Guinea Fowl ?

Stigura

Looking at finally trying to do a bucket list thing. Seems the only real hope of having them running around the place is to hatch and rear them on site? Okay. I'm game :)

Got my eye on a Brinsea incubator. I'll ask about, locally, see if anyone's got an 'electric hen' brooder knocking about.

Guess I'll be needing a dozen eggs next? What's the story with buying them through the post, please? I suppose the fertility rate would be about as reliant as turning up at a place. Do An Post normally manage to deliver eggs in a still viable condition?

Anything anyone might like to pass on, about letting them out, please?

Thanks.

Boardnashea

Keep an eye on the buy and sell/adverts and poultry markets.

I have never kept Guinea Fowl but noisy and flighty are words that spring to mind. They will roost as high as they can go. And I'm not sure but maybe a bit aggressive with other birds. But they are beautiful. And very nice on a plate, if that is your thing.

A friend has a few, if I get a chance I'll find out where they came from.

Stigura

I've been watching endless you tube stuff. Noisy, when something sets them off? No problemmo. No one around here to hear them. And I'm practically deaf! LOL!

It's starting to look like raising them with chickens is good. Steers them toward more chicken like behaviour, apparently? Less hysterical and that bit more biddable. Seems, like many things, it's how they're brought up.

So, yeah. I'm sort of resigned to the idea of getting a raggy little bunch of chickens first. Be good water testers. If they get on, I can go the full push and get the incubator / brooder set up.

(Saying that? I heard a hen, left to lay a few eggs without us eating them, is what gets broody? Perhaps, if I managed that, I could stick a few GF eggs under her? Always wondered where broody hens came from!)

Boardnashea

Silkie Bantams are always reliable sitters but even the hybrid layers will sit occasionally and do a good job. You need to have the eggs ready when she decides to sit though.

The other problem is to discourage them when your don't want them sitting!

Stigura

Okay. Well, I'm now the proud owner of one chicken feeder and one drinker! I also bought some raw materials, today. Now I can work towards finishing my chickenry.

Made a few enquiries today, also. Three sorts offered to me. I'm pretty well locked onto Silkies though as I've practically spent my whole life hearing them spoken of as just about the ultimate brooder / foster breed.

I'm taking it I'll need full sized birds? Can't really imagine bantam anything balancing itself on GF eggs.

Regards having the one ready for the other? I'll have to dig into this, so. Here we go again! I've you tubed incubators till my eyes have bled. Now it's 'Broody Hens'?

The Continental Op

You really can't keep Guinea Fowl like chickens. Guinea Fowl are wild! If you make the effort you can make a compromise.

We manage to get our Guinea Fowl back in and locked up every night with the copious use of mealworms. Left out in the rain you've never seen anything quite as pathetic as a wet Guinea Fowl.

Just like chickens they have a pecking order so while its easy to get the high order birds in those lower down need a bit of a chase around each night.

You need somewhere for them to sleep thats high up. Ours are up at about 5 ft in covered run but ideally they'd like to be higher.

They do keep foxes away and will chase anything thats new in their territory - even cars. I've watch our 6 stand in a semicircle squawking at a fox who ran off with the Guinea Fowl giving chase. If a fox does get one they still have a chance as their feathers come out really easily (you can't really pick them up) so the fox ends up with a mouth full of feathers and the Guinea Fowl fly off.

Unless you have a huge covered run I don't think you can keep them in? Our last couple were raised under a broody silkie bantam but the first lot were raised in a homemade light bulb heated incubator think we got 7 out of 12 eggs.

Stigura

" I'm taking it I'll need full sized birds? Can't really imagine bantam anything balancing itself on GF eggs. "

Got That wrong, didn't I?! Since heard from someone who's bantams happily sit several GF eggs 😀 That, I'd think, should make my quest easier. I've seen far more bantam anything than full sized birds.

CO; I'm not trying to keep them like chickens. Just trying to lessen their famed propensity to set the controls for way beyond the first horizon they see. The whole chicken thing is just a step in a proven process.

zoe 3619

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118927909#Comment_118927909

Don't underestimate the hatching power of a bantam,silkie or otherwise.They'd easily cope with 6 to 8 guinea eggs.If you buy larger hens they're often commercially reared and would have no brooding instinct.

Stigura

Zoe; I was offered actively laying RIR's, yesterday. I declined on the basis that ~ aside from just considering them a bit 'Meh', as something to have about the place ~ I've simply never heard that breed mentioned, in the same sentence as Broody, before. I may be completely wrong, of course. But, they're still a bit 'Been there. Done that.' as anything to see.

Kicking myself now, of course, having seen so many SLW bantams, at every horse sale. Always wanted the biggies. Now, of course, I'd launch myself at the chance to get the best of both worlds!

zoe 3619

RIR and their like are bred very specifically for egg production.It would be detrimental to that if they went broody every few weeks.In regard to synchronising your broody hen and the eggs,it's actually no problem.The eggs will still hatch after 3 or 4 weeks so just keep them until the time is right.

