Ever heard of Guinea Fowl? They’re kind of like French chickens, sort of. They are very poor at reproducing on their own, as the hens like to go off into the brush and lay their eggs. Generally they get bored and leave their eggs without hatching them. We’ve had at least a pair or more for the last 7 years, and never had babies(keets).
Something special happened this summer when one hen laid a batch of eggs near our barn. One of our “normal” broody chickens adopted the pile and hatched twenty two! In the video below, you can see and hear the gang.
They’re all larger now and are funny to watch roaming around the property as a inseparable gang. And yes, they do bully the other chickens, so we tend to feed them in two free range groups.
What are Guineas good for? Noise for one thing. Snake patrols for a second. They are known to find and kill rattlesnakes that we find on occasion in the summer. My theory is that their constant noise is like fingernails on a blackboard for any snakes within a half mile!
Authors note: We had 2 African geese for a year about eight years ago. They are bigger and were much louder than all our current Guinea fowl!
Please comment with your Guinea Fowl stories below!
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Louder than Guinea fowl sounds hideous! And people use Guinea as watch animals too.
.-= Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend´s last blog ..DIY WordPress: Creating Sidebars On-the-Fly in WordPress =-.
Yes I forgot to mention how they are Watch Birds. They will get in a tizzy if someone comes down the driveway.
I raised my 14 so far Keets by incubator, am importing another 24 fertile eggs I hope this coming season, I need mine for eating the darned grasshoppers, which have chewed off for 4 years my ornamental Passion Fruit vine, and that, hi, was one of my passions in life to grow it at this place and to gaze at, not feed “Hungry Hoppers”…
Bye,
David…