Free ranging and ticks

[123RedBeard]

Well, in order to "free-range" ... and since you only have an acre ... in order to not only from keeping your chickens out of the road, and in the area you want tick control ... your really need to fence them in, and ground predators out ...

If you cut the trees on your property, or at least trimed the branches like the power company does to provide a vertical air wall, I'd think 5' of space should work ... around the perimeter of your property, with a fence.

Of course you are looking at probably around 800' of fencing, and at least one gate for your driveway ... not gonna be cheap ... but, how much is health and well-being worth?

No guarantee that even if you remove every stinking tick by any means, that Trisha will be healed, but ... reducing the tick population can cut down the chances of future problems for anybody living there ...

Or move to any area not invested with lyme infested ticks!

 

[Cryss]

Well, in order to "free-range" ... and since you only have an acre ... in order to not only from keeping your chickens out of the road, and in the area you want tick control ... your really need to fence them in, and ground predators out ...

If you cut the trees on your property, or at least trimed the branches like the power company does to provide a vertical air wall, I'd think 5' of space should work ... around the perimeter of your property, with a fence.

Of course you are looking at probably around 800' of fencing, and at least one gate for your driveway ... not gonna be cheap ... but, how much is health and well-being worth?

No guarantee that even if you remove every stinking tick by any means, that Trisha will be healed, but ... reducing the tick population can cut down the chances of future problems for anybody living there ...

Or move to any area not invested with lyme infested ticks!

Our yard is pretty much wide open but the trees surrounding us do not belong to us. I'm beginning to think a tractor might be something to give some consideration. I realise even if every tick in the world was eradicated Trisha wouldn't be healed, but her husband an 2 children could stand a better chance of not contracting this disease.
As for moving, nope. Love it here. Besides, I do not believe there is a place in the United States without ticks. I know it's worse here in the northeast, but when you have a state that reassures their citizens that ticks don't live in our state, and doctors won't test patients for Lyme disease because ticks don't live in our state, sure as God made little green apples you will find those citizens moving TO my tick infested state just to find a doctor who will and can treat them. It's a sad state of affairs but it's true. So I gotta learn to live with ticks safely while also going to war with them.
Thank you for this input. It gives me more thought to chew on.

 

[123RedBeard]

Ok, I'm beginning to understand your situation better ... I still would build a fence for the chickens where you want them to eat ticks ... and provide places for them to hide from hawks.

Even a temporary movable fence you could move once or twice a week ...
Premier1 makes movable type electric fence https://www.premier1supplies.com/poultry/fencing.php?fence_id=30

I can't see a movable tractor helping with tick control, unless your gonna move it every hour ... they eat the ticks one day, you move it the next day to a new spot, and the old spot has "new arrivals" of ticks ...

I also don't think getting "meaties" is the answer ... even something like a Red Ranger (RR) are still basically babies when you butcher, them, RR will still only live 12-14 weeks to butcher time, nearly half of the RR's life will be spent in a brooder ... then they have no experience with looking out for predators ... or ticks, even the RR would not have life span of a adult large fowl, you would need to get new batches of RR every two months at a minimum, to have constant chickens out eating ticks. CX would be much worse.

My guess you could loose the first batch of RR in the first week of tick control ... I wouldn't use babies for an adult job.

 

[Cryss]

Ok, I'm beginning to understand your situation better ... I still would build a fence for the chickens where you want them to eat ticks ... and provide places for them to hide from hawks.

Even a temporary movable fence you could move once or twice a week ...
Premier1 makes movable type electric fence https://www.premier1supplies.com/poultry/fencing.php?fence_id=30

I can't see a movable tractor helping with tick control, unless your gonna move it every hour ... they eat the ticks one day, you move it the next day to a new spot, and the old spot has "new arrivals" of ticks ...

I also don't think getting "meaties" is the answer ... even something like a Red Ranger (RR) are still basically babies when you butcher, them, RR will still only live 12-14 weeks to butcher time, nearly half of the RR's life will be spent in a brooder ... then they have no experience with looking out for predators ... or ticks, even the RR would not have life span of a adult large fowl, you would need to get new batches of RR every two months at a minimum, to have constant chickens out eating ticks. CX would be much worse.

My guess you could loose the first batch of RR in the first week of tick control ... I wouldn't use babies for an adult job.

Thank you! Yes sometimes the internet is difficult trying to relay information. You make some excellent points. A movable fence sounds great. I might be worried about Henneth Fowltrow (EE) flying over, but I've already started thinking about that.
Any thoughts or ideas are still very welcome. I'm zeroing in on some possible solutions.