If you’re new to keeping Guinea Fowl, here are some tips and helpful answers to frequently asked questions!
Q: Why do you only sell Guinea keets (baby Guineas) and not adults?
A: Guineas have a strong sense of where home is, and it’s very difficult for them to change once they’re adults. We’ve seen adult birds reject their coop just because we moved it twenty feet from its original location! It is quite possible that an adult Guinea that is moved to a new home will wander off, trying to figure out where its original home is, and never be seen again. It makes us sad to think of Guineas getting lost in the forest and probably killed by predators, so we only sell keets.
Q: Do Guineas eat ticks?
A: Yes, they do! They also tend to wander over a wide range, perhaps 1/8 mile or more from home. Fences usually can’t keep them in if they want to leave, so make sure your neighbors are okay with the idea of your Guineas coming on their land and eating their ticks. They should also be aware that Guineas can be very loud at times.
Q: How can I tell if a Guinea is male or female (is it a Guinea cock or a Guinea hen)?
A: It can be really hard to tell until they’re around 12 weeks old and start vocalizing more. Guinea hens (that is, females) say “buckwheat, buckwheat, buckwheat,” which is a sound that Guinea cocks (the males) never make. Both cocks and hens are capable of a very loud scolding sound, like “Chaak chak chak!” but cocks do this frequently (often when trying to make a distraction for a hen that’s laying an egg), whereas hens only do it if they’re very upset or warning about a predator. There is another sound that only cocks make, which is hard to put into letters, but comes across like, “chip chip ha-wee-hee-hee-hee.” Before they’re old enough to be making those sounds, and after as well, the easiest way to tell a cock from a hen might be the posture and bearing of the bird: Cocks usually stand up very straight, often raising their folded wings above their back to show off or make themselves look bigger, and they race and chase each other. Hens, on the other hand, usually have their heads down looking for food, and keep their wings folded tightly onto their backs, so that a round dome appears between their wings, at their rump.
Q: What do keets need for housing?
A: Keets are very delicate in their first few weeks of life. They will need a heat lamp, a draft-free environment (often a large cardboard box works great for this), chick or turkey starter feed, and fresh water. We recommend putting marbles in the drinker trough at first because we’ve heard stories of keets drowning in their drinker if it’s too wide or deep. As they get older, the heat lamp can be raised higher or reduced in wattage. Watch the keets’ behavior: If they’re all huddled in a tight group directly under the middle of the heat lamp, that means they’re chilly and need more warmth. If they’re scattered around the periphery of the heat lamp’s most intense area, things are probably about right. If they’re all trying to get to the furthest corners, as far away from the heat lamp as they can get, that means it’s too hot. Keets will need a heat lamp for six weeks, raising it or reducing wattage a little at a time. If you start them inside their permanent coop, the coop needs to be protected by 1/2" hardware cloth to keep the keets in and the predators out. Just give them a two-sided draft shelter near the heat lamp (cardboard can work fine). Make sure digging animals can’t get in by laying a two-foot-wide barrier of hardware cloth around the coop and putting large rocks on it. If you’re using a cardboard box in a garage or basement, make sure to keep a wire lid on it! Keets are capable of flight-assisted jumps at less than two weeks of age and can often escape from a box, even if the sides are quite tall. If they do, they won’t be able to figure out how to get back in, and they’ll get chilled and die.
Q: When can Guinea Keets fly?
A: They will be able to fly several yards by the time they’re 2-4 weeks old. By the time they’re 12 weeks old, they will be fully-flighted (as in, they could take off and leave like any other bird). Even an 8-foot fence is not an obstacle for them at all, especially to a Guinea that’s frightened or wants to make a nest on the other side, yet a 3-foot fence will often keep a relaxed, happy Guinea inside. It’s all about what the Guinea is thinking: They don’t tend to think of using flight as a way to travel to a location, but they will use it as a way of escaping from danger, getting home quickly from a distant location, or getting to a nest or mate.
Q: How soon can I let my Guineas out on free-range or pasture?
A: We recommend not letting them out unattended until they are 12 weeks old. Guineas seem to develop the ability to find home by that age, and after they have it, they never get lost. However, if you let them go free before they have developed that sense of where home is, they will wander off and get lost, and usually never return. It’s good to practice having them go out of their coop and come back in with you supervising, so they learn what it looks like on the outside and how to go into it. Guineas do find it appealing to jump up into their house, but we haven’t had good luck with ramps – a door that’s above ground level works just fine.
Q: What do Guineas need for the winter?
A: First of all, they need dry bedding and lots of ventilation. That means you need to be able to close the ventilation when it’s snowing or raining, but open it right back up again when it’s not. The ventilation should be wide open on one end of the coop or building, (a whole side that is nothing but wire is great) but never open on two opposite ends, because that would allow a draft. It should never feel windy inside the coop, but the air should be fresh and dry. If your housing can do that, then your birds will do really well through the winter. It’s also helpful to have drinkers that don’t freeze. We like 2-gallon bakery frosting buckets with horizontal drinker nipples installed, and a cheap aquarium heater suction-cupped to the inside bottom of the bucket to keep it from freezing. The lid on the bucket will keep it from getting dirty inside. Obviously the Guineas need plenty of feed to stay warm, too, but you won’t need to heat the coop (even here in central Maine). We recommend figuring out how much they eat (which will vary based on the temperature) and trying to not feed them more than that each day, to discourage rodents from getting interested in the coop. A final recommendation when the birds are indoors is to make sure they have a dust bin so that they can dust-bathe to keep parasites off of themselves. A 2-foot by 2-foot plywood box, 16” deep, with sand and wood ash inside, is a great way to provide this.
Q: What should we feed Guineas?
A: Guinea keets should receive chick starter or turkey/game-bird starter for the first 6 weeks or so (we recommend soy-free, unmedicated). After that, they can take grower feed until they’re 12-16 weeks old, and beyond that they can eat mixed-flock rations. Provide crushed oyster shell grit and granite grit for them to use as needed. We feed our adults a mixture of whole grain (field peas, wheat, oats, black sunflower, corn) that comes out to about 16-17% protein. We feed our keets cracked field peas, dried meal worms, and wheat at first, then, oats, black sunflower, Japanese beetles, spiders, and anything else with a lot of legs as soon as we can. One fun trick is to go down the row of plants in your garden and knock the Japanese beetles into a yogurt cup one-third full of chick feed or cracked field peas. Keep shaking it around so that they can’t take off and fly, and they get coated with feed dust. Then pour it in the keets’ feed tray and watch the fun! They’ll never forget how much they like eating those beetles once they’re grown up.