Mother Earth News writes about chicken keeping.

[Peepthis541]

Some cool pro chicken keeping news out there.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Organic-Pest-Control-Poultry.aspx

 

[tackyrama]

Mother is sometimes full of a lot of hog-wash! According to the article they had no ticks and fewer flies with a flock of chickens.

HAH!!

This is our second summer with our flock of (right now) 90 some chickens. I see NO difference in the number of ticks and swarms more flies. Anyone who thinks that chicken poo does not attract flies they had better think again. My wife is a farm girl and I was familiar enough with farming to know that when we started our flock we would have flies. It's just part of farming, chickens are included as part of farming folks.

 

[damselfish]

Well, can't really blame Mother since the statements about flies are all reader testimonials.

I can vouch for the tick & grasshopper part for sure, though I'm not certain whether it's the chickens or the guineas eating most of them.

Flies in the coop are a problem, & I've never seen a chicken or a guinea eat a fly. We're still working on our poop patrol/fly control routine.

Interesting link, thanks for posting it.