How many guineas for tick control?

[NoisyCricket]

I am looking for keets to control (or hopefully wipe out) ticks in my pasture. I have about 8 acres. How many would you recommend I get? I was thinking about starting with a dozen.
Also, Does anyone have any keets for sale in the central MA, northeastern CT area?

 

[wren]

I would get twice that many. They will roam the area if they feel safe. Put their house in the middle if there is one.

 

[NoisyCricket]

Thank you!

 

[PeepsCA]

I started with 7, then increased to 28 their first breeding season, and from that point on tried to maintain 24-30 running around each year for tick/pest control. Predators picked lots off each year tho and I had to replenish the flock by stealing keets from one of the lucky few Hens than managed to hatch out a clutch of keets. So yah, I'd start with more than you think you're going to need, definitely.

Took a while, but by the beginning of the 3rd yr I had no ticks, no snakes, and no big hairy wolf spiders!!!

 

[BlueBird7]

are you the same peeps from the guinea site? if so where did you go, and why? people have been asking , and missing you. i always look for you, always loved your comments. we miss you there

. don't you have tons of guineas and other animals (goats). you always had great pictures. your answers were great for the problems i would have, and you always took the time to answer me. hope you show back up on the guinea site.

this site is really hard for me to figure out. i just happened across you.

 

[wren]

What is amazing to me is how they can eat the seeds out of fox-tail weeds without disturbing anything. I saw my guineas scare a coyote off once. I had to herd them inside during bad freezing rains or snowstorms. They didn't really like to fly over fences, then would fly up to a roost a good 15 feet over their heads like it was nothing. They do enjoy tall grass and cover.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:

are you the same peeps from the guinea site? if so where did you go, and why? people have been asking , and missing you. i always look for you, always loved your comments. we miss you there

. don't you have tons of guineas and other animals (goats). you always had great pictures. your answers were great for the problems i would have, and you always took the time to answer me. hope you show back up on the guinea site.

this site is really hard for me to figure out. i just happened across you.

Hi Bluebird

Yah it's me from the other guinea site, the same ol' Peeps with allllll the animals, lol... That's a great site too, with good people and good info, I just wasn't comfortable there after something happened on the message board a while back. I really don't want to go into any further detail... just out of respect, ya know what I mean?

Sorry that BYC is difficult for you to navigate, we just went thru a major format change/update and a lot are still getting used to it. It does get easier the more you use it tho. You can always bookmark just the Guinea Forum section and get here much quicker/easier. Or you can click my user name over in my avatar on the left and click "Follow Member"... and you can also "Subscribe" to the threads that I post most frequently on. All those suggestions make it much easier to find me if you need to ask me a question via a forum message or a private message, or if you just want to follow my hatching progress, or check on what I'm up to etc. You may need to go into your profile and mess with your subscription settings and adjust the way you get notifications and how often you get your notifications for your subscriptions tho...

Anyway, hi and

 

[BlueBird7]

i am so glad it's you peeps. i did do what you said "follow member" so that way i can see what's going on with your animals. i came across a video of a guinea hatching yesterday of yours. how cool is that??? you always have the best pictures. i have 7 barred rock chickens, 2 golden chickens

, 1 barred rock rooster, 5 guineas, 2 cat's, and 3 inside small dogs. we only have an acre and a half, fenced in. do you have any chickens? we have had chickens for about 5 years now. my chickens are now laying eggs with very thick yokes. when you make scrambled eggs you have to use a mixer not a fork to mix them up. otherwise they have lumps of yoke. do you know why or if it's okay? thanks

 

[PeepsCA]

Nope I don't own any chickens... and I never have. I may end up getting Silkies tho... maybe, I'm trying to resist tho because I'll go crazy with hatching them like I do with my Guineas, lol.

I've never seen or heard of a thick yolk issue like that before... (that's kinda gross sounding, lol). What's their normal diet? The eggs are fresh right? Not partially developed or anything? Are the eggs freezing outside in the coop, or getting too cold in your fridge maybe? You might want to search the chicken forum section here on BYC, see if you can find anything there. If not, post a new question, someone should be able to answer you... but that's a new one for me

Never seen any weird thick yolks from my Guineas' eggs.

LOL yah, I've posted a few hatching videos year, I haven't had a chance to video any of this year's hatches yet tho, but I'm sure I will. I plan on trying to video my Nanny Goats kidding too next month... but I am usually scrubbed down playing Nanny Goat Midwife, not filming lol. It will be graphing and full of lots of goat goo, so I am not sure I'll be able to post it over on BackYardHerds or not, but I can still send the you tube link out privately.

Anyway good luck with your search for an answer about the thick yolks!

(Sorry OP, we wandered off topic!)

 

[NoisyCricket]

Peeps, I went to your page. Now I feel absolutely sane (I bought, I think it was, 72 chicks last year)

I wish you could ship your guineas.

Thanks for the info. I think I will make a larger order if I can find a place that has them available soon.