How to Raise Guinea Fowl? Farming Methods and Key Technical Points
Guinea fowl were originally wild birds from Africa, and only later were introduced into our country and domesticated into a farmed species. Many people are not very familiar with some of the living habits of guinea fowl, so they do not know how to raise them. To raise guinea fowl well, you must master the key rearing points for each guinea fowl breed, and understand their growth cycle, disease prevention and control, and prevention and treatment of common diseases. Below, the editor shares the key points of guinea fowl farming with everyone. After reading this, you will have a basic understanding of how guinea fowl should be raised.
Breeds of Guinea Fowl
Let us first look at what breeds of guinea fowl there are. There are mainly three types of guinea fowl: first, the “giant guinea fowl” distributed in Somalia and Tanzania, whose main feature is that it has only a few feathers on its back. Second, the “crested guinea fowl” distributed in the tropical forests of Africa. Third, the “grey-breasted guinea fowl,” which includes two types, one with blue wattles and one with red wattles.
Growth Cycle of Guinea Fowl
The laying period of guinea fowl is from 26 to 66 weeks of age. At 32 weeks of age, the laying rate of guinea fowl can reach 50%, and the peak laying period is reached at 35 weeks of age. Breeding male guinea fowl can only produce qualified semen at 32 weeks of age. They are transferred to the laying house at about 25 weeks of age.
Living Habits of Guinea Fowl
1. Adaptability
Adult guinea fowl have strong adaptability. They like dry conditions and dislike dampness, tolerate high temperatures, resist cold, and have strong disease resistance. They can still live at -20 to 40°C. However, if the temperature after hatching is slightly low, the chicks are prone to catching cold, diarrhea, or death.
2. Timid and Easily Startled
Guinea fowl still retain the characteristics of wild birds. Guinea fowl are gentle, timid, and alert. Any abnormality or movement in the environment can cause the whole flock to panic. The hens make harsh calls, and the flock will react in a chain, with calls rising and falling one after another. If a red drinker is replaced with a yellow drinker, the flock will not dare to approach the drinker for a relatively long time.
3. Gregariousness and Homing Instinct
Guinea fowl usually live in groups of thirty to fifty and never separate alone. After artificial domestication, they still like group activities. When startled, they also flee and hide in groups, so guinea fowl are suitable for large-group rearing. In addition, guinea fowl have a strong homing instinct. When returning to the roost in the evening, they often each return to their own house, and even if occasionally separated, they can still return to the group and the roost.
4. Good at Flying, Fond of Climbing
Guinea fowl have well-developed and powerful wings, and even at 1 day of age they have a certain ability to leap. During the day, they can almost keep moving constantly. When resting or at night, they like to climb to high places to roost.
5. Fond of Dust Baths, Fond of Calling
When guinea fowl are kept free-range on earthen ground, they often dig pits in the ground to provide themselves with conditions for dust bathing. During a dust bath, they evenly spread sand between the feathers and skin. Guinea fowl have a rhythmic and continuous harsh call, which is indeed a major characteristic. This call greatly disturbs people's rest, but it also has several functions. First, at night, when this loud call suddenly rises strongly, it serves as an alarm. Second, once this call decreases, or once the sound intensity weakens, it may be a warning sign of disease.
6. Mate Selectivity
Guinea fowl are selective toward the opposite sex, which is one of the reasons for the low fertilization rate during natural mating. Of course, being easily startled is also the main reason for the low fertilization rate in large flocks of guinea fowl. However, the use of artificial insemination can fundamentally solve the problem of an excessively low fertilization rate.
7. Broad Diet and Tolerance of Coarse Feed
They especially like to eat green plants such as grass, vegetables, leaves, and fruits. Generally, grains, bran, cakes, fish and bone meal, and the like can all be used in mixed feed.
Disease Prevention and Control of Guinea Fowl
Guinea fowl are a type of poultry, and their disease resistance is relatively strong, with morbidity and mortality rates relatively lower. However, with the rapid development of the poultry industry and the continuous expansion of rearing scale and numbers, many diseases have followed and tend to become complex and diverse. In particular, some diseases still have no effective therapeutic drugs. In preventing and controlling guinea fowl diseases, we should persist with “prevention first, with equal emphasis on rearing and prevention.” Only in this way can guinea fowl production achieve “low risk and high benefit.”
For guinea fowl farms, measures to prevent diseases are mainly considered from three aspects: first, how to prevent pathogens from entering the farm; second, how to eliminate pathogens already present on the farm; third, how to improve the ability of the birds' bodies to resist disease.
