Gardening with guineas...

[vfem]

I just saw an article about this in Mother Earth News last month! Let me go online and try to find it... something about tick control for your lawn along with other things.

Here's a couple of articles:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Organic-Pest-Control-Poultry.aspx


http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2003-10-01/Go-Ahead-Get-Guineas.aspx

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Ask-Our-Experts/Organic-Gardening/Guineas-Control-Squash-Bugs.aspx

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1982-07-01/An-Introduction-To-Guineas.aspx

If you do a search on Mother Earth News website you'll find artciles going back to 1971!!!!

 

[lesa]

Thanks so much! I don't think I can live another year without subscribing to Mother Earth News! Just gotta do it! I'll check out the website.

 

[halo]

I have chickens, but I have to fence them out of the garden. They are so destructive.

I have a wicked tick problem this year, the dogs are always covered, and I have to pick pick pick every night. Im in the middle of 10 acres, so theres lots of room for ticks. Ive read about guineas and how well they do bug control. I also read they will roam far and wide, unless they are raised at home. Then they will come home to roost.

So I decided to try hatching some eggs, so I could start them very young. Ended up with 14 babies hatching last week. Im selling some, and hope to get down to 3-4. When they are old enough (they are growing fast!) Ill put them in one of the coops with the chickens. This particular coop is a dog kennel with an attached chicken wire run, so I figure they can hang out in there and grow up until they figure out how to fly out. Hopefully they will then come on home in the evening to roost.

Im excited about having them. They are so...different.

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

Guineas are great at bug control. BUT, let me warn you they WILL eat veggies from your garden. Just a word of warning....I never gave mine scraps but they still learned how to home in on my tomatoes and melons....

 

[lesa]

Interesting, Broke... did they do a lot of damage? I have read so many reports of them eating bugs, and not bothering veggies. Hmmm...I guess nothing is as perfect as it seems! Do you think the benefit outweighs the loss of produce? How many birds do you have? Halo- do you have any pics?? Keep us posted on their progress...

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

Interesting, Broke... did they do a lot of damage? I have read so many reports of them eating bugs, and not bothering veggies. Hmmm...I guess nothing is as perfect as it seems! Do you think the benefit outweighs the loss of produce? How many birds do you have? Halo- do you have any pics?? Keep us posted on their progress...

I ended up getting rid of all my guineas. At one time I had over 30 and that year I hatched out over 600 (had 2 incubators and a hatcher plus lots of customers!). They did massive amounts of damage - sometimes I would find hollowed out melons by the dozen, 6-7 half eaten tomatoes on every plant along with dozens of tomatoes that just had "sample" pecks. For me the benefit did not outweigh the loss. Then there is their meanness - they will beat up any chickens you might have. I had to completely separate the chickens from them and even then, with a clipped wing, the dang guineas would manage to fly over the 5' and 6' fences to get into the assorted chicken pens and would run them off their food. I will not have guineas again.

 

[lesa]

Wow, Broke, that is bad news... I thought I had the definitive answer to organic gardening. 30 seems like a lot- what do you think your experience might have been with 6 of them? Not quite ready to give up....

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

we have 5 - 2 adults males and 3 juvies..... very interesting little creatures. i need to integrate them as the little ones are separate.... but i'm nervous as i've heard they can be mean to hens.... will the older ones be mean to the little ones???

great heads up on the veggie eating. we have tons of ticks and fleas and stupid squash bugs so i'm hoping they will solve that problem this spring.

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

Wow, Broke, that is bad news... I thought I had the definitive answer to organic gardening. 30 seems like a lot- what do you think your experience might have been with 6 of them? Not quite ready to give up....

Yes, 30 is a lot but we have close to 6 acres that they had total access to. We didn't start with that many.....lol. But over time I just sort of accumulated them. Then one day I had had enough of them beating up everyone, not being able to keep them out of the garden and the final straw was when they cornered my royal palm tom turkey and caused him to break his neck. When they go into attack mode it isn't 1 or 2 that do it - the whole gaggle will get in on it!