Guinea Fowl

Guinea fowl are native to Africa and are a ground nesting bird that resembles a partridge except they have featherless heads. They can eat chicken food and will also eat lice, worms, ants, spiders, weed seeds, ticks, and bees while out in the field. Guinea fowl are very noisy birds and will often lay their eggs out in the field and raise their young themselves.

It is hard to sex Guinea fowl by looking at them; however adult males have a larger helmet and wattles. The easiest way is by voice they both make a one syllable alarm call but only the females have a two syllable call. They sound like they are saying “buck-wheat”. New guineas should not be let out right away or they may disappear, it is best to pen them where they can see the pen where they will be living, after a week or two let one out. It won’t go far as guineas hate to be alone but it will learn its way around, and then let another out with it; if they stay usually you can let the rest out with them.

If you want your guinea fowl to be calm around you it is best to start with keets. They will need to be handled a lot however if you are willing to put in the time it is possible to have guineas that are not flighty around you. It works best to start guineas off with turkey starter instead of regular chick starter. If you let your guineas free range once they are old enough they will be able to forage for much of their food themselves. Keep in mind if you let your hens free range that at some point they will likely try to set. This will make them very susceptible to predators. They will usually nest in tall grass or along a fence/barn.

Duckopolis has the following varieties of guineas available:

Bronze, Buff, Coral Blue, Jumbo, Lavender, Pearl, Pied (Lavender & Pearl), Pinto, Violet, and White