My tick saga begins about two weeks ago when the temperature went from 35 degrees to 80 pretty much over night. I noticed a tick on one of the dogs, it was pulled off and disposed of. Then it got warmer and the humidity level rose and we had a war on our hands. In thirteen years of English Cocker Spaniel ownership I have never shaved my boys bald it was a point of pride they have such lovely coats however and my apologies to my breeder Lynda for the bald state the boys are now in, it was the only way I could find the ticks without turning into a monkey and grooming the dogs every second of the day. So two little boys shaved and bathed then the big dog bathed then flea and tick pesticides properly applied and some due diligence on my part the problem seemed to be in hand. Did I mention that was probably because it got cold again. Round two began when Mark was setting on the deck running his hand through his hair and pulled out a tick!! I was so enraged at this point that I grabbed the needle nose pliers and the candle lighter and burned the tick to a crisp then pulverized the charred corps into dust, it ain't EVER coming back! Then a few days later I found one crawling me ME, the I am so grossed out dance immediately followed with another tick funeral pyre. Later that night Mark gave me one of those fancy little hand held BernzOmatic butane torches, the kind you see the TV chefs use to toast meringue on a fancy pie. This little torch burns so hot that it turns the tick orange right before it crumbles into dust!!
As cool and efficient as my new little toy is I still don't want to spend hours a day doing tick checks on us or the dogs so what is a tiny farm to do? Why turn to the Internet of course!! I am sure we would go broke buying pesticide to spray 3 1/2 acres every time it rains not to mention that it would be harmful to everything. Seems chickens are a good at eating bugs especially fleas and ticks. We are going to get chickens for that very reason but because as Mark likes to point out I am incapable of doing anything "normal" I had to have a hand built coop made with reclaimed wood from a guy 100 miles from us with a wait time of six weeks. He has my deposit check but it is still six weeks. So by the time I get it up and running with chickens it will probably be cold again and the ticks will hide for the winter leaving me plucking and torching ticks all summer. What is plan B? Turns out plan B may be a fowl known as a guinea hen. What you ask is a guinea hen, well to me it kind of looks like what might happen if a chicken had an affair with a wild turkey.
But I digress, here is the great thing about guinea hens a pair of hens can clear 2 acres of ticks!! and fleas plus they are not particularly fond of snakes either they also range out farther thusly keep the pests down on a mini farm. They do require a bit of training because they are not coop birds but to keep them safe at night they need to be in a coop although not as elaborate as a chicken coop. So next on the list of stupid things I have done is setting up a coop and training guinea hens, anyone want to volunteer as my guinea hen wrangler?
