If farm boys realized that there is a good and growing market for
guinea fowls, eggs, and birds, they would read this: A fashionable New
York hotel served three thousand of these birds between January first
and April thirteenth, nineteen hundred and five. Listen to the prices:
from one dollar to one dollar and a half per pair for young broilers in
midwinter in the large Northern cities. Eggs twice the price of hens'
eggs. Taking into consideration the fact that they are hardier even as
chicks than ordinary poultry and that the market is strictly fancy and
not oversupplied, the chances for success in guinea raising are good.
In beginning this branch of business it is not best to buy old fowls.
They are swift of wing, and they are extremely likely to take "French
leave" unless closely confined for a week or more to their new
quarters. This confinement is not very good for them. My advice is to
begin with a setting of fifteen eggs under a common hen in May or June.
The eggs are smaller than hens' eggs and have good, strong shells.
They take from twenty-six to thirty days to hatch. The treatment and
care of young guinea fowls varies from that given to young chickens in
a few particulars only, _e. g._, the chicks should be fed very _soon_
after hatching and need a large percentage of animal food when first
hatched. Dry bread crumbs and hard-boiled eggs minced finely or pieces
of cooked meat cut very fine are a good first meal. Bread and milk and
finely chopped lettuce, cress, or other vegetation should be given a
day or two later. They will pick up innumerable insects if allowed the
privileges of the garden or fruit plantation. Little guineas should
have access to feed all the time as a few hours without food is very
likely to prove fatal. Like little pheasants they require a greater
percentage of animal food than chickens because if in the wild they
would eat little else. Soft grains should follow the earlier rations,
and the mixtures given to ordinary poultry should gradually take the
place of these.
Old guinea fowls have the reputation for making very tough meat. For
this reason it is better to market them while the breast bone is still
tender, the claws still short and sharp, and before the crest or helmet
has reached its full size or changed colour. In young birds the helmet
is nearly black, growing lighter with age.