| Origin | Africa |
| Year Recognized | Recorded since 1758, entered into APA Standard of Perfection 2004 |
| Purpose | Pest control, alarm system, meat, eggs |
| Eggs | Seasonal layers, 100-125 eggs per year |
| Growth | Fast maturing |
| Plumage | Tight feathers, rich partridge colouring, yellow skin, red wattles |
| Comb | Bony knob |
| Size | 3.5 lb |
| Status | Not endangered |
| Availability | None available at this time. |
| Strengths | Hardy, independent, excellent pest control, will sound alarm call to alert if flock is in danger. |
| Weaknesses | Not tame, good flying ability, prefer to free range and have little human interaction. Closely related to game birds rather than chickens. They are not the savviest parents and will take their tiny keets on epic cross country marathons when they are too young and small. Intervention is key to keep them confined until their keets are more robust, or raise the keets by hand. |
History
Guinea Fowl are a very robust, hardy and independent game bird that is native to Africa. In the 15th century they were brought to Greece and Rome where they were raised like poultry. Today they are raised worldwide and appreciated for their pest control, flock protection, meat and eggs.
Our Stock
We added Guinea Fowl to our homestead in 2020. We love their wild antics! They are a very social flock that will free range all over our ranch on adventures. They are very fast runners and can fly quite well for domestic birds. We have noticed that our fly population has decreased a lot since adding them. They will eat up to 80% of their diet as insects during breeding season. For this reason many people choose to them to help reduce the risk of Lyme disease as they will help control ticks. I love that they will sound a very loud, persistent alarm call when there is danger in the area. We have struggled with aerial predators (ie. ravens and owls) and the Guineas have been fantastic in alerting the flock of danger. I love all colours of Guineas but at this time we only have buff and buff dundotte varieties.
Availability
None available at this time as we focus on growing our home flock.
Ravenwood Ranch 