Lyme spreads in Chester County

Lancaster Farming has an article on the spread of Lyme disease in Chester County.

A really intersting quote in the article was

“Vets are more up to date on Lyme disease than medical doctors,” Pete said of using their services for their dogs, who also have also tested positive for Lyme.

I have to agree with this. For some reason it seems that the medical community is either ignorant about Lyme, slow to treat it when they find it and unwilling or unable to provide an aggressive enought treatment regime (Perhaps large contributions by the insurance companies to our state legislators???) .

http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/1070

Down to one guinea from this year's batch

Unfortunately, it appears that we are down to only one bird left from the 12 we were raising this year. I'm not sure what got the most recent bird.

The local fox is not helping things. Also, we have coons and possum.

Some lessons for next year:

- make sure the coop is ironclad. Crittera will find the slightest weakness.
- Once they learn to roost in the trees, let them all out. Otherwise, the free birds hang too close to the cooped birds.
- If possible, be aggressive in trapping coons and possum. Be aware of the danger of rabies and local laws.

We are really hoping that the remaining young bird will survive the summer and winter to be able to pass survival skills to next year's batch.

We are also considering trying to purchase adolescents although it is harder to keep them near the property.

Guineas can swim !!!!

I was getting my breakfast together at about 8am.. The chickens were still in their pen when I heard a commotion. I saw a fox less than 15 feet from my kitchen window (and my dang camera was upstairs where I knew I couldn't get to it in time).

The fox seemed to be trying to get to something. I realized that one of the younger guineas had landed in the pool and was swimming like a duck. The problem was that, with his feathers wet, he couldn't seem to get out. He tried to get into the skimmer but luckily the filter had not turned on yet.

When I went out, the fox trotted off. I couldn't hold onto the bird when I pulled him from the skimmer and he started swimming again. I got the skimmer net underneath him and old soggy was able to hop out. With the level of chlorine in the pool, I expect to see that we will have an albino guinea fowl for a while.

The old one eyed guy had gotten up in a tree and the other young bird got up on top of the chicken house, out of harms way. Once I got soggy out of the pool, the three teamed up again.

Anyway, I don't have the pictures to prove it, but guineas can swim pretty well. It actually looked pretty graceful in the water. If the bird had worked it's way to the shallow end, it probably could have gotten out on the steps. I'm not sure how long it could swim though.

Our Adolescent Guineas are now roosting with the old guy

We are now down to only 2 of our 12 original keets. A local fox and raccoon have gotten 10 of them. Our son noticed the other day that the 2 remaining birds are now roosting high in an evergreen with the old one eyed guy. That's good news because in the past, they would keep roosting on the ground and end up as easy prey for whatever happened along (fox, possum, raccoon or even cats).

This year I had fenced off part of the outside of the chicken house for the guineas. There was an enclosure where they could get out of the rain if necessary. What I think happened was that the chicken wire kept them relatively safe (We did lose a couple due to a tiny opening. Details, details, details. Anyway, the birds became aware that critters are out there at night looking to eat them and that the ground is not the safest place to be. They had all started roosing on top of the game feeder that was in their part of the enclosure.

Lessons learned so far this year:

• You need to check every square inch of the chicken wire. Predators will find the tinyest weak spot
• If the birds can see what is going on, they will learn to roost off the ground.
• If at least one halfway intelligent bird survives from the previous years, they will be instrumental in teaching survival skills to the young birds.
• Regular 1" chicken wire is not an adequate barrier. In the past critters have reached through and literally pulled the birds through the wire. I went with a double layer that is offset to make it difficult for paws to get through
• Until you let all of the birds free, they free birds will roost near or on top of the enclosure making them vulnerable to predators. However, if you free all of them too early, they might wander off.

Tough month for the Guineas

We apaprently lost two guineas last night and definitely one the night before. There is a fox or coyote in the neighborhood. I've only gotten a fleeting glimpse of it.

I think the problem was that I have not yet released all the guineas. I had them in a portion of the chicken wire enclosure around the hutch. I was keeping a couple in the enclosure so the others would stay nearby. The problem was that at night, the free birds would roost on top of the chicken wire. I think that has been where they've been getting hit. It's getting nearly impossible to get the birds back into the enclosure for the night.

So, it's time to gamble on letting them all out. Hopefully, they will roost further up in the trees out of harm's way. At this point, they should be comfortable enough with us to hang around the property without running off.

Fox, quial and guineas

The neighborhood fox is still coming around. The other night we lost one of the guineas we let out about a half hour before dusk. It appears that the bird was by the door of the guinea enclosure and got attacked. There weren't a lot of feathers around, just a patch on the birds side where it was missing some feathers.

The guineas are starting to get the idea of roosting off the ground. I have an automatic game feeder that I use when we are going to be away. It's a 5 gallon can with an automatic feeder attached. It's perfect for laying down food on a regular basis when we aren't there. Anyway, the birds are piling on that at night. I'm hoping that means that when we finally release them, they will roost in the trees and not on the ground.

I have some work today. The chicken wire on the door to the chicken house is a bit old. I got a 10 gallon air tank which means I can take the air nailer/stapler out to the chicken house. The plan is to replace the chicken wire with new stuff and check the wood framing of the door. It's a lot better to be pre-emptive.

