One of the many animals you will find at the Lamb Shoppe Farm is Guinea fowl. These odd looking birds roam across our 180-acre farm as they please. They originated in Africa and over time have been introduced in East Africa, the West Indies, the United States, Britain and India. There are seven different species of guinea fowl with the "Helmeted Pearl" being the most common. Guinea fowl are related to pheasants and turkeys.
We find that Guinea Fowl are very social and typically live in small groups or flocks. Here at the Lamb Shoppe, we have them to help with insect control since they eat ticks, flies and other invertebrates. They will also munch on a variety of wild greens and even small rodents! Wild Guinea Fowl can be very strong fliers. Our guineas spend most of their day foraging and even work together as a team to catch their prey.
The female bird will call what sounds like ‘buck-wheat, buck-wheat, buck-wheat’ while males will make a ‘chi, chi, chi’ sound. These loud birds definitely can be heard from far away. Check out this video to hear what a male Guinea sounds like and this video to hear a female Guinea!
Guinea fowl are seasonal layers, laying around 100 eggs per season! Their eggs are smaller than chicken eggs and are very hard shelled. The eggs are light brown and speckled.
Next time you stop out at the Shoppe, be sure to be on the look out for these strange birds!
