Guinea Fowl - Great Birds to Keep

continued...

People who want to start keeping Guinea fowl can purchase their new birds in any of three ways.

• • As fertile eggs to be incubated and hatched.
• • As keets to be raised.
• • As adults.

Those new to keeping Guinea fowl should purchase keets when starting their flock. Keets are usually delivered when they are two or three days of age. Starting out with Guinea fowl keets avoids the time and expense of incubating the eggs for 26-28 days. Incubating Guinea fowl eggs is best left to those with the proper equipment and experience. Purchasing adult Guinea fowl also has disadvantages for the first-time Guinea fowl keeper. You'll want to train your Guinea fowl, and this is most easily done starting when they are keets.

Essentially, there is one thing Guinea fowl keepers want to train their flock to do: come when called. Training Guinea fowl to come on command is invaluable during their lives. It allows the keeper to call the birds into the safety of the coop at night, and also allows the birds to be directed to specific places to drastically reduce the bug population. Guinea fowl are great pest controllers for organic gardens – or any garden, for that matter. If a Guinea fowl keeper has a bee, hornet or wasp problem, he or she need only get the Guinea fowl close to where the insects congregate. The Guinea fowl will do the rest.

Adult helmeted Guinea fowl are very tough animals. Like all animals, however, they require care and assistance to reach healthy maturity. Raising Guinea fowl keets is not at all difficult, but there are a few things that need to be done for the safety and health of the keets. Guinea fowl keets need warmth, shelter from drafts and predators, dryness, food and water.

The first few days of life, keets should be kept in a container with a temperature of about 100°F. A giant plastic tub with a small light bulb works fine. The water supply for the young keets needs to be lukewarm, and setup so that the keets cannot get into it and get wet or drown themselves. Feeding the Guinea fowl keets turkey starter with AMP is the most popular diet. Cover the bottom of the keets' home with paper towels, and change them as needed. Gently handle the keets from the first day to get them used to you and other family members.

For complete information on how to successfully raise Guinea fowl keets, visit the Guinea Fowl International Association's forum at: http://www.guineafowlinternational.org/forum/. Join the forum and you can ask specific questions and get knowledgeable responses quickly. It's an invaluable resource for the Guinea fowl keeper!