The quail have been doing nicely in their outside hutch. It's a little hutch that is really made for rabbits. I have a heat lamp that is on a GFCI protected extension. I put heavy plastic around three sides and cardboard on the bottom. So far, it's been about 2 weeks and we've only lost 1 out of 20 birds. They seem to like dandelion greens. The little buggers go crazy over them.

Did some tick-dragging this weekend.

Tick dragging is the process of taking a piece of cloth. Flannel is often recommended, but denim should work as well as an old bath towel.

The idea is that you drag it over the grass and leaves and then count how many ticks end up on it.

It can be something very simple. I took half of an old bath towel and stapled that to a 1 x 11/2" board. I put an eye bolt in the middle since I had a broom handle with a hook at the end. It was pretty easy to drag. If you are doing your property, you don't need to use a whole square yard. Something smaller will also work.

Our property is 2 1/2 acres. It took about 30 minutes to cover a good sample of it at a slow walk.


I found a dog tick right near the pool filter. I had a deer tick on my leg a week before. Well, that area got scalped when I cut the lawn. (shorter grass makes a less hospitable environment for ticks) I didn't find any in the open, sunny, short grass parts of the property. I found one in the leaves. When I went through the woods I found about a half dozen clinging to it.

With the smaller drag, you can also pass it easily over bushes, shrubs and small trees.


Thoughts

• I have a little CO2 duster that uses the cartridges for an air gun. I've heard that ticks are attracted to CO2 so I'll try spraying the cloth before starting out next time.
• I have to read the labels on permethrin. I'm wondering if it is OK/legal to spray the cloth with permethrin. The guineas and chickens hardly ever go into the woods. I'm thinking about making up a cloth that I can tow behind the tractor and go throught the woods (about an acre) once a month or so. I just have to make sure that it is in compliance with the federal labelling. The thought is that you can get the ticks to cling to the cloth where they get a fatal dose of permethrin, but the residual that goes onto the ground should be minute.
• Our tick control is working to a degree. We were down to one guinea this year. We now have 8 adolescent guineas roaming (4 on any given day) and 4 chickens. We also use the tick tubes and have tried to keep the deer out as much as possible. There hardly seems to be any squirrels this year, but the fox does look fat. Anyway, the tick dragging, when done in a consistent manner, can provide a baseline tick cencus for you.
• It will be interesting to try this at a neighbor's house who does not have birds.

Tips

• Be careful. Ticks are heat seekers. If you are touching the cloth or wood, there is a good chance of getting ticks on you. Use plenty of repellant and keep checking yourself, especially your hands.
• Deer ticks are, of course, tiny, You have to look closely as they tend to start burrowing into the cloth very quickly
• Don't bring the cloth back into your home or shop since it may have ticks you missed.

Fox attack!!!

Well, we almost lost a couple of our birds this morning. I let the birds out at about 7:30.. All four chickens and 4 of the 8 guineas. I was having some breakfast on the patio when I heard a commotion. The old one-eyed guinea was running for his life with something right behind him. At first, I thought it was one of the groundhogs, but a second later I realized it was the fox. Old one-eyed did a maximum effort climb, circled around and landed in a dead tree about 15' up.

The chickens went for the bushes which would be a good idea if it were a hawk attacking, but I'm not sure what it would do as far as a fox. The 4 guineas are still pretty green. They huddled up by the henhouse which would have made them an easy meal. Hopefully, they'll learn from this that Mr. Fox is not their friend and immediate evasive action is a must.

I took a little walk through the woods which hopefully made the fox move off, at least for now.


By the way, a couple of mornings ago I got up right around dawn. The fox was sitting right outside the henhouse, about 10' away, just looking at the birds.

Guineas and chickens for 2007

We are raising a new flock of Guineas and chickens for 2007. All we have left at this point is one old one-eyed guinea. He's a real survivor and pretty good natured. However, there is no way he can control the ticks on 2 1/2 acres. All three of us have had deer and dog ticks on us.


We purchased a mixed bunch of 4 Rhode Island Reds, 2 leghorns and a White Rock. Unfortunately we didn't get out early enough and something got a leghorn and the white rock. A couple of days later, I heard a commotion at dusk and there was a fox trying to force the birds out of the henhouse. I found one of the Rhodies on her back in shock. She didn't look like she had a lot of injury so I put her back in the henhouse. for the next day or so, I kept finding her on her back in what looked like shock. I'd put her back on her feet near the water or food. After two days she totally recovered.


We started out with 12 guinea keets. When I moved them outside, I put them in a portion of the chicken yard. Unfortunately, the wire was a bit week from rust and we lost 4 of them. One morning I saw a fox or coyote sitting there staring at the hens and guineas at about 5:30 in the morning. I had to double up on the chicken wire all around.


Anyway, the 4 chickens are now roaming the property pretty well. I'm letting out about 4 guineas each day. They will stay pretty close to the others that are still caged. The old one-eyed guy is working pretty well with them. I had some company over and they walked out to take a look at the birds. Old one eye herded the keets that were outside away from us.. I guess he was telling them that our friends were strangers.



chris