Ticks and Chickens

They may range farther than chickens will, but the chickens will return!

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

We raised a set of 5 keets with our chickens. They were in the same brooder from the day they hatched. Only this spring (at one year old) did I let the guineas free range - and they still come back to "roost", although I don't allow them in the coop anymore. They roost on the outside of the chicken run every night so far this year.

The most annoying thing is their noise... which DH absolutely hates and threatens to "handle them" everyday. I don't enjoy it, but I figure its the cost for them to keep down ticks and other bugs.

Now if only they ate mosquitos by the bucket load!!!

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Nerds on a nano-farm - since 2005

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

Can you imagine how happy every homesteader would be if someone bred a bird that ate mosquitoes?

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They shall all sit under their own vines and their own fig trees, and they shall live in peace and unafraid. Mica 4:4

Mine have, and do. I am blessed.

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" It's better to ride even if you get thrown, than to wind up just wishin' ya had."

Chris Ledoux

blue birds, martins and barn swallows dont? I know a bat is not a bird but....

Bat houses are sooo easy to make with some burlap and plywood. Love them crazy-flying rats!! Not a bird, but quite the mosquito eating aeronaut!

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My Adventure

Our Adventure

My cousin claimed his guineas killed his chickens, so I asked the expert at Cackle. Hatchery in Lebanon MO. Guineas are mean. Chickens can be mean. You must make sure you have a female guinea or have several females for your male guinea. Grow the guineas to full size away from chickens. Wait till late at night and put guineas in with chickens. When the chickens wake the next morning they "accept" the guineas and won't attack them. The guineas will roost in the trees from then on and shouldn't bother your chickens. But if you have a male guinea and no female he will take his aggression out on the chickens.

There are birds that eat Mosquitos. Ducks will keep your ponds, streams and any water free from mosquito larva. Bats eat their weight in mosquitos

Put up a Purple Martin house if you want birds that eat mosquitoes..

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Dang. Old thread, resurrected. Cool.

I'm glad we ordered extra layers this year. Ticks are already miserable.

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

"I've seen my chickens catch and eat mice. It was not for the faint of heart."

This may be more important than is given credit. Ticks need the mice to live on. Decimate the mammal population and the number of ticks will go down.

Swallows do!! They're beautiful dancing & swooping in the air going after the mosquitoes!

Hang some nests....

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Only she who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible

Our neighbors have guineas and we can hear them a quarter mile away. Had to laugh at DH when he asked where the feathers had come from. The nasty sparrows bring the guinea feathers to our house to use in their nests. The Pyr fur and chicken feathers must not be good enough for the sparrows.

I've seen hens kill/eat mice and frogs, a roo once who ate a small snake. I think the snake got to me worse than the frogs and mice. Slurped that thing down like a strand of spaghetti.

Is it just me or did others laugh at this thread. Love it, ya'll.

I love my guineas! They are better watch dogs than the dogs. I hardly notice the noise anymore. I clip their wings so they can't fly out of the pen & let them out with the chickens. They always come back in with the chickens & I have never had a problem with them getting along.

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I can't believe I deleted it!

Our hens are eating the heck out of the bugs and we have seen less and less ticks! Yeah!!

I've seen chickens eating mosquitos off cows... peck,peck,peck. I think those mosquitos were extra tasty and extra nutritious for the chickens because they were full of blood.

My chickens share a pen (but not a house) with the goats. I think they keep flies off the goats, too.

That noisy clatter is the best alarm system if you have an isolated place and plenty of trees a bit away from the house for them to hang out in. Coyotes on the ridge or a visitor, they're the first to know. Sorta like peacocks, proximity is all.

As for ugly, you just have to get to know them I think; some breeds are prettier than others. My mother hand raised a few pearls that were singletons in the yard and they were sweet pets (they'd take walks with you like a dog) that gave us polka dotted feathers. Very easy keepers.

And as you say, they will forage over a larger area than chickens, and are much better buggers. Chickens won't glean ticks off the tips of high grass (where they go to drop down on victims) like Guineas will.

My guineas are mean to the chickens. They hang around outside the pen like they are lonely and when I let them out, they chase everyone and pull feathers out. They used to beat up on my turkey hens and try to breed them. The chickens all scatter when they see them coming. If they weren't so good at being tick eaters and driveway alarms, they would have been dispatched two years ago.

We had guineas for several years. They're very loud and I find the chickens are just as good at tick and insect patrol plus the chickens lay larger eggs and a lot more eggs. Our guineas paired up where as chickens don't - another advantage of chickens.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Muscovies. I like them because they are quiet - and they taste really good!