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Guinea Fowl Raising

Popular homestead birds, gumsprovide eggs as well as a delicious.gamey meat. They are excellent fallowed to run wild, and don't scratch for feed, so they are less destructive in the gardens than chickens. They can also be raised in hen house.

Breeds and Varieties: There are three ,varieties of guinea fowl available-Pearl, Lavender and White. There is little a difference among them except in color. The Pearl variety has purple gray plumage dotted with white. Lavender guineas are similar but their plumage is light grey or lavender dotted with white. Whites have pure white plumage and a lighter skin.

Starting: Guinea chicks, called keets, can be mail-ordered. Brooding procedures are the same as with chickens.

If you wish to raise keets from your own guineas, it is best to incubate the eggs yourself or give them to a domestic chicken hen to raise since guinea hens are poorThe hens lay seasonally, and will wwith their mates at midday to lay. Hens usually lay one egg a day, and will lay 30 tobefore becoming broody. Often several hens will lay in the same nest.

To keep the hen laying throughout the season, remove eggs from the nest Ais absent. Leave half-a-dozen marked eggs to encourage laying.

If you are incubating the eggs, tr.,like chicken eggs. If one of your hens ison guinea eggs, keep her lice-free and change the nesting material regularly. The incubation period for guinea eggs is 28 days.last week, keep the eggs lightly water to aid the keets in breaking their shells.

'Housing: A few guineas can be kept onfarm with hens or allowed to go wild.sill do very well if left by themselves, or:an be fed twice a day to encourage them to come home to roost.

If you want to raise more than a fewity, provide them with a coop. Guineas will require a run, the larger the better, with six-foot-high walls of poultry fencingtight covering of the same material.ng facilities should also be provided in Guineas raised on range should be pro-with shelters like chickens on range.stout fence will help to keep maraudersStand warned, however, that unless the birds are pinioned or the six primaries of one wing removed, guineas will quickly fly out of their range enclosure and live in the wild.

Feeding: Guineas will feed themselvesif allowed to run wild, eating grubs and insects.If kept inside, the birds are fed the same asturkeys. On range the birds can also be fedsimilarly to turkeys, but should be fed twice aday. Feed in the late afternoon if you wantthem to return to their shelters for the night.

The first feed for keets may be turkey starting mash. When you are going to put thekeets in your brooder, dip their beaks inturkey starting mash and then in water. Starter mash should contain 25 percent protein, and may include oatmeal or finely chopped greenfeed.

Growing mash and grain should be fed tothe keets after they are about six weeks old. After the first ten days, keep mash constantly in front of the keets or feed four or five timesdaily.

Guineas in captivity need a constantsource of fresh water. For keets, a chickwaterer with jar is fine; put pebbles in thetrough so the keets will not drown themselvesin their drinking water.

Sexing: Guinea hens and cocks resembleeach other, and sexing is often difficult. Gen-eral advice for sexing is that the female guineaemits a cry that sounds like "buckwheat, buck-wheat," while the cry of the male is mono-syllabic. Males have higher and darker combs,longer wattles, and the white, skinlike cover-ing of the head extends farther down theneck than on the female. If a pair is disturbedduring laying season, the male will utter ashrill cry and fly away while the female remains on the nest.

Slaughtering and Using: Young birdsare usually marketed when they reach 1.5 to two pounds live weight. At this stage the meatis tender and resembles the flesh of quail or partridge. At six to ten months the flesh closely resembles that of pheasant and is slightly gamey. Guineas may be prepared forthe table as are other poultry of a correspond-ing size or age, and may also be prepared as game birds. Indeed, in England and Europe guinea fowl are often hunted as game birds.

The easiest way to slaughter domesticguineas is to take a sharp knife, sever the artery in the roof of the mouth, and pierce thebrain by pushing the knife into the skull cavity.Birds should be hung upside down to drain.Piercing the brain this way aids in loosening the feathers, and guineas then can be dry-plucked. Never scald the birds. After theyhave been plucked, chill them quickly.

Guinea eggs are smaller than chickeneggs, and can be fried, scrambled or hard-boiled. The whites are lighter when whippedthan the whites of hens' eggs and are thereforegood for cake baking. Sixteen whites from guinea eggs equal 11 whites from chickeneggs. Be sure the birds do not see you gather-ing the eggs, or they are likely to move theirnests.

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