Guinea fowl are also called African chickens. These are poultry with tasty and healthy meat. The rules for the care and maintenance of guinea fowls at home are quite simple. You can easily deal with them, even if you have never kept birds before.
You need to start raising these birds with the purchase of eggs or young animals. The eggs are hatched in an incubator. Further, small chickens should be kept in a brooder at a temperature of 30-35 ° C. If you do not have such a device, you can keep the chickens in a warm and sunny place, covered with sand. After three weeks, babies can be released for their first walks.
Keeping guinea fowl will allow you to enjoy the most tender meat.
Please note that the guinea fowls should not be allowed out for walks in the rain, even if it is slightly drizzling. Also, they should not be allowed to walk on the grass soaked with dew. The kids will get wet, catch a cold and die.
Guinea fowls and their chickens can be kept together with chickens, moreover, hens may well hatch guinea fowls. The fact is that guinea fowls have a disadvantage: sometimes they leave their eggs to their fate. Such eggs can be hatched by hens.
Keeping guinea fowls requires a little more space than keeping chickens. For every two or three birds, you need about 1 square meter. m in the poultry house. It is important to regularly release guinea fowls for walking, as they love free space. Usually, birds are released for walking at 6 am before morning feeding and are driven back only in the evening.
Try to give them a large area with shrubs for walking. Such a site must necessarily be fenced with a two-meter fence. Always keep your guinea fowl in the house overnight. If they spend the night outside, they will run wild very soon.
In terms of food, birds are completely undemanding. The following “dishes” are suitable for feeding them:
- beet;
- carrot;
- potato;
- grass;
- chicken mixed fodder.
Please note that all products should be given to them in crushed form. If you prefer compound feed, choose the option for chicken of egg breeds. In addition, guinea fowls are happy to feast on all kinds of snails, worms and other insects. They can easily deal with the main potato pest – the Colorado potato beetle.
During clutches, females’ food should be rich in calcium. You can simply add crushed eggshells to their meals. This will completely saturate them with an important mineral.
The maintenance and care of guinea fowls are simple things. If you do everything right, you will always have delicious dishes from the meat of these wonderful birds on your table.