2LearnNumida meleagris
Guinea fowl
The helmeted guinea fowl is an African bird kept for its meat and eggs and as a forager of ticks and insects. It is only partly domesticated and keeps much of its wild behaviour, flying well, roosting high and calling loudly at anything unusual. Its eggs are…
Keeping
How it is kept
Kept for
- Meat
- Eggs
- Temperament
- Flighty and very noisy; semi-wild in behaviour
- Mature weight
- 1.2–1.8 kg
- Incubation
- 27 days
- Forage
- Excellent foragers of insects, ticks and seeds on open range. A poultry or game-bird feed should still be the base of the diet.
- Housing
- A predator-proof roosting house they are trained to return to each evening. Left to themselves they fly well and roost in trees.
- Good to know
- Young guinea fowl, called keets, need warmth and a high-protein game-bird or turkey starter feed. Adults are hardy but noisy, which neighbours may notice. They are hard to sex until mature, when the calls and wattles differ.
Breeds
Guinea fowl breeds
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