Stigura

Well, @zoe 3619 it's taking shape! 😁

I'm in line for some " Gold Top " birds? Never heard of them, till today. Wow! Don't They sound the business? Sadly, of course, they'll be this years hatch. So, little to no hope of getting gf eggs under them This year.

How many should I get? I know " A Trio " is like the standard. But, I don't really need a cockerel. Would two, or three, hens be right?

lanod2407

Any update Stigura?

Stigura

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119060575#Comment_119060575

Waiting on other people, Ianod. Ye know what that can be like ☹️ One day, someone who's accepted the job will actually materialise and get this slab down for me.

If ye'd asked how the other projects I have direct and personal control over are going? Excellent! Mopping up! Chickens? Complete inertia.

The one 'bright side' is that I decided to oil the outside wood of their night box I'm making. Ye know what oiling wood's like! Coat. Four days or so. Another coat ... So, as long as that's dragging out, at least I can tell myself I couldn't get the hens in yet, anyway.

Get this slab down though? Knock their box up and I'll be on the phone again 🙂

Stigura

And so, it begins! 😉

Stigura

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119060575#Comment_119060575

Four Months Later ....!

That shot was taken yesterday (Sunday). I got them on Saturday. Little Goldtop on the left. Four Light Sussex and a Silky fowl to produce more Goldtops out of the LS :D

Not even sure how I ended up with so many birds. But, there we are. LOL! Looks a bit cramped there. But, the blue box and old door behind it are to stop them going under the coop. Saves me having to crawl after them while they realise the coop's a better place to spend the night.

Of course, just as soon as they've settled down, I'll be letting them out to do their thing of a day. I suspect that's going to cost me a Fortune in wild bird seed! I put a litre down, every day, on the track. Feed most of the sparrows, rooks and crows in Leitrim on it. Let this lot out there and god help me!

Next year? Buy in my Guinea Fowl eggs and get some of Those on the ground? Think I'll have to hang one around my neck; Reminder to think things through, in future! LMAO!

The Continental Op

If you want to get them inside at night we find putting a torch in the box helps. We use a rechargeable one, our new guinea fowl keets won't go in yet without it. Once in we take the torch out - we have a door in the back.

The Continental Op

Also if they are staying in we find they love a bit of grass. We put the mower over a small area of shortish grass get half a grass box full then shake it out on the floor of the run. If you do that on concrete you'll need to clean it out as what remains goes off but the chickens really love it.

Stigura

I'm on it, CO! 😁 €17.50!!! Checked them out, last night. Omelette do little lights that fit into and work from the control panel of my door. I knew they existed. Saw the wiring port when I did the door. Decided I could probably use one and checked the price. (

Thinking; 'Dear god! €170, was it, for the door? Dread to Think what the light'll cost me!' Couldn't believe it! Might get two, at that price! Make it Really inviting in there 😋

Good things, these chickens. Absolutely fascinate me. Get Guinea's running about out there? I'll have touched the coat of Jesus! 😀

The Continental Op

It will be peacocks next - hope you have good neighbors.

Any light will do, if that setup is secure they don't need to go indoors. I like ours in because occasionally the fox can get a bird up close the wire and injure or kill it.

If you can get eggs then I can recommend hatching your own guinea fowl then you can get them really tame. They never take to picking up but will happily perch on your shoulder if feed by hand and handled as chicks.

Some info on how we do it here https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579188/#Comment_119579188 and a picture further down the thread.

For any fowl we find mealworms handy to get them to come when called. Expensive but saves running around like an idiot trying to round them up.

The Continental Op

And another thought your chickens might benefit from a removable perch across the middle of the cage about half way up. I say removable so it can be removed before nightfall so they don't perch on it overnight in the pissing down rain as stupid birds tend to :-( It would also get them use to using a perch if they haven't already so they can perch in their covered area at night.

Stigura

Peacocks? What are you; A mind reader?! 😂 I'd LOVE a peacock! I grew up able to hear that cry. It's stayed with me all my life. What they look like doesn't come into it. Look like bloody vultures, for all I care. Just that Sound!

€25.00 a throw though. And, how many before a cock pops out? 🐣

As it happens, the nearest thing I have to neighbours used to keep chickens themselves. Bloody great black things, they were. Crowed all day. Fit to wake the dead! Pine marten got them. Now, all they have left is an Incubator! I don't even know if a goldtop could look at a peafowls egg? Nice little back up there though 😉

Grass? Yeah. Painfully aware of this. I saw one pecking at a single blade that was poking through the mesh. Have it in my book to grab them a cabbage, or what ever nice looking greens I can see in town. I'll pick them some dandelions tomorrow. Gave them a bit of grated carrot, today. They had the last of my mealworms yesterday.

Thinking on my feet, see? Had the odd chicken before. But, they were always just let out to do their thing. Just the one at a time and free to get on. These poor souls, banged up in that cage? Depend on me for absolutely everything. I'm spending every day figuring out what that might be next, and sorting it 👍️