Post by Ismail AbdulAzeez on Aug 11, 2019 18:01:56 GMT 1
The time of breeding livestock for subsistence purpose only is fast fading out. Nowadays, livestock farming has become a source of livelihood for many, as it has become one of the major businesses that yield so much profit and returns on investment.
Guinea fowl belongs to the bird family that is typically reared for its meat and eggs. Funnily, guinea fowls can also serve as security animals alerting on unusual things and persons in their environment.
The eggs are somehow more common than its meat, as regularly seen hawked and displayed for sale.
The guinea fowl egg is however smaller than a hen's egg, and the taste also differ, as well as their prices, the egg of a guinea fowl sells at a higher price than that of a hen. This is one of the benefits of rearing guinea fowl.
Rearing the birds is quite easy and economical. One could start guinea fowl farming with one adult male and four females (guinea hens). The birds take about 20 weeks to mature and lay eggs only during the wet season.
The hybrid guinea fowls can produce eggs throughout the year with good management and feeding, unlike local breeds that lay eggs only in the wet season.
The young hatchlings (keets) are best kept indoors and fed on poultry grower mash until they reach about 12 weeks and then subsequently released to an open area that has a shelter and a bit of trees. The birds can also be fed with maize, sorghum and other vegetables.
In case you are rearing the hybrids breed, they are best kept under the intensive system or indoors and layer mash is given to the guinea hens during production season.
It takes about 25 days for guinea hen to hatch. Chicken hen may be used or brooding because they make better mothers and take about 28 days to hatch.
The females weigh about 3kg, while males can weigh up to 4kg and could be imported from France.
One factor to be noted about guinea hen is that when kept in, say point ‘A,’ they lay their eggs in point ‘E. Meanwhile, the guinea fowls generally have higher disease resistance than chickens.
At about two months, the birds begin ‘helmet’ development on their head and are given white millet (maiwa) to help them while it takes about eight months to reach full maturity when extensively reared.
In our future articles, we shall discuss more on rearing guinea fowl. Keep following our articles for great knowledge and business prospects. We are The Thy Global Investments Ltd. Our areas of specialization include, Mentoring Service, Export Planning Service, Contract Securing Service, Export Market Info.