African and French Guinea Fowl

Last year I had the opportunity to raise French guinea fowl for the first time. I’ve had African guineas for decades, so I was curious to find out how different they might be from one another. My observations are by no means scientific, as I have no way of knowing if this one-year experience is typical. However, I have found little information comparing African and French guinea fowl, so here goes:

Guinea Fowl Size

The French selectively bred African pearl guineas specifically for meat. Size is therefore the most obvious difference between African and French guinea fowl.

African guinea hens mature to about 3 to 4 pounds. The cocks grow to between 4 and 5 pounds. French guineas are about 2 pounds heavier.

The two look the same unless they are side-by-side. Then you can see that the French guineas are slightly bigger.

Guineas for Meat

Since the French guineas are basically meat birds, I had to find out more about that. I don’t care much for African guinea meat. To me it tastes gamey compared to chicken. And, unless the birds are pretty young, they tend to be somewhat tough.

So I approached French guinea meat with some trepidation. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find it finer in texture and flavor than even chicken, and far better tasting than African guinea meat.

Brooding Keets

Since French keets are a bit bigger than African keets, they are less delicate to brood. They also grow at a faster rate.

A hatchery employee told me the reason you normally have to order a large number African keets is to ensure live delivery. French keets, on the other hand, can ship in smaller numbers because they are much hardier from the start.

I hasten to point out that once African keets begin growing feathers they become pretty self sufficient. Compared to chickens, guineas are much hardier and more resistant to diseases and parasites. In all the years we’ve had guineas, I don’t recall every seeing one fall ill. They are more likely to be injured or victims of predators.

Sexing Guinea Fowl

Sexing guinea fowl is equally difficult, whether African or French. But, since the French keets grow faster, they can be sexed sooner. For sexing details, visit my blog “Sexing Guinea Fowl.”

Guinea Eggs

Not only do French guineas grow faster and bigger than African guineas, the hens start laying sooner. My African hens rarely start laying until the spring after they hatch. The French guineas, on the other hand, started laying in the fall of their first year. Their eggs are also slightly larger than African eggs.

While my African guineas prefer to hide their eggs outside, the French guineas have no problem laying in the coop. They started laying in nests at ground level, which were designed for turkeys. When I moved them to a coop with elevated nests, they shunned the nests and laid in a corner on the coop floor.

Guinea Temperament

We always have trouble integrating young guineas into the mature flock. The older guineas apparently consider the youngsters to be intruders and run them off. So after the brooding stage, we moved the French guineas to our smaller coop while the Africans remained in the bigger coop with our mature hens.

The French spooked more easily when we entered their coop, complaining loudly while flapping and raising a cloud of dust. The African guineas, on the other hand may watch warily if they are in the coop when we enter. They may fly down from their perch or move away, but they usually don’t go ballistic like the French.

The reason we have guinea fowl is to eat ticks and other undesirables. The Africans either fly out of their run or duck under the electric fence wires to roam. While they tend to wander all over our farm, the French never left their chainlink-fenced yard. Not once did I see them fly.

However, eventually the African guineas started flying in to join the French guineas. That’s likely because the African flock had more cocks than hens, while the French flock — after we ate some of the males — had more hens than cocks.

When the Africans tried to move in permanently with the French, the small coop got too crowded. Since the two were already acquainted, we moved them all into the bigger coop. Initially the French stayed in the run, and the Africans stayed with them.

After awhile, though, the French guineas started ducking under the fence to wander with the Africans. Now that they’re all mixed together we have to look hard to tell them apart. And, in case you’re wondering, yes — they are all the same species and will interbreed.