Lyme Disease

[Lexiluke]

Not sure whether I am looking for answers of just justification. I am dealing with the devastating blows of Lyme at my house. My wife and 2 of my 4 children have chronic late stage lyme. My wife is currently 100% disabled and has been for over 2 years. She passed lyme to my two youngest when she was pregnant and they are also dealing with this. Not for this to be a lyme thread but I need encouragement to start with guineas to help with the tick problem around my house. My nearest neighbors are over 100 yards away and I have lots of trees in between. I think most would also be very understanding about it and have had no problems with my hens and my turkeys. What is the difference in volume from 5-10 guineas. I have read that 5 would be appropriate for my needs but 10 definitely would reassure me psychologically. I only have 3 1/2 acres. Lastly, Would a covered hoop house be fine for a New Hampshire winter? Thanks in advance!

 

[JLeigh]

Hi, Lexiluke, I'm so sorry to hear about your family's difficulties. But as to guineas, you're on the right track. First, I would discuss them with your neighbors. Tell them the pros and cons. They can be very loud, although not ALL day, but frequently throughout the day, one sounds an alarm and then they all crank up and the noise gets pretty loud for a few minutes. Ten guineas are ten times as loud as five. But they aren't loud at night!

Second, they roam much farther than chickens, who will stay fairly close to their coop or run. There isn't much of a way to stop them. They WILL go onto your neighbors property, even though it's 100 yards away. If they don't, you'll be lucky!

Are you familiar with acclimating guineas to your property? It takes about six weeks to teach them where "home" is. It isn't difficult, but what you don't want to do is to buy guineas and then turn them into the yard. They'll wander/fly away and you'll probably never see them again. If you aren't familiar with training them to home, let us all know. We'll give you the scoop on it.

This forum has wonderful people of all levels of knowledge who will be glad to help you out with questions, concerns, diet, etc. We have experts (I'm NOT one of them) who have been raising, hatching, living with guineas for years who you can count on for help.

If I were you, I'd start with 5 - 7 guineas and see how it goes with the neighbors, you can always add more. But I think 5-7 will be enough to handle your tick population. And I live in the south, so I can't speak to how guineas fare in New Hampshire winters.

Keep us posted on what you do. We all love follow up stories and are here to help in any way we can. Good luck and best wishes to your family.

 

[Lexiluke]

Thank you for your advice. I know absolutely nothing about guineas. Just like with layers, turkeys and meat birds, I will be researching this site extensively in order to understand what and how to jump into this. My gut tells me to start this during the winter so that they will be tick eating machines come spring but I doubt I can have the restraint not to get them soon. Who knows. Either way, I will be spending countless hours on this site researching and asking tons of questions to knowledgeable people like yourself.

 

[JLeigh]

I'm knowledgeable about a few things, but there is a lot I don't know. I'm on here learning, too, and most of what I learned came from the folks here who know. There is an online book (it's FREE) called Gardening with Guineas. It's a great introduction to guineas, and it's a fast, interesting and informative read.

Guineas aren't complicated, but there are a few things you should think about/know before you get into them that will help you have a successful flock. The six weeks to acclimate them isn't hard - you just keep them penned for that time. Then when you let them out, you let them out for about an hour the first day, then herd them back to the pen. The second day you let them out for a little longer, and so on, until after a few days to a week, they know the routine. If you buy them and put them in the yard, you'll lose them within a day or two.

Feeding adults isn't complicated - feed them a chicken layer crumble with about 16% protein and all the treats you want them to have. White Proso Millet is a general "candy" for guineas. Fresh greens, no salt, no chemicals...blah blah blah. Free-ranging guineas will eat weeds, grass, bugs...feeding them in the summer is really easy. Supplements in the winter is a good idea.

I'm an advocate of a coop at night for a couple of reasons. 1) it keeps them a whole lot safer from predators, which is most important. They'll roost in the tree of their choice and not necessarily on your property. When they roost in trees, they eventually become dinner. 2) It reinforces the routine of cooping at dusk which makes it easier for you to keep them around.

They're LOUD, but not all day, every day. Be ready for that. That, too can be a plus in that they alert you to snakes, (squirrels LOL) and other issues that are going on on your property. Mine squawked like crazy at the deer in the area, but I like deer....

Eventually, if you free range 24/7 or just during the day, you're going to suffer a loss or two sooner or later. It's sad, very sad, but it happens. Same thing with chickens which I'm sure you already know.

Oh - and their eggs are delicious! Big plus.

Glad you're doing research. That's so important to success!

 

[jtbrown]

I cannot add anything about the tick eating, etc. of guineas, as we have a group that are just about 6 weeks old and therefore are very new to them. They look like chickens (minus the comb), when chicks (keets). Then they take odd growth spurts and they are very interesting to watch. They grow this strange bump over their nose that definately takes away any chicken look. Ours have not free ranged yet, but are in a 100% enclosed with hardware clothe pen (roof too). We may not free range them til spring (or fall if they look like they are feeling "cooped up"). For now they are happy in their enclosure. I have put a 2x4 up high in the enclosure, they prefer to sleep there most of the time, thankfully they came in to sleep at night when it rained.

