Incubators Anonymous

[TeaChick]

Yes!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you. Guess guineas are out.

My guineas cover a 10 acre soybean field eating insects

I only have 2 acres.

And who can afford to chicken wire 2 acres???

Guineas are just as much fun to watch as chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys. They will eat the ticks and lots of other things the chickens here won't. I have a rash on both ankles from not wearing socks when I went out to mess around with my birds. I thought they were chigger bites but it looks like a poison ivy rash. It is not or it would be ALL over me. I am highly allergic to poison ivy. It gets worse every time I get into it.

Whatever was biting me dropped in population when I let the guineas loose. Now, just to be ornery, it was raining a lot when I was being eaten but it was drying up when I let the guineas loose. I didn't get more of a rash nor did I get bit like before. Then after a few weeks, it rained. I started getting bit again. Not like before but still.

I have 8 acres and about 5 miles out back of us is a farm with guineas. I think that is where mine keep disappearing to. This time I am going to band one of their legs with a zip tie and if they vanish, I will go visit this neighbor to see if that is what is happening to my guineas. If it is, I can bring them home but I just don't know what good that will do. First chance they get, they will probably head back that way.

Sounds like me. I had to take a shower as soon as I got in, then DH had to pick the rest of the baby ticks off me.

I hate ticks!!!

If you tag all of them, then you should be able to just go get them when you see they're missing, right? I hope that situation works out!






Anyone know anything else that eats ticks?

 

[maranfarmer563]

Guineas fly like a pheasant,they won't stay in a fence either

 

[TeaChick]

Guineas like to be in pairs,so if you have an extra guinea they will seek out a mate, a mile away

What about 2 for my 2 acres?

My guinea will not go too far. They seem to have a range and don't go out beyond that really. It might be about a football field in any direction. They will flock together. Only time I have seen them separate is based on who they grow up with. Last spring I had OLDER guinea and younger.... they didn't hang together. It made it hard to put them up at night. Sometimes a male will take some hens out of the flock but they still seem to be part of the flock..... just a subpod.

When we bought the farm we would each find 3-4 tick a DAY! This year we have found maybe 3-4 ticks ALL YEAR! They are also working my compost too LOL. Hubby is not happy about that bu they are getting the bugs. If they would just eat flies I would be ecstatic.

So, if I put their coop or house or whatever you call where they sleep in the middle of my property, they might actually stay on the property, and if I keep them down to one pair.
What do you think of that? Maybe something portable that I can move to the middle of where their food range seems to be, then I can hope that they're not going off property, at least not often or by much. And also raise them together, right? So they know they're a flock and they'll at least stay together, right?

Yeah, we average about 3-4 ticks, each, daily, all year long, but we get them in bursts and some of us more than others. (I'm one of the some of us that gets them more than others.)

DH was looking at my incubator and decided it wasn't good for a classroom (easy access temp knob and small viewing windows) so he bought another on for me! Lol I have an LG 9300 still air and he ordered a 1588 Genesis Hova-Bator Incubator. I'm super excited!

Yay for another incubator!!!

I got 2 bators going and then that is it for this year

Hahahaaa!! hoo ha hahohaaa!! LMBO!!

That's funny right there!

(are we supposed to laugh or help them, err..us?)

We "help" (enable) everyone who's willing!!!

 

[DMRippy]

Why are you just going to get a pair? What if one dies? I would have at least 8 to control ticks. I have not seen to many wonder off in pairs. They are a flock and will stay together for the most part.

You have to teach them where home is. You need to keep them penned up for a few weeks to months then you can let them free range. Teach them to come home for food every evening. Do that before they start to roost in tree or you will never get them to go home.

 

[TeaChick]

Why are you just going to get a pair? What if one dies? I would have at least 8 to control ticks. I have not seen to many wonder off in pairs. They are a flock and will stay together for the most part.

You have to teach them where home is. You need to keep them penned up for a few weeks to months then you can let them free range. Teach them to come home for food every evening. Do that before they start to roost in tree or you will never get them to go home.

Okay. Eight guineas for 2 acres? Is that one male and seven guinea hens or can I get 8 hens? What about egg laying and broodiness?
Is that too many questions? I've got more where those came from.

I've got time, we won't be able to get them before the end of this tick season, and the next tick season is in the springtime, so I can just add them to the order of chicks DH wants to do.
Thanks!!! =)

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
I can't sex guinea. I don't think it really matters about ratios. Too may males there might be fighting. I don't know anyone who can sex them. You need to get them young. Teach them where home is and then let them go. Guinea are seasonal layers and only lay from spring to summer. You want to get your keets as early as you can so they will be big enough when the cold weather hits they are ready. Mine for this year are about 3-4 months old. I didn't want to keep the younger ones. They just don't fare well if they are smaller when the weather gets cold.

There is a guinea thread with all the basics on it. Like Guinea 101 or Guinea for beginners. There is lots of good info there.

 

[maranfarmer563]

Guineas like to be in pairs,I have 3 pairs. To sex guineas look at the waddles,large hanging down are boys. Girl's waddles are smaller and point back. The girl voice says buckwheat buckwheat. The boys says shiddy

 

[TeaChick]

I can't sex guinea. I don't think it really matters about ratios. Too may males there might be fighting. I don't know anyone who can sex them. You need to get them young. Teach them where home is and then let them go. Guinea are seasonal layers and only lay from spring to summer. You want to get your keets as early as you can so they will be big enough when the cold weather hits they are ready. Mine for this year are about 3-4 months old. I didn't want to keep the younger ones. They just don't fare well if they are smaller when the weather gets cold.

There is a guinea thread with all the basics on it. Like Guinea 101 or Guinea for beginners. There is lots of good info there.

Thanks for the info and I'll find the thread.
When I was a kid, there were two dirt roads we used to go on where my dad would have to slow way down and those of us who were big (old, I was smaller than everyone past age 10, even though I'm the oldest, anyway...) enough to ride in the back of the truck (yeah, I was raised redneck; thank God that didn't stick!!! anyway...) would hang out and look at them; my dad and step-mom told us they were guinea hens (guinea fowl, etc, then we got the whole guinea fowl/guinea hen/IDK what male guinea fowl are called...guinea cock? lesson that turned into a conversation between the two of them about what to call male guineas and ended with whom they each could ask or figuring out where the dictionary was so they could look it up when we got home and then it turned to which one of us should look it up when we got home, and by then we were by them and going faster, so those of us in the back had to sit down and watch those guineas reinvade the road and get smaller and smaller until we went 'round a bend....

Sorry

 

[TeaChick]

Guineas like to be in pairs,I have 3 pairs. To sex guineas look at the waddles,large hanging down are boys. Girl's waddles are smaller and point back. The girl voice says buckwheat buckwheat. The boys says shiddy

Thanks!

 

[calichicken]

Wagon! What wagon? There's a wagon?! Where IS this wagon!?

Does the Wagon have eggs in it?

I would definitely jump onto the wagon with eggs...LOL

And encourage others to do the same

We are always here to "help"