fowl head tuck.


This photograph shows step 3 of the Guinea fowl head tuck.


The photograph above and the photograph on the following page, com-prise an action sequence showing a pearl gray Guinea fowl hen’s throat change during her call. In stage 1 of her call, shown above, note that her

throat is only slightly expanded.


In stage 2 of her call, shown above, note that her throat has expanded noticeably. This is when the volume is dramatically increased.


Sometimes the Guinea fowl get really curious about us when we are taking photographs. They will walk right up to my

wife and all but actually touch the camera lens. My wife got this photo of a male’s face when he approached to see what was making that ‘clicking’ sound. Often, when this happens, we don’t have a good lens for close ups, but in this instance,

Luci had the proper lens on and shot several photos. The photo shown here is the only one that came out with excel-lent clarity. You can clearly see how convoluted the wattles

are, and also the wear and tear on the beak.


This is a common scene around here, especially early in the mating season. A dominant male is guarding his harem of hens. I have seen

it written in many places that Guinea fowl are both monogamous and that they mate for life. That is simply not the way it is with our flock of pearl gray Guinea fowl. We have several dominant males who have harems. Then there are the males that don’t have mates. These bachelors spend much of their time together during the egg laying season. We are also quite sure that harem members change

throughout the summer months. I have often seen male Guinea fowl referred to as both ‘cocks’ and ‘roosters.’ I always refer to them as males, but the other terms are well used and certainly acceptable,

especially ‘Guinea fowl cock.’


This Guinea fowl is actually a hen, likely she is the largest hen in our flock. She has taken a pose that is most often seen used by the males. She also has a much

taller casque than our other hens. If you look closely, you can see that she is standing on her toes – with the rear talon (spur) off the ground. She does have

the nice little bulging skirt associated with hens, but without close investigation, it would be easy to mistake this Guinea fowl hen for a male.


This Guinea fowl is doing what we call ‘skipping.’ In fact, we’ve heard some other Guinea fowl keepers use the same term. Skipping is very much like displaying, but

it is more about moving from point A to point B. When our Guinea fowl are dis-playing, they tend to stay almost stationary. When our Guinea fowl are skipping, they cover lots of ground. Perhaps after another few years of observing Guinea

fowl, we’ll know why the birds sometimes skip and sometimes display – though we believe displaying has to do with establishing dominance or just showing off. Luci

snapped this photo as the Guinea fowl’s feet were both off the ground. Skipping and displaying are both very interesting Guinea fowl behaviors to observe.



A large male Guinea fowl displaying. "Look how BIG I am!"

Consider putting a red light inside of your Guinea fowl coop and leaving it on all night. This light will help the Guinea fowl see to avoid injury and get water and

feed, but will not disturb their sleep or encourage undesirable flock activity. Some Guinea fowl keepers, who have tried white night lights, tell of fights in the coop during the night. When we had a white light, we could see on the CCTV camera that the Guinea fowl were restless and frequently moved about and interacted.

Once we went to a red light, all that ceased.


This shot of a Guinea fowl hen and one of her keets is one of our favorites. You can almost hear the mom lecturing her youngster.


This large male – staring at the camera – is trying to woo the hens that are grazing in the early sprigs of wheat.

This photo was taken in the early spring last year (2010). We heavily broadcast planted wheat along an edge of the garden, hoping that the Guinea fowl would get to eat the seeds when the crop matured. The crop never made it to maturity. The Guinea fowl ate the tender shoots as they

came up out of the ground. It’s early in the mating season, and this male wants to get a hen, or more.


Two males fight during early mating season - and a third comes to join in.

Guinea Fowl Lack Good Night Vision

It is clear that Guinea fowl do not see well in the dark, or even in very low light. This is a good reason to give them a red night light inside the coop. When we first started keeping Guinea fowl, we kept our first keets inside the coop and coop yard until they were over 10 weeks of age. We put them inside the coop every night of

those weeks to train them to sleep in the coop, which worked out well. However, if it got late dusk or night and one or more Guinea fowl were in the coop yard, we could not get them to move into the coop. If we prodded them off the roost, they would land and then freeze. One night we used the headlights from the ATV and four flashlights to illuminate the coop yard, and the Guinea fowl zoomed right

into the coop when gently urged off the roosts.


Two large males battle it out for the attentions of the hens. In the foreground, a hen slowly approaches the fight. This fight lasted

almost two minutes, which is actually pretty long for such a conflict. We saw one drop of blood at the end of the fight.


