How many chickens would it take to control grasshoppers in the summer

[darkmatter]

Quote:
I have 5 acres and I keep the chickens penned up in their run due to predators (mostly dogs and fox), So the answer to how many chickens for me is Zero. But I do keep Guineas, about 15 or so and they fly out of the run every day and spend all day eating the bugs. They work great, before guineas I use to have grasshoppers galore and ticks aplenty. Now I rarely see grasshoppers or crickets or any more than a couple of bugs here and there. I use to have to pull off ticks half a dozen a day if I walked out in the field, now I only found one tick last summer. The Guineas do a better job and they also are better at avoiding predators, once they learn. If something takes a guinea, the others learn.

 

[Renfaire_Man]

I have two acres and at least 10 grasshoppers per sqft [it seems] in the height of summer. Any ideas? Right now i have 2 Australorps and i have not figured out how to use all the eggs yet--but i can manage more eggs and i can care for the chickens for at least 5 hours per day.

I'm going to suggest a 6-12 chickens per acre, so lets just say 18 chickens and a nice strapping rooster.

Ren

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I'm going to suggest a 6-12 chickens per acre, so lets just say 18 chickens and a nice strapping rooster.

Ren

Hi, welcome to BYC!

That’s probably a reasonable figure, but you’re replying to a 2011 post, and the poster hasn’t been around since 2018.

As you get used to the search function on BYC, you’ll see that it sorts by matched terms rather than by recency, resulting in a lot of necro-bumps.

But if you have a question, etc., it’s pretty easy to start your own thread.

Again, welcome aboard.