They have ducks in there with them as well as chickens that I am growing out (range from 4 weeks to 10 weeks with broody mommas). They really stick to themselves, preferring to stay on high roosts and come down only when most of the chickens have gone in the coop, although I have not seen any serious bullying going on.

I know the reasons you are getting them, very serious ones, so I hope they end up being a help to you. I hope your family is able to improve gradually to overcome such a nasty illness. So getting guineas may be part of a plan to eradicate ticks, but on pure entertainment factor they are a plus. Around 4 weeks, their noises they make changed. I let them out into the enclosed run about that time (took their light away around then since it was so hot around here). They communicate in the strangest (compared to chicken) noises. In last week, we have heard the alarm sound (I was on front porch about 50 yards away). I wasn't sure honestly if it was them or a small flock of geese sounding off somewhere close. The noise was not horrible, but got our attention. My husband couldn't hear them in the house, but heard me cracking up on the porch and came to see what I was laughing at. There are no trees separating us from the birds, or it may have blunted the noise some. They are very skittish even with constant interaction. My dog HATES them but tolerates chickens very well, I am a little nervous about free ranging them because of him, so we will see what happens when we get to that point. He also hates the ducks too, but I don't know why.

So, good luck. We also looked into guineas because of the tick population at our place. We have 10 acres, I got 12 guineas. I hope to incubate some eggs next spring and then may feel better about letting this group out. The price isn't horrible, but at nearly 3 times the price of the chicks I bought, I want to protect them til I have better reassurance they will stick with us. Again, good luck. I have had great luck with getting questions answered on this forum, and I am sure your experience will be the same.

 

[Lexiluke]

I thank you both! I will let you know what I decide and when.

 

[daylily27]

Hi there Lexiluke. I also have Chronic Lyme disease and got guineas for the same purpose as you are thinking of. I also live in New Hampshire.I have 3 one year old guineas that take care of my 2.5 acres and my two favorite neighbors yards as well! I started out with 5 but I lost two this spring. I had to go through all the steps mentioned above by JLeigh about how to raise them from Keets. So not much happened last year but LET ME TELL YOU they are tick eating machines! They go through the woods and the areas around the house and gardens eating and scratching for hours and gobbling those things up plus any other type of creature! I am so happy to report that I can now go into my yard and gardens without getting a tick or the dogs either! I have seen three this whole spring and summer!!!!!! Hooray! So take heart and get those guineas! You may have to wait a year but that is nothing in the scope of this ongoing problem! You don't want to get reinfected!

I am so sorry for the fact that your wife and children suffer from this devastating disease! It is very painful and debilitating. to say the least! I was bit 3 years ago the first time and then reinfected the following year! I have it under control somewhat but it will probably always have some in me so I try not to get too stressed out about anything to set it off again. I was bit this spring, Not on my property but wrong kind of tick. Whew! Though I still have a scar where it actually dug into my flesh! Gross!

The guineas are made for this and they come through as promised! Our other neighbors have been infested this year but the three of us on this side don't have any!!!!! So that is 3 guineas for over 4.5 acres! Great odds! I am happy to see them finally moving into the woods more as the supply has dwindled in the yards and perimeters of the trees.

You will need a covered coop that they can stay warm and dry for the winter and maybe a light for keeping the water from freezing to hard. Predators can be a problem so they do need to be cooped every night. They are absolutely delightful and I don't know what I would do without them! Finally this year I can go weeding in my garden again and not be looking for ticks! I will NEVER be without my guineas again! Plus the eggs are the second highest in protein, chickens come in fourth. They are the best things I have ever eaten.

Daylily27

 

[Lexiluke]

Daylily, thanks so much for your post. It is nice to know that this plan may help but better knowing someone has gone through this same predicament and can understand how I feel about these nasty ticks.

 

[daylily27]

You are more than welcome for the info. If at anytime you want to talk or share feel free to PM me. I really don't know what I would do without my sweet silly guineas!

 

[Brookhavens]

I live on 10 acres in central Florida and the ticks and bugs down here are terrible. Before I brought my guinea keets home I read the book "Gardening With Guineas." It is a very entertaining read and only took a few hours. It was packed with all the information I needed to start raising my own. The book stated that you should get double the amount of keets to the actual amount you want to have in the end. I bought 12 keets so I would end up with 5 or 6 adult guineas. Over the first year we lost 5 of them. They just simply disappeared. One also ended up being a chicken..lol. We ended up with 6 adult guineas and I have to say that the bug infestation we had quickly disappeared. No ticks, no mosquitoes and no cockroaches.
In the beginning the keets were cooped most of the time and let out several times a day for an hour or so and then rounded up and put back into their house. As they grew older I was able to let them out in the morning and they would make their rounds all day and all I had to do was call them in the evening for their dinner and they would come running. Over the years we lost one by one and about 2 years ago I ended up with none. Last year my neighbor called me and asked if I still had my guineas. I told her not any more. She said she knew it because the ticks were horrible on her dogs. So not only did the guineas keep the tick population down on my 10 acres but they also kept the ticks off of my neighbors 4 acres. They are a wonderful watchdog and anytime a vehicle would hit the top of our road they would sound off the alarm.
I just received an email from a lady that said she has guinea eggs for me and I am going to get them today. The incubator is fired up and hopefully in a few weeks I will be able to say I have guineas again. I wish you luck in your endeavor and I know you will not be disappointed.