We don't have any chickens yet, but will be purchasing some shortly after we move into our new house that sits on 1700 feet elevation in Frederick County Maryland on 14 all wooded acres. Our objectives for our little flock will be bug control and eggs. My husband has lyme disease and we want to have chickens to eat the deer ticks (and other bugs).
So the questions I have are:
1. which breed would be most effective for bug control? We would let them free roam, perhaps erecting a perimeter electric fence to ward off predators.
2. how many should we get? Is the work in keeping them proportional to the number you have? Or doesn't it really matter if you have 4 or 14 or 40?
3. Is one breed more labor intensive than another, or are they all pretty much the same in terms of how much work you need to put into them. Don't get me wrong, I want to care properly for the chickens but I do want to know in advance what I am committing to.
Also, just to clarify, we did consider guinea fowl but decided against them because they are so loud. Part of the symptoms of lyme disease is an increased intolerance to sound. So no roosters, and no guinea fowl.
I'd appreciate your thoughts on the above three questions.
So the questions I have are:
1. which breed would be most effective for bug control? We would let them free roam, perhaps erecting a perimeter electric fence to ward off predators.
2. how many should we get? Is the work in keeping them proportional to the number you have? Or doesn't it really matter if you have 4 or 14 or 40?
3. Is one breed more labor intensive than another, or are they all pretty much the same in terms of how much work you need to put into them. Don't get me wrong, I want to care properly for the chickens but I do want to know in advance what I am committing to.
Also, just to clarify, we did consider guinea fowl but decided against them because they are so loud. Part of the symptoms of lyme disease is an increased intolerance to sound. So no roosters, and no guinea fowl.
I'd appreciate your thoughts on the above three questions.