GUINEA FOWL AND QUAIL 343 



most as precious to the Guineas as to turkeys. They 

 eat the same feeds as do other fowls, the range con- 

 ditions suiting their habits and tendencies best. The 

 Guinea hens are good layers, and often incubate twenty 

 of their own eggs. Fertility is usually good, under fairly 

 natural conditions, and with one or two mates for the 

 male, but nests in brush piles far from the buildings are 

 of course much at the mercy of marauders of every 

 kind. 



I do not consider the Guinea hen to be so careless a 

 mother as she is sometimes rated to be ; but fowls under 

 wild or half- wild conditions are subject to all weathers 

 and all predatory enemies which may haunt their ranges, 

 and this means lamentable losses. Guineas may lay 

 until midsummer without sitting, if the eggs are re- 

 moved from the nests, but they are always jealous of 

 human approach to their nests or young. The later 

 sitting brings the chicks out at the most favorable 

 season, when they are much more likely to come to 

 maturity. 



There is a good demand for live Guineas and Guinea 

 eggs in the spring, though the price is not high. In 

 the poultry prints it seldom goes above one to two dollars 

 per sitting. From my knowledge of farm conditions, I 

 gather that there is much more cheap trade among 

 farmers than among fanciers. Fanciers nearly always 

 scorn such cheap trade, and often a good medium will 

 be without any advertisers of Guineas. Farmers ex- 

 change eggs, or charge, it may be, fifty cents for single 

 sittings. I know of a locality where several farmers 

 supply Guinea eggs and stock to a fancier, who may get 

 twice the farm prices. Even this is not large profit 



