Hi everyone. Can anyone tell me what is best for feeding guineas? I'm feeding layers mash at the mo but they're making a mess with it & seem to be removing the bits they want & scattering the rest. Just wondered if the pellets would be better?
Yan
Farming Friends Forum » Guinea Fowl
Best food for guinea fowl
(8 posts)-
yanky
MemberPosted 7 months ago # -
Hi Yan,
I feed my guinea fowl on hens layers pellets. They free range most days and eat alot of grass and insects. They like windfallen fruit such as apples and plums. They like grapes and shredded lettuce. They eat insects and love mealworms.
They really enjoy hard boiled egg yolks but this cannot be fed to birds if you are going to sell the eggs.
Hope that helps.
kind regards
Sara @ farmingfriendsPosted 7 months ago # -
hazlia
MemberHi Sara
What is the issue with hard boiled eggs? I don't feed mine on them but wondered how this affects sale of their eggs?
I have got 7 eggs in the incubator due to hatch this weekend and another 14 or so under various hens. I discovered that the crocodile farm in Sandakan (about 230 km away) had Guinea Fowl (as well as other birds) and the owner's workers were eating the eggs!! Very delicious I am sure so I offered to buy the keets if they could hatch some out. I took 7 eggs and they are trying to hatch the other others. They started laying a month ago.
He said he did try to sell them before but there was no interest - until I came along. I am trying to enlarge my flock but the blighters are not laying - yet!
Regards
Mike
Posted 7 months ago # -
Hi Mike,
I think that if you feed your birds kitchen scraps or food that has been cooked then you are not allowed to sell the eggs to shops/farm shops and put the laid eggs into the food chain due to threat of disease.Just wondered how the hatch went, hope you got some new keets.Let me know how you got on.
My guineas are due to start laying in March or early April depending on the weather. No chance of them laying before as we have just had more snow.
I have observed some of the males mating with the females and have noticed the males chasing one another again as a way to win thefemales attention!
Hope all well with you in your part of the world.
Kind regards
sara @ farmingfriendsPosted 6 months ago # -
hazlia
MemberHi Sara
Ok - that makes sense with regards the food chain thing - not really an issue here!! So many rules are ignored and 'standards and practices" we take for granted in the UK just would not work here (mentality!). However, that said everything seems to work!
On the Duck eggs - disaster!!! We had several days of rain and everything flooded below and the ducks relocated themselves to higher and drier ground and so we lost 39 eggs only days away from hatching. Getting Khaki Cambells and Mallard Cross to sit on eggs is very rare so a 'double whammy'!. My friend tried to hatch them under a light but it did not work and for some reason I got just the one from the incubator - A khaki campbell who now has a real identity crisis! I raised it for 2 weeks in my apartment and so 'I' was 'mum'. Then I kept it in a cage for while with some young chickens on the farm. When I released it on the lake it wanted nothing to do with other ducks (actually they were very unkind to it!). Each night it returns to the hen house waiting to be put in its cage for the night and during the day it hangs out with the Turkeys Guinea Fowl and chickens which don't seem to harass it. Yesterday it was hanging out with the geese so maybe hope yet.
Sadly also one Guinea fowl died - found in the stream - not sure what happend there. But on a more positive note we have 3 broody geese. I have one white pair (N Europe) which are very difficult to breed here because of the length of daylight problem. We found a nest with 3 eggs on the far side of the pond and so now made a roof for it. It has 3 eggs so far so if soem hatch it will be a real win. 2 other grey geese are sitting on some eggs in the duck house. Once they have hatched (not not) we are going to rebuild the duck/goose house on higher ground the other side of the pond.
I have now one male muscovy with a major sexual orientation problem (I can say that in this part of the world!) and now has the other males (of all species) very worried - it is an extemely large bird! I may have put that on on the menu!
The Guinea fowl keep me amused with their antics but so far no eggs - they hatched around July last year so maybe still early. Hens never stop their "buck wheat". The eggs from the crocodile farm at Sandakan were unfertile - all 7 and the 40 or so they put under some chickens also never hatched and so I suspect all were were unfertile which makes me think perhaps all his fowl are female. In which case I may have to lend him a male to make the plan work.
Had a bizarre issue with a 'bald' cockeral (no neck feathers - tyoe of breed). It was quarelling with a a male turkey and after some flying feathers - they each in turn jumped up onto a high perch and made a 'speech' to all assembled turkeys, giunea fowl and chickens. Then there a major drama with the poor cockeral becoming victim to turkeys and giunea fowl - well of course it ran! However, the next morning it was dead and so became sunday lunch!! It was a shame as after raising 10 chicks (some nine months ago) and eating some along the way I had one hen and one cock and they were mating and laying eggs. Now I have just the hen and 2 baby chicks. The hen pines for her mate so I may have to find another for her. That particular chicken here is called Bald or Giant or Meat because of its lack of neck feathers and large size. It is generally brown in colour and looks odd because of it slack of neack feathers.
That's all from the wilds of Borneo!! But I love reading all the poulty columns as I still have so much to learn. I am now doing quite a lot of flying in the interior of Sarawak and see a lot of Hornbill which are magnificent birds and I have seen some extremely rare species of pheasant (including one peacock pheasant which I thought was extinct in Borneo - plenty in Palawan (Philippines) I think. It would be great to raise and release these if it was possible but their whole way of life is so fragile it would be incredibly tricky - even if you knew what you were doing!
Hope to try peacocks this year ad get my wretched guinea fowl to breed!
Best wishes
Mike
Posted 6 months ago # -
yanky
MemberHi Mike, just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading your account of Borneo Life!! You make my little squad of guineas & hens sonund like child's play!!! Looking forward to the next instalment!!
Yan.Posted 6 months ago # -
hazlia
MemberHi Yanky
Glad you enjoyed the reading!! It's great fun I have not a clue really what I am doing! Unfortunately I think I am going to be moving to Miri in Sarawak full time and so getting back to the farm is going to be more difficult but it will continue to progress under the care and supervision of my friends who live there. I am looking forward to the goslings hatching out.
regards
Mike
Posted 6 months ago # -
Hi Mike,
I am sorry to hear that you won't have much time on the farm. Let us know how the hatch goes and keep in touch when time permits to let us know how your friends are getting on with your livestock on the farm when you are in Miri.
I have just had a poorly duck and decided to take her to the vet and after two weeks of being unwell she is now recivered and back with the flock.
Best wishes
Sara @ farmingfriendsPosted 6 months ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.