Above: is one of the very few photographs we have of a group of Guinea fowl flying. It is of relatively poor qual-

ity – sorry. The birds have taken off from the steep hill next to the house. They are about 100’ in the air in this photo. Below: three Guinea fowl forage near the garden plot.


Here is a chase involving two males. This happens a lot during the mating season. Sometimes the wings are put up like sails, other times,

not so much. Chasing events can go for 10 yards, or ½ mile.


Above: Bella and Buddy watch the flock while Luci tends the garden. The Guinea fowl and the dogs gather at the garden when Luci works in it. Below: Two Guinea

fowl take off from the roost we put in next to the greenhouse and garden.


Above: Guinea fowl in flight. Below: Follow the leader.


Above: This is one of our favorite photos. Since first publishing it, we’ve seen it on many websites. Below: a hen glides in for a landing.


The take off.


Coming in for a landing - feet are down.

Our millet training equipment: two homemade shakers and a cowbell.


Above: a keet experiments with his new wings. Below: eight keets are shown in training. For some reason, the hens frequently take them to this drop off and make

them go up and down the steep edge.


Above: One of the sets of plans available on our website. This shows how to make sturdy, inexpensive roosts out of 2" x 4" lumber. Below: Early one morning, the dogs alerted us to the presence of this coyote. It was walking around the steep hill next to the house, but outside the fenced acreage - an

area frequented by our Guinea fowl.


Above and below are some of the teepees we built for the Guinea fowl. These are all made of scrap lumber

that we either had on hand or picked up from the trash at a construction

site. We have several of them now, and the Guinea fowl really use them a lot. The birds will build nests in them and also use them as cover during storms, the hottest parts of the days and high

winds. To the right is a new teepee right after being built. Instructions for these are on our website. We call them teepees, despite the fact that they do

look a lot more like A-frames.


Above is a photo of one of the few Guinea fowl that we have actually named. He is unmistakable even at a distance. Loppy is a very friendly bird with us, and

gets along well with the flock – but he doesn’t do well with the ladies. Top of the following page: wild horses are common in our area. The horses frequent our

unfenced property, especially in the fall and spring. Bottom of the following page shows two Guinea fowl engaged in community grooming. One Guinea fowl will peck at the neck of another, sometimes two will peck on one. We’ve seen males

and females doing this in all possible combinations of male to female, etc.


Living With Guinea Fowl • Chapter IXLiving With Guinea Fowl Fall & Winter —

ChapTeR IXlIvIng wITh guInea fowl

fall & wInTeR

a phoTo jouRnalIsTIC looK aT guInea fowl duRIng fall & wInTeR

It’s a sure sign that fall has arrived when we put several square bales of 3rd cutting alfalfa behind the coop. The 3rd cutting is the leafiest, and best for the

Guinea fowl – or other livestock, for that matter. Our flock will go through about 8 bales during winter – each bale weighing in at around 90 pounds. The Guinea

fowl love the alfalfa, and start eating it right away, despite there still being plenty of other vegetation fit for their consumption.


A large male adult pearl gray Guinea fowl stares out of the coop at the snowy landscape. This photo was taken after the first snow of 2010, and some brown

vegetation was still visible. We put the birds into the coop yard and coop when the first snow comes. The Guinea fowl lose their bearings in the snow covered terrain

and often have difficulty finding their way back to the coop.


When we first saw the Guinea fowl doing this, we thought they were eating the snow. In fact, they do eat some, but they more peck at it and move it around.

As you’ll see in this chapter, these amazing birds, which come from dry dessert lands, do phenomenally well in frigid weather.


An adult pearl gray Guinea fowl hen has literally stuffed her mouth with snow, and still keeps pecking at the roost.


An adult pearl gray Guinea fowl male picks through the alfalfa. The birds will eat everything but the larger stems, which we cleanout in spring.


Any time the Guinea fowl get to come out of the coop yard during winter, they’re happy – and they show it! Note the openess of the flight feathers and the 'full toe'

extension. It's like Guinea fowl ballet.

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A large raptor flies overhead. This one is not looking for a meal, though. The photo doesn’t show it, but this bird is carrying a dead snake. Bad news for the snake - good news for our Guinea fowl. Fortunately, we've never lost a Guinea

fowl to a raptor, despite having several species here - including eagles.



