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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] guineas and squash bugs

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  • From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] guineas and squash bugs
  • Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2010 07:41:50 -0400

On 06/02/2010 01:40 PM, Dianne Palmer-Quay wrote:
Harvey wrote:
>Once the squash vines start to run, I net the winter squash plot with
electric net fencing and put in 3 to 5 guineas. No more squash bug the
rest of the season.

Harvey,

Could you talk a little more about how you manage your guineas? Do you clip wing feathers to keep them in the netting?

Yes. Guineas are much more active fliers than chickens. I routinely clip wings. Sometimes I have a rogue flier who goes over the net despite the clip. I respond with an ever more radical clip, ending in extreme cases with shearing off *all* flight feathers on *both* wings, right down to nubs. I would never do that to a free-ranging bird, but in this case I'm protecting them with the net, and depending on their services with the squash bug, so they *have* to keep their butts on the ground inside the net.


Where do they live the rest of the year?

I've taken different approaches. If I keep adult guineas with the chickens over winter, it usually works okay--until the testosterone starts rising in the late winter. Then the guineas start getting really kick-ass with the chooks. This is espec true of the cock guineas, who harass the chicken cocks mercilessly. I've even gone so far as *hobbling* the guineas to give the chooks some peace.

More recently, I've preferred bringing in adult guineas from elsewhere in the spring, letting them accustom to new home shut inside their shelter, after 10 days/2 weeks releasing to the squash patch. Then slaughter in the fall so no problem as described above. Of course, this strategy depends on local source of adults.

This year I got guinea hatching eggs from a friend, hatched them out under chicken mama, hope they will be old enough for bug duty by the time they're able to be separated from the hen. (Can't put her in the squash plot, she'd trash the planting with her scratching.)

I have a small (1 acre) suburban homestead with a second garden spot on borrowed land up the street at a neighbors' home. This spot has more sun and is better for food production but insect pests are a real trial (along with the neighbor's free ranging chickens. I have put netting around the garden this year, which has solved the marauding chicken problem. Now onto the bugs.

I have been offered a chance to go in on a order of keets but wasn't sure if I could keep the birds at home.

Thanks,
Dianne in SC

I've had great success with guineas to control squash bug. But the strategy depends on a way to ensure they stay where you put them.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

My book, THE MODERN HOMESTEAD POULTRY FLOCK, will be published next year by
Chelsea Green Publishing.






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