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| Guineafowl | ||||||||||
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 Helmeted Guineafowl, Numida meleagris | ||||||||||
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The guineafowl (sometimes called guineahen) are a family of birds in the same order as the pheasants, turkeys and other game birds. The American Ornithologists\' Union includes guineafowl (Numididae) as a subfamily of Phasianidae.
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This is a family of African, insect and seed-eating, ground-nesting birds resembling partridges, but with featherless heads and spangled grey plumage. At least three of the species are poorly studied.
The species for which the information is known are normally monogamous, mating for life. However, occasional bigamy has been recorded for the Helmeted Guineafowl (Madge and McGowan, p345-352).
Helmeted Guineafowl from Namibia.
They are large birds which measure from 40-71 cm in length, and weigh 700-1600 g.
The Helmeted Guineafowl has been domesticated and introduced outside its natural range, for example in southern France, the West Indies, and esp. the United States.
Guineafowl have a long history of domestication, mainly involving the Helmeted Guineafowl. The young, called "keets" are very small at birth. The keets are kept in a brooder box inside the house until about 6 weeks of age, before being moved into a proper coop/enclosure. They eat lice, worms, ants, spiders, weedseeds, and ticks while on range or they can also eat chicken layer crumbles while housed in a coop.
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