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Show 1 porcnar GUINEAS FAVOR FREE RANGE Fowls Can Be Depended Upon to Pick Up Considerable Portion of Their Food. (Prepared bv the United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture.) .Most . guinea raisers allow their breeding stock free range of the entire farm nt all times, and this helps to keep the birds strong and vigorous. During the winter the breeders should have been fed a grain mixture of corn, wheat and otils twice a day, and where no green feed was available, vegetables, vege-tables, such as potatoes, turnips, beels and cabbage. Animal feed is essential essen-tial to best results and can be supplied by feeding meat scrap or skimmed milk. Given free range, where the supply sup-ply of natural feed during the winter win-ter and early spring are ample, us it usually is In the southern portion of the United States, the guinea? can he left to pick up a considerable part of their feed, say poultry specialists of 'the United States Department of Agriculture. Agri-culture. Free access to grit, charcoal, and 'oyster shell is necessary throughout through-out the breeding season. Avoid having hav-ing the breeders too fat, but keep tlieui in good, firm llesh. Like quail and most olher wild birds, guinea fowls in their wild state mate in pairs, and this tendency prevails among domesticated guineas, also, provided pro-vided the males and females are equal in number. As the breeding season approaches, one pair after another separates sep-arates from the remainder of the flock and ranges off in the fields in search of a suitable nesting place. Once mated this way, the male usually remains re-mains with his mate throughout the laying season, standing guard somewhere some-where near Hie nest while the hen is laying, and ready to warn her of any approaching danger. However, it Is not neeessar'- to mate them in pairs under domestic conditions condi-tions to secure fertile eggs, and most breeders keep hut one male for every fhree or four femaTes. When mated ini this way the liens are more apt to lay near home, and several usually lay-In lay-In the same nest, thus making it much easier to find the nests and gather the eggs. While guineas can he kept in the best hreedi.ig condition upon free )M ,. Guineas Can Be Confined if Necessary, But They Do Best When Given Free Range. range, still they can he confined, if necessary, and satisfactory results obtained. ob-tained. One extensive guinea raiser has confined as many as 4."i hens and 1." males in an acre pen throughout the breeding and laying season and been successful. This pen is inclosed with a wire fence five feet high, nnd the birds are prevented from Hying over by clipping the flight feathers of one wing. Within the pen is a grass pasture pas-ture with bushes here nnd there where the hens make their nests by scratching scratch-ing out a howl-shaped hollow in the ground. The winters being severe, a roosting shed Is provided, having a cleared heard reaching from the floor to the roosts for the wing-clipped birds to walk up. |