How to Train Guinea Fowl to Come When Called

Easily Train Your Guinea Fowl to Come When You Call Them

Despite living in one of the coldest areas of the United States, we've always steered clear of owning a heated water bowl. Our thinking was simply this: a heated water bowl uses electricity, which enlarges our carbon footprint. Since changing the water when it freezes only requires labor, changing the water trumped using a heated water bowl. As I said, that "was" our thinking.

This past fall my wife and I again discussed using a heated water bowl for the dogs. Our discussion revealed some things our previous discussions had not. First of all, when we fill the water buckets for the dogs, which happens as many as 4 times per day during the hardest winter months, we use electricity to run the water pump. More importantly, we must throw away the ice that is in the water buckets so that we can fill them with fresh, unfrozen water. That's a waste of water. So the search for an acceptable heated water bowl began.

As we searched the internet for the perfect heated water bowl, we decided we should look for a heated water bowl that would also work for our flock of pearl gray Guinea fowl. We have a flock of over 40 Guinea fowl, and their 4-gallon waterer must be changed out twice daily all through the winter. Deciding to get the Guinea fowl their own heated water bowl changed the criteria of what we wanted.

 

Training Guinea fowl to come when called is an important and worthwhile task for the Guinea fowl keeper. When Guinea fowl are trained to come when called, they can easily be removed from places where they don't' belong. Also, it's immeasurably easier to get the Guinea fowl back into their coop for the night when they are trained to come to a call or sound. Almost all Guinea fowl keepers prefer that their birds be in the coop during the night to protect them from predators and severe weather.

Training Guinea fowl to come when called is not as difficult as one might think. Training a Guinea fowl is a bit different from training a dog, and it does take more repetition. However, several minutes each day for a few weeks will yield the desired result, and save countless exhausting hours of 'chasing them down' during the life of the Guinea fowl.

Training Guinea fowl to come when called only requires the following: 1) A training plan. 2) Some white proso millet. 3) A dispenser/shaker for the millet. 4) Some Guinea fowl keets. 5) Some kind of noise maker – this is optional, but recommended by this writer. 6) A few minutes each day to spend with the Guinea fowl keets. ("Keets" are the young offspring of Guinea fowl.) It is easier to train Guinea fowl keets than it is to train Guinea fowl adults.

You can purchase white proso millet at many locations, but it's usually least expensive at a feed store. Feed stores sell large bags of millet, and it goes a long way, so be prepared to store it in something.

A dispenser/shaker for your white proso millet can be made from any number of things. Some extra large size spice containers are perfect for this task as they already have holes in the tops. You can also drill some ¼" holes in the top of an old potato chip can, or coffee can.

I use a cowbell for a noisemaker. The noisemaker is not required, but I prefer one. The Guinea fowl will wander up to a ¼ mile away from the coop – sometimes further – and I don't like to have to scream their call to come. A good whistle would also work quite nicely.

Schedule for training Guinea fowl to come when called:

• • First 14 days: 3 times per day. Early morning, midday, when it's time for the birds to get into the coop.
• • Second 14 days: 2 times per day. Midday, when it's time for the birds to get into the coop.
• • Final 30 days: 2 times per day. At an arbitrary time, when it's time for the birds to get into the coop.

It doesn't matter much what word or words you use to train your Guinea fowl to come when you call them. I simply say " Guinea, Guinea, Guinea." I repeat this as necessary. When you are picking your training word(s), be sure to make it something easy to say and something you can say loudly.