Smallholder Helmeted Guinea Fowl Production in the Tropics

By F. K. Avornyo

This book contains information on how to rear guinea fowls in the tropics. It teaches readers where to site the production unit and the factors that should be considered when choosing a place for guinea fowl production. It also offers some titbits that entrepreneurs can use in their plan for a successful venture. Generally certain items have to be acquired for a successful production and this book makes mention of these items, some of which are drinkers, feeders and heat source. This book gives a description of structures that would be suitable for brooding purpose and that for adult birds. Advice is also given on how far apart the brooding house should be from other structures and the care that needs to be taken to keep vermin away from the brooder facility. Very young keets are very delicate and require a lot of care to keep them alive. This book recommends stocking rates that would help optimise return on production. Examples of records that should be kept to enhance decision making about the production have also been provided. Obtaining fertile eggs for hatching can sometimes be tricky and so this book gives some suggestions on how to obtain your fertile eggs. Eggs have to be properly stored prior to incubation, and they should not be stored for too long otherwise the embryo in them would die. Care must be exercised in the handling of eggs for hatching. It is important to observe good hygiene. Titbits are given on how to maximize the hatch that you get from your incubator. There is a section on the handling of day old keets. The author sheds light on whether or not day old keets may be offered solid feed. Up to seven days old keets are prone to getting drowned in their drinkers or getting trapped in their feeders. Certain measures are therefore necessary to obviate such accidents. The author recommends a medication regimen for keets up to 8 weeks old and shares his opinion on whether or not to vaccinate the local guinea fowl. Brooder house heating regimen is also provided for readers to adapt. Information is also provided on the nutritional quality and quantity of feed required by a keet in a brooding facility. A few suggestions are made as to how to reduce feed wastage. A guide is given on feed formulation. If calcium and phosphorus contents of the feed are not enough the keets may develop leg paralysis. This problem can however be offset by exposing the keets to sunlight from the fifteenth day of age onwards. The author stresses the need for all sharp corners at the ground level in the brooder facility to which guinea keets have access to be rounded off to prevent stampede, suffocation and subsequent death of keets. The issue of sex determination in guinea keets is still yet to be unravelled. A lot of care is required for proper transportation of guinea fowls otherwise they would perish. If many guinea fowls are transported together in one cage, there may be stampede and death of some of the guinea fowls.
Season, feed protein content and quantity offered to breeding stock are three important determinants of the extent of egg production by guinea fowls. If feeding is adequate, a sex ratio of 1 male: 4 females may result in more fertile egg production. On the other hand where feed is in short supply, a sex ratio of 1:2 may be adopted.
The older the birds become, the lower the total annual egg production. Increasing the length of day light may induce guinea fowls to produce more eggs. Feed containing about 14% protein will be suitable for laying guinea fowls.
There may not be any good economic reason for feeding free ranging guinea hens lots of supplementary feed. In the off season when birds are not laying, feeding them 2.5% of their body weight as supplementary feed may help prevent fatty liver syndrome. If feasible young laying birds may be fed about twice a day as opposed to once a day as feeding twice a day may be associated with higher egg output.

• Language: English
• Publisher: F. K. Avornyo
• Release date: Dec 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370277117

F. K. Avornyo

The author is a Principal Research Scientist at the Animal Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Ghana. He has been working as a research scientist for the past 20 years. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2000 where he did his dissertation in Ruminant Nutrition. He completed his first degree in the year 1992 with a first class honours in Animal Science. He completed an MSc. Programme in Sustainable Agriculture at the University of London in the year 1995. He has executed over 10 research projects on the guinea fowl on topics ranging from keet mortality, production, profitability and improving quality of guinea fowl feed. His research efforts are aimed at improving the livestock industry with an interest in enhancing nutrition and income security of poor rural households. . He was the Vice Chair of a Guinea Fowl Value Chain Committee in Ghana from 2007 to 2013. He was part of a team that developed a National Strategic Plan for the guinea fowl and he is also a member of an Experts Business Development Team on the guinea fowl in Ghana. He advises the Ghanaian government on livestock policy issues and contributes to the training of agricultural staff, development workers, university students and farmers to facilitate technology transfer. He has therefore undertaken over 20 training sessions in various aspects of production and commercialization of guinea fowl production. He has been appointed to teach a postgraduate course in Animal Nutrition at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research College of Science and Technology. He has published 22 papers on the guinea fowl (5 referred journal papers, 5 conference papers, 6 magazine articles, 5 technical reports and 1 manual). His hobbies include caring for animals and watching documentaries.

Book preview

Smallholder helmeted guinea fowl production in the tropics

By F. K. Avornyo (BSc., MSc., PhD)

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - Animal Research Institute, Nyankpala Station, Tamale, Ghana

Copyright © 2017 F. K. Avornyo

All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Getting started

Chapter 2: Acquisition of inputs

Chapter 3: Housing

Chapter 4: Sourcing, collection and handling of hatching eggs

Chapter 5: Incubation

Chapter 6: Brooding with a fowl (the traditional system)

Chapter 7: Brooding of keets without a mother (commercial system)

Chapter 8: Sexing of guinea fowls

Chapter 9: Post-brooding management under the free range system

Chapter 10: Management of the laying or breeding stock for good hatching eggs

Chapter 11: Transportation of live birds

Chapter 12: Conclusion

Acknowledgments

About Franklin Avornyo

Connect with Franklin Avornyo

Bibliography

Chapter 1

Getting started

Some people probably have interest in rearing guinea fowls. They may already have been rearing guinea fowls for many years and may already be keeping a few guinea fowls. Others may be complete starters. Whatever their needs may be, it is hoped that they would find some useful information that would help them succeed in guinea fowl rearing. Whatever their situation might be, if they are considering rearing guinea fowls, there are a few things they have to do.

There is the need to identify a place to rear them. This may be in a community or away from human settlement. They may be reared under the intensive system, on free range or under the semi-intensive system. If local breeds would be used, then it might advisable to keep them under the intensive system for the first six to eight weeks followed by the free range system for the rest of their lives but they should be trained to sleep in their coops overnight. If exotic guinea fowls would be kept, then they might be maintained under the intensive system. It may however be difficult to make any profit under the intensive system considering that most people in developing countries would not have the capacity to keep over 10,000 guinea fowls at a time.

If the intention is to produce large numbers of guinea fowls, then it would be advisable to undertake such a venture in the outskirts of town. This however has its challenges. The problem of snakes killing them may be encountered. Another possible threat is theft. Guinea fowl house may be sited at a location where theft is not common. There may be the need to engage a caretaker to keep watch over the birds. Brooding of keets may be done in one’s house or community and the keets later transferred when they are six to eight weeks old to the site earmarked for rearing of growers and adults.

If the guinea fowl house is located close to the road, vehicles may run over the guinea fowls, unless they are maintained under the intensive system. However, the intensive system may not be advisable if management skills are low. It may be difficult to rear a large number of guinea fowls within the community since there might be problems with space. Moreover, guinea fowls destroy seedlings and this may bring about conflict in the community. Advice on site selection may be sought from successful