Comprehensive Sanitary and Epidemic Prevention Measures In order to keep the flock growing healthily and to reduce and prevent diseases, comprehensive sanitary and epidemic prevention measures must be taken for the flock.
Prevention and Treatment of Common Diseases in Guinea Fowl
1. Newcastle Disease
This is an acute septic infectious disease caused by a virus. The occurrence of this disease is not limited by age or season. The virulent type has sudden onset and high mortality; the moderately virulent type is highly harmful to young chickens; the avirulent type may not cause death.
Symptoms: The flock often becomes ill suddenly, with ruffled feathers, retracted head and neck, drooping wings and tail, and the wattles and comb becoming bluish-purple or purple-black. They breathe with the mouth open or have difficulty breathing, often making a special “gurgling” sound. The crop is filled with foul liquid material, which often flows from the mouth when the bird is held upside down. Diarrhea occurs, with yellow-green or gray-white foul-smelling loose droppings. Some sick birds show neurological symptoms, such as paralysis of the legs and wings, unstable walking or standing, head and neck bent backward or twisted to one side, and finally paralysis and death. Necropsy shows bleeding in the mucosa and serosa of the proventriculus, small intestine, and other areas.
Prevention and treatment: When this disease occurs, drug treatment is ineffective and will instead delay time. Within the first 3 days of onset, anti-Newcastle disease serum may be tried with some effect. For sick birds in the middle and late stages, all should be culled and deeply buried or treated at high temperature. For flocks with only a few cases, or for other flocks not yet affected, emergency vaccination with type I or type II attenuated vaccine can be used. After the occurrence of this disease, the buying and selling of chickens and the entry and exit of personnel should be prohibited. Chicken houses and equipment can be spray-disinfected with 0.2% to 0.4% benzalkonium bromide solution, and transport vehicles can be disinfected with 1% to 2% caustic soda solution. Taking comprehensive prevention and control measures at ordinary times is the key to preventing this disease. Vaccination with type or strain vaccine can be given at 12 days of age, and Newcastle disease oil vaccine can be injected at 40 days and 120 days of age. Newly introduced chickens must be raised separately for more than 2 weeks and vaccinated on schedule. At ordinary times, sanitation and disinfection of the chicken house should be strengthened.
2. Infectious Bursal Disease
The bursa of Fabricius, also called the cloacal bursa, is an immune organ unique to birds and is located above the cloaca. This disease is a special disease caused by a virus that damages the bursa of Fabricius in chickens. The direct mortality rate of this disease is not high, but because the bursa of Fabricius is damaged and immune function is reduced, it can cause severe secondary infectious diseases such as Newcastle disease, resulting in great losses.
Symptoms: The occurrence of this disease has no obvious seasonality, and chickens 3 to 5 weeks of age are susceptible. Sick chickens are depressed, drink more water, have greatly reduced appetite, ruffled feathers, close their eyes and doze, and pass white watery loose droppings. The feathers around the anus are stained with feces. They sway when walking, tremble, become weak, and die. Surviving sick chickens appear emaciated and grow slowly. Necropsy shows that the bursa of Fabricius is highly swollen in the early stage and atrophied in the later stage, with edema, bleeding, and creamy viscous secretions in the mucosal lining of the bursa. There are hemorrhagic spots on the mucosa at the junction of the proventriculus and gizzard.
Prevention and treatment: The fundamental measure to prevent this disease is to strengthen feeding management and carry out immunization injections in a timely manner according to the immunization program. Attenuated bursal disease vaccine can be inoculated once each at 18 days and 28 days of age. Breeding chickens can be injected once with bursal disease oil vaccine at 18 to 20 weeks of age. When this disease occurs, injection of hyperimmune serum against bursal disease or hyperimmune yolk antibodies may be tried, and traditional Chinese medicine preparations such as “Guan Nang San” can also be used. At the same time, strengthen care for sick chickens and add multivitamins and the like.
After saying so much, everyone should have some understanding of what issues to pay attention to when raising guinea fowl, right? How to raise guinea fowl cannot be explained clearly in just one or two sentences; you must accumulate experience in practice. Guinea fowl rearing has not been carried out for long, and many farmers have no experience, often failing to achieve the expected rearing results. At such times, it is necessary to study farming techniques well. As a special meat poultry, guinea fowl have relatively high economic value, so only reasonable management and careful rearing can bring you good economic benefits.