A hen visits her old nest in the fall. This was lush

greenery 30 days ago.


The Guinea fowl like to play on this cliff edge. They walk to the top via a long route then slide down the cliff’s edge to the bottom. Some don’t make it all the way without flying.

Several Guinea fowl will play this game at a time. It’s great fun to watch. There's another photo of the Guinea fowl slide two pages ahead of this one.


This nest was built late in the season. When the foliage turned brown, the hen abandoned it. The yucca plants will remain green all year long. We've seen quite a few nests with eggs in them abandoned in the fall. This certainly makes sense

here - a young keet would have almost no chance of surviving a winter.


Luci's Winter Guinea fowl Treats

Creamy peanut butter on stale breadstuffs - dipped in wild bird seed.


This is one tough Guinea fowl! We know this guy well. He is sometimes a “door bully.” A door bully stops other Guinea fowl from entering the coop. You don’t want door bullies, and neither do the flock members. Anyway, this photo was taken when

the ambient temperature was a bone chilling -19°F. The wind chill was probably something around -30° as the winds were pretty calm. This guy left the warmth and comfort of the coop to come outside and sit on the Guinea fowl jungle gym. Several Guinea fowl came out to join him, but they all retreated to the coop after only a few minutes. This guy stayed out there for over three hours. In this photo, he is standing on one leg, which Guinea fowl do in both summer and winter, but he spent most of the time plopped down on the roost to keep his legs and feet warm. We call this bird “Montana tough.” This photo is just one reason we question the “need” for heating

the coop when the temperatures hit 32°F (freezing temperature for water).


This lovely Guinea fowl hen is out for a stroll in the fresh snow. She is walking through fresh snow that is about 2" deep. According to my notes, the temperature was 11°F and the skies were overcast – that dull gray of winter. Some of her flock

mates will be joining her soon.


This photograph is one of my personal favorites. This is one of the dominant males of the flock. He’s a robust Guinea fowl with exceptionally well balanced

wattles and a uniquely smooth casque. What makes me like this particular photo-graph so much is the relationship between the head and the feet. You can clearly see how much larger this bird’s feet are than its head. The photograph makes the

Guinea fowl appear very dinosaur-esque. Watching this guy peck at the snow made me wonder if the Guinea fowl do this to find the insects – the way they peck

through dirt to find them in spring and summer. We have wondered about this more than once. Perhaps one day one of the birds will explain it to us.

Help keep your Guinea fowl healthy! Do not use granulated poisons for controlling

rodents or insects anywhere that the Guinea fowl can possibly get at them.


This is a photograph taken in April of 2010. As you can see, the willow tree on the left has already gotten its green leaves – as has the small apple tree in the

back center of the picture. The dead, brown tumbleweed has not yet blown away and been replaced by new tumbleweed plants. We have these late season snows

regularly. We allow the Guinea fowl out in this weather. We no longer worry about them freezing to death, but we do worry about them being able to navigate home if there’s too much snow on the ground. This light snow has left lots of landmarks

visible for the birds, so it’s not a problem.


A light snow is just not enough to keep the Guinea fowl from going outside – especially if it’s sunny. The day this photograph was taken it was not sunny, but it was also not too cold. Note the teepee in the right rear of the photo, a nesting favorite of our Guinea fowl. In the front right of the photograph, the sandstone boulder we provided for the Guinea fowl is shown – with a light snow covering.



The Guinea fowl pretty much have the run of the place. They owe this privilege to my wife. I will allow them on the ATV as long as I don’t have to use it. Bella, however, will only allow them to use the roof of her dog house for a very short

time before she gently removes them.


Part of our flock of pearl gray Guinea fowl enjoys an early spring

jaunt through a light snow.


We have very few photographs taken from underneath of flying Guinea fowl. The ones that we have managed to get are not of excellent quality, but we included a

couple of them to show some different wing positions during flight.

Make Friends with Your Guinea Fowl

If you want your Guinea fowl to be more tame, and friendlier with you, there’s a simple way to do it. With our original flock, when a few birds were in the coop yard, Luci used to go into the coop yard with a millet shaker and sit down on the boulder. She would sprinkle some millet around herself and say “good Guineas.” At first, she sprinkled about 3’ away from her feet. Eventually, she would sprinkle right around her feet. After a few weeks of this, the birds became very comfortable with being close to her. Today, all the birds in the flock will come right up to her,

and even walk over her shoes.


