- May 23, 2012
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Hey all - I know I can count on the BYC community to give me the feedback I need.
This past week we've discovered a number of ticks in our yard, especially around our lone large tree - which, of course, is where the kids play most often (swing, etc.). For obvious reasons we don't want to go spraying pesticides all over the place, and we found someone locally that needed to rehome 3 adult guineas for a reasonable price ($35). We go to pick them up tomorrow.
We have a flock of 16 chickens established who free range during the day and get locked up at night. My first questions is this:
I have read that it takes 6-8 weeks for guineas to imprint on a new home. Do they need to be confined to the actual coop for that duration or could they also be let into an attached covered run?
Next question: We live on (and the coop is not too far from) a fairly busy road. There is no fence, but there is a somewhat steep inclined hill leading up to the road. The chickens never go up there, but they like feeding along the ditch at the bottom of the hill. Is there any hope of keeping the guineas out of the road, or will they beeline for it? Are we likely to lose our tick-controllers before they do any good for the yard? (I wonder if it's the noise of the road they like????)
Final Q: During the winter (Assuming they make it that long) will they need a heat source? Our coop is unheated. Our chickens did great this past winter (Southwest Ohio) - not even any frostbitten combs or anything. But I'm not sure what guineas require in the way of cold protection. Seems like they'd need hats.....
If anyone has any great advice for quickly integrating these little birds into our existing flock and getting them to munch away at our resident tick and mouse population (which I recently learned can be related!) I would appreciate it!
Thanks, everyone, in advance!!
This past week we've discovered a number of ticks in our yard, especially around our lone large tree - which, of course, is where the kids play most often (swing, etc.). For obvious reasons we don't want to go spraying pesticides all over the place, and we found someone locally that needed to rehome 3 adult guineas for a reasonable price ($35). We go to pick them up tomorrow.
We have a flock of 16 chickens established who free range during the day and get locked up at night. My first questions is this:
I have read that it takes 6-8 weeks for guineas to imprint on a new home. Do they need to be confined to the actual coop for that duration or could they also be let into an attached covered run?
Next question: We live on (and the coop is not too far from) a fairly busy road. There is no fence, but there is a somewhat steep inclined hill leading up to the road. The chickens never go up there, but they like feeding along the ditch at the bottom of the hill. Is there any hope of keeping the guineas out of the road, or will they beeline for it? Are we likely to lose our tick-controllers before they do any good for the yard? (I wonder if it's the noise of the road they like????)
Final Q: During the winter (Assuming they make it that long) will they need a heat source? Our coop is unheated. Our chickens did great this past winter (Southwest Ohio) - not even any frostbitten combs or anything. But I'm not sure what guineas require in the way of cold protection. Seems like they'd need hats.....
If anyone has any great advice for quickly integrating these little birds into our existing flock and getting them to munch away at our resident tick and mouse population (which I recently learned can be related!) I would appreciate it!
Thanks, everyone, in advance!!