Post by Alan on Dec 30, 2009 21:09:36 GMT -5
Recently I decided to get rid of my chicken flock so I sold all my egg layers and slaughtered all of my roosters to put in the freezer for the winter. I've decided to move more into turkeys and guineas and turned my original greenhouse, a Rion 8 X 8 into a secondary coop of which I will soon put pictures on the blog (http://homegrowngoodness.blogspot.com).
Anyhow, I have a fairly large flock of standard guineas at the moment, about 15 of them, and I am planning on hatching 30 this year for my own use not counting those which I sale, if not a few more. I put in an order also for 20 more turkey poults including my midget whites from which I plan to breed with Royal Palms, Blacks and Blues as well as Beltsville small white turkeys (which I will have to obtain hatching eggs for from sandspoultry.com at $40.00 a dozen) in order to breed a midget turkey in a color less predator prone than white.
Anyways, today I placed an order with ideal hatchery for 20 French Guineas. The essentially resemble pearl guineas but get much larger, up to 7 or 8 lbs and with a bit of lighting will lay year round like chickens (this replaces my egg laying flock) however they do not breed naturally and need AI from what I read.
There is a large pearl guinea called a jumbo which gets the same size that I thought about purchasing, but they dont lay year round.
So, getting to the point already. I have bred a standard tom turkey to a broad breasted bronze hen in order to select for a slightly larger standard type bird with quite a bit of success so I had wondered if I could do this with French Guineas, naturally I found myself in a phone conversation with Ralph Winter from Winters Guinea Hatchery, and asked him about crossing a standard cock guinea to a French hen to which he said I would get acceptable fertility and that I could indeed select with some decent amount of success for a French type guinea which lays eggs year round and which breeds naturally.
Now, I can see from here that at least the next 10 years of my life are tied up in Guineas and Turkeys and improving their stock.
So I guess I just wanted to share that with someone, 'cause sometimes I need to tell someone about my dreams instead of kicking them around in my head! LOL
Has anyone here ever raised French Guienas? What can I expect from them behavior wise and egg wise?
Thanks for the help.
Anyhow, I have a fairly large flock of standard guineas at the moment, about 15 of them, and I am planning on hatching 30 this year for my own use not counting those which I sale, if not a few more. I put in an order also for 20 more turkey poults including my midget whites from which I plan to breed with Royal Palms, Blacks and Blues as well as Beltsville small white turkeys (which I will have to obtain hatching eggs for from sandspoultry.com at $40.00 a dozen) in order to breed a midget turkey in a color less predator prone than white.
Anyways, today I placed an order with ideal hatchery for 20 French Guineas. The essentially resemble pearl guineas but get much larger, up to 7 or 8 lbs and with a bit of lighting will lay year round like chickens (this replaces my egg laying flock) however they do not breed naturally and need AI from what I read.
There is a large pearl guinea called a jumbo which gets the same size that I thought about purchasing, but they dont lay year round.
So, getting to the point already. I have bred a standard tom turkey to a broad breasted bronze hen in order to select for a slightly larger standard type bird with quite a bit of success so I had wondered if I could do this with French Guineas, naturally I found myself in a phone conversation with Ralph Winter from Winters Guinea Hatchery, and asked him about crossing a standard cock guinea to a French hen to which he said I would get acceptable fertility and that I could indeed select with some decent amount of success for a French type guinea which lays eggs year round and which breeds naturally.
Now, I can see from here that at least the next 10 years of my life are tied up in Guineas and Turkeys and improving their stock.
So I guess I just wanted to share that with someone, 'cause sometimes I need to tell someone about my dreams instead of kicking them around in my head! LOL
Has anyone here ever raised French Guienas? What can I expect from them behavior wise and egg wise?
Thanks for the help.