Above: According to my notes, this photo was taken when the wind was gusting to 51 MPH. This Guinea fowl has done the Guinea fowl head tuck to cope with the

blustery weather. Below: It’s just cold and there’s snow on the ground. The Guinea fowl are still enjoying a day out of the coop, but confined to the coop yard. The

snow is too deep to allow them to free range.


Above: Just because it’s winter time, there’s snow on the ground and the tempera-ture is sub-zero doesn’t mean a Guinea fowl doesn’t need a bath – a dust bath, that is. These birds have made a small dust bath for one – in the center of the

group. Bottom: Some of the Guinea fowl eat alfalfa while others roost, preen and wait for open eating spots to become available.


Above: During this very pleasant and gentle snow, this Guinea fowl wanted to stay outside of the coop and play. I saw him from the shop and got the camera and an umbrella and headed out for a photo. He was quite active – running around, jumping from roost to roost, making short flights and gener-

ally frolicking. I snapped about 30 pictures – and this was the best of that lot. Right: this inexpensive, heated dog

water bowl has served us very well! It’s been in the coop all night with the Guinea fowl in frigid temperatures;

has not frozen and is very clean!


This photograph was not taken in fall or winter, but I just couldn’t help myself – I had to stick it in here. This proud young fellow was displaying for the ladies. He doesn’t have much of a casque, but he seems to be an excellent displayer. If you look at the hens around him, they seem less than interested in his antics. Note

that this photograph was snapped at the instant this Guinea fowl was highest on his toes. Once again, excellent Guinea fowl ballet.


The picture below, and the two pictures on the following page are all showing part of the same event. These photographs were all taken inside the coop yard in

early January of 2011. The temperature this day was a nippy -3°F, with a mild wind pushing the chill factor down to about -10°. The ground is frozen rock hard. We’d seen the Guinea fowl trying to scratch a dust bathing location out of the fro-zen ground, but they weren’t making much progress. We used the tractor to get a fully loaded wheelbarrow of sandy soil together and dumped it inside the Guinea fowl coop yard. Below you can see that several hens immediately started groom-

ing the loose, sandy soil into a nice dust bath bowl shape. In the next photograph, three hens continue with construction, while a fourth hen watches. In the third

photograph, three Guinea fowl enjoy the fruits of their labors – a nice dust bath. You can see the dirt on the back of the front bird. The birds used this bath all day long. And then on the following day as well. The day after that it snowed and the

coop yard was once again covered with snow. A couple of days later, we went in and cleared much of the snow away and then brought in a fresh wheelbarrow load of sandy soil. The birds like it so much that we now keep a stack of the soil

near the coop yard for easy access. This was all my wife's idea - yet another rea-son the Guinea like her so much more than they like me.


Loose, sandy soils seem to be the Guinea fowl’s preference for dust bath dirt. Of course, that’s what we have here so my observation may not hold true every-where. We also have exposed veins of coal here. The coal is very, very hard and

gritty – and the Guinea fowl enjoy dust bathing in it.


Above: extreme close up of the neck feathers on a Guinea fowl. These feathers are often mistaken for hairs. Below: Everything is coated with ice, and the cattle make their way to the feed areas. No day for a Guinea fowl to be out and about.


I came across this young deer “trapped” inside a fenced cattle area. The rest of its herd had left – I could see them about 150 yards away. This deer was trying to jump over the fence. I saw it fail three times,

and I’m sure it had failed previous to my seeing it. I had time to get my pocket camera out and move a little closer before he made this winning

leap. Notice his back hooves barely clear the top wire.



Above: it’s been a harsh winter, and a herd of 19 deer (some not visible in this photo) has formed a long, single file line and is moving into a cattle

feeding area to get any hay the cattle may have missed. When the hay is

dumped the cattle swarm it, prevent-ing the deer access, but the deer will come later and eat the smaller bits

of straw that the cattle leave behind. Right: The Guinea Fowl TV Logo –

click it to get to our YouTube channel. Below: Our Guinea fowl blog mast-head is shown – click it to visit our

Guinea fowl blog.

http://mymilescity.com/guineafowl/


Thanks!For reading our book.

We hope you enjoyed it.

Keep up with us on our blog.

Visit our website for great photos, projects and more.

Until next time buckWHEAT!

Jack, Luci & The Flock

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