Sunday, June 8, 2008

Gearing up for Guineas!

Well...I ordered 15 Pearl Guinea keets Friday and they will be shipped out on the 18th! I'm a bit nervous, but excited about trying to be the best Guinea mom I can be. Our property has become overrun with ticks in the past few years and it has turned into a nightmare every summer having to do tick checks on the dogs and us!! I've done some research and found Guinea fowl are the way to go when it comes to this annoyance, and danger. Our Elkhound, Ole, was diagnosed with Lyme disease last year. Even with tick prevention, and collars the ticks are still attached to them! Luckily we caught his Lyme early and now both dogs are on a Lyme vaccine as well.

Soon we will have the best prevention we can get....Guineas!!! We found a nice place in the back yard are are getting ready to build a guinea coop... Of course there is nothing we don't do without little Daisy Lu keeping an eye on...
Well!!! It's a start!!
In the meantime my gardens are looking lovely and the good news is Guineas are great for gardening...
I can't believe how fast things get big once it warms up!!!


Most of the flowers are still in the green stage but it wont be long (well I don't want to rush it) before it's full of flowers and color!
I have to thank Danni from Critter Farm for inspiring me. I started reading her blog just about the time she had all her chickybabes in a box at her new farm. She is doing a wonderful job and I hope to be as good a critter mom as she has become!

9 comments:

John Theberge said...

When I was a kid we used to spend hours in the fields and woods and never got a tick on us. I think it may be due to global warming but we have a big tick problem here too, I hate them. More than once I've found one burrowed in my skin. Hope the fowl work out for you.

I liked that shot of your columbines. I'll be posting a photo tomorrow of one one my columbines that I photographed this weekend.

The Birdlady said...

Hmmm..I wonder how a guinea coop would go over with my HOA. I've ordered some of the insect repelling clothing for John and me to use when we go out "shooting" We use really good repellant, but then you feel all sticky! We'll probably get some horrible cancer or something from the chemicals - but I must be really sweet, because the ticks love to play vampire on me.

Anonymous said...

Eve,

Those Columbines are beautiful.

Guinea fowls are nice birds to have about the place. If they are like the ones we have in UK that I have seen, they do cackle a bit, but not unpleasant.

The Birdlady said...

Hey Eve - me again...I had so much fun with this story today at the store - said I am going to be the first chicken farmer in the "new" Gainesville. I surely hope the guineas do the "tick trick!"

Eve said...

Thanks John,
When I got here my kids could play in the fields as well, not anymore. So sad.

Birdlady!! Ha Ha well, I'm glad I gave you something to chuckle about today! Get thoses gunieas!!! Be a rebel in the neighborhood!!

Thanks Roy,
Last year the columbine didn't bloom so I didn't know what color they were! I'm plesantly surprised!! Guineas originate from Afraica, so I'm sure they are the same as you have. They come in many different colors, but this Pearl is supposed to be the main breed and very hardy. We'll need that living here!

Thanks Birdgirl! I'll let you know how it goes!

Stacey Olson said...

Eve your yard is so beautiful..is shows that you work hard to keep it that way. Good job.. I HATE ticks..and I am sure Daisy Lou does too..(hehe) Good luck with the guinea's I got some Peacocks when we moved to Clark, because I heard they hate snakes.. they all 4 ran away durring a wind storm that took the roof off their pen, never came back, but one day my neighbor was telling me about the "flamingo's" he saw at the creek.. It was all I could do to NOT CHOKE!! as I said,, um, where they pink or blue,,(sniker, wheeze,,) I think they were peacocks.. we don't have flamingos here...lol.. Have a great day Eve..

Danni said...

So glad you caught the Lyme disease early in Ole. How did you know that's what it was? What's a Lyme vaccine? I just got that K9 Advantix that is supposed to repel fleas and ticks - do you have any experience with this? I saw a tick on one of the donks the other day, but by the time I got back out to the barn with the vaseline, it was gone. Ugh!!
Your picture of the columbine is wonderful.
Thanks for the nice comments at the end of your post! :-) :-) :-)

Eve said...

Hi Stacey! You made me laugh about the neighbor! I'm sure it was amazing to them no matter what they thought it was!!! I'm still laughing about the "we don't have flamingo's here" part.....hahahahaha! Those darn peacocks....their so common, just so darn sick of seeing them everywhere!!! hahahahaha!

Ok Danni, here's the scoop....Ole got sick one morning, after the second or third morning I took him to the vet. They didn’t know what was up and I told them that that fall I saw what I thought might be a deer tick on our property. They are different than dog ticks. They said we can do a lyme test and I said yes! Sure enough he had it and so did my older dog Murphy. We had them on Advantix as well. Anyway there is a vaccine for dogs now so you can get that for Roxy. I don't know all that much about farm animals getting it so you'd have to ask the vet. K9 Advantix doesn’t seem to be working for the dogs as the ticks still get on them and I sometimes find fully engorged ticks on Ole which means the meds didn’t kill the ticks like its supposed to!! Infuriating!! I got the collars to use with the meds and still ticks!!! We got some chemicals for the yard and still ticks!!! So now, it's Guineas to the rescue! Let's hope that works!

OH get a tick puller "Ticked Off" is the brand...I just get it at the grocrery store in the pet section. Get them off and smash them!! Two years ago I freaked out just seeing a tick...now I'm a professional tick killing machine!!!

Yvonne said...

Found my first tick of the summer in the laundry basket today. My husband was out early doing some yard work, so it must have come off his clothes. I've been amazed that my dog hasn't picked any tickes up yet. My neighbor's dog has had quite a few. I take them both on walks together, so I don't know why one gets them and the other doesn't. I always wondered what ticks were good for and now I know: feeding guinea hens.