Chickens as tick control - as good as guineas?

[happydog]

I have a love-hate relationship with my guineas. ok, mostly hate. Instead of ranging over the pastures and woods, eating ticks and minding their own business, they prefer to hang out in the barn or with the chickens. They screech at the top of their lungs whenever anyone is outside. Because they can fly, they go where ever they please. And they please to go where I don't want them. And unlike chickens, they don't come running when they see me rattle a scoop of feed. Instead they run away a few feet and stand there and screech at me.

I started with 30 guineas three years ago and now I'm down to 3. And I'm starting to see ticks again. I need to get some more guineas

or something. Someone said chickens eat ticks too. Does anyone know if that's true? Do they eat ticks as well as guineas? I would so much rather have a flock of free ranging chickens (especially bantams) instead of guineas. If only they would eat all the ticks.

 

[mandelyn]

No, not as good. They're too busy scratching around and munching on greenery to put much of a dent in the tick population. Crickets and such though, it's game on. When cricket season gets going in our yard, the chickens are in hunting mode. Not so with the smaller bugs, though if a Mosquito flies across their line of vision just right, they'll eat that.

 

[my sunwolf]

Yeah, guineas are really #1 when it comes to tick control patrol. However, I have trained a few batches of chickens to go after ticks by feeding them to the chickens as often as I could find them, teaching the chickens to look for them a little better than if they had never noticed a tick as a food source.

 

[txnative]

Feeding ticks to the chickens - that's a great idea! We have bad ticks around here and if I can get my girls to eat more of them that would be wonderful!!!!

 

[my sunwolf]

Feeding ticks to the chickens - that's a great idea! We have bad ticks around here and if I can get my girls to eat more of them that would be wonderful!!!!

It helps to start them on ticks (or any food you want them to munch) as chicks, they'll learn better that way

 

[Nutmeg101]

How would one go about "feeding" ticks to the chicks? I am not trying to sound dense - i am genuinely curious as i would LOVE for mine to eat them!

 

[my sunwolf]

Well, you have to find them, partially kill them, and then put them on a white plate or paper towel so that your birds can see them really good. Once my teenagers saw something crawling, it was gone.

 

[Nutmeg101]

Well, you have to find them, partially kill them, and then put them on a white plate or paper towel so that your birds can see them really good. Once my teenagers saw something crawling, it was gone.

I have spent years avoiding ticks........ i am giggling at the prospect of now "hunting" for them..............

 

[happydog]

I would've lots rather gone shopping for chickens, but since I don't have time to hunt for ticks and train chickens to eat them, I'm going to guess the guineas would be a better choice then.

Dang it. I was afraid of that.

 

[my sunwolf]

Yeah, my neighbors have a Pyranese and let their guineas free range and roost in the trees--it works, for the most part, as there are occasional losses. But we really don't have many ticks even though we have pasture and weeds and forest all around us. Sorry happydog, guineas really are the best for ticks