The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Dave Taylor on April 19, 2016, 12:26:05 pm
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Hi everyone,
Does anyone rear GF for meat at all? If so i'm just wondering about how worthwhile they are, quantity of meat etc?
Also how long do people tend to rear for, and do you do both male and females for the table? We are getting some pigs for meat and i'm wanting to do one or two different meats as well and figured a small flock of GF would probably be fine to go in with my pigs (very large pen). Or if not they would be able to have a large pen and free range whilst we are around.
Also, i know they are noisy and I have spent some time on game reserves in south africa where they are everywhere, and they do like to make some noise. But how noisy do people find them here? I imagine they may be a bit more noisy with all the predators around them over there... I hope!
Thanks a lot
Dave
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I have no experience of guinea fowl but I have with igs and I'm pretty sure that if you keep them in the same pen you'll end up with no guinea fowl and happy pigs. Pigs love poultry believe me.
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I've never eaten GF, but I have eaten a year old peacock. Peacock, chips and cheesy leeks - a feast fit for, er, the bin!
I have no idea why, but it was like eating the toughest, driest old cockerel you can imagine. Medieval delicacy my @rse! ;D
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GF are top notch fliers, so your chances of (a) keeping them in a pen, unless netted over, and (b) catching them to despatch, are pretty slim. Being in close proximity to pigs would cause constant calling. Life in Africa is all about being aware of predators, and pigs are predators.
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We had some when I was a kid. Noisy blighters and have to shoot them out of the trees when it came to freezer time. Not sure I would bother again but good luck! I have a neighbour who keeps them all the time.
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You can get a hybrid meat type GF that can't fly.
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I've never eaten GF, but I have eaten a year old peacock. Peacock, chips and cheesy leeks - a feast fit for, er, the bin!
I have no idea why, but it was like eating the toughest, driest old cockerel you can imagine. Medieval delicacy my @rse! ;D
Now why is this comment making me giggle so much? :roflanim: :roflanim: Maybe it needs the medieval way of cooking it? Spit roast, turned around a lot on the spit and based often with the dripping. I myself was thinking of getting some guinea fowl, but was concerned about noise; I hear the meat is wonderful!
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I kept Guinea Fowl a few years ago and loved them! I loved seeing them strutting around, loved their eggs and loved them roasted.
I bought the first ones as eggs from the market, hatched them and never regretted it. Fox put an end to them eventually but I would keep them again!
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Devonlady, am really interested in this too.... may I ask how long you kept them before they made it into the oven, and in what sort of area (netted? barned? or full free-ranging...?)....
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We have had gf for the last couple of years - delicious to eat we culled our incubator reared fowl at 12-14 weeks and each bird fed 4 people as a roast lunch, tasted much like chicken but a bit firmer and denser. We had the adults free range, agree as previously posted they won't stay in a run unless the top is covered. We lived the centre of a village and they made some noise at odd times but no one complained, even when mr decided to sleep on the top of the house roof and checked on Mrs on the nest at daybreak (4am) shouting from the roof top to the boundary fence. They are not very good sitters or parents so easiest most reliable way is to find the stash of eggs which are usually well hidden and incubate. We kept the chicks on a big shed with mesh doors until despatch do catching wasn't a problem. They can be trained to come in to a shed or similar to eat which is when we used to catch any adults etc. Hope this helps, go for it.
Ps apologies for the essay :relief:
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No apologies! Really useful info - thank you.
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Devonlady, am really interested in this too.... may I ask how long you kept them before they made it into the oven, and in what sort of area (netted? barned? or full free-ranging...?)....
Mine were fully free range, this was before the "fox huggers" started releasing urban foxes onto our land! They roosted in the trees. I wouldn't like to keep them confined, it wouldn't suit them or me.
The condemned were caught up in a net as they came down in the morning at around the age of 17-18 weeks and dispatched immediately.
I loved the noise they made (though I love the sound of cockerels and peacocks) the males shouting "back back back" and the females "go back go back".
Go for it, you have nothing to lose!!