[colliewoman]

I was thinking last night when sleep was a long time coming.....
My landlord NEVER EVER had a case of fluke OR ticks on his sheep. Not once. Now the ground here can get wet, and I have seen bottlejaw in sheep next door.
I think I worked out why. Chickens!
They eat ticks, they eat snails (I never get slug or snail damage on my veg, just got to keep the chickens away from the juicy stuff).
My goats have shown no sign of fluke, have never had a tick etc. They share their ground with.......chickens!
I had a spare rooster who I was loathe to eat as he is stunning, so today whilst I was fluking and feeting, hubby made a new raised coop, with a rickety ladder so chickens can get in but not the fox.
Mr Diva and 2 new laydees moved in and will soon be ranging out. Hopefully they will eat any snails and ticks and reduce the disease risk for my woolly wonders!
If they settle in ok I shall get a few more cos I reckon 3 chickens might not manage to keep clean 4.5 acres.
Not worried about eggs, though any are a bonus. They will be doing a very important job keeping my sheep safe

[Fowlman]

I think you're right my sheep are in with my chickens and no ticks here either.

[funkyfish]

I've though about keeping guinea Fowl for that very reason! Ment to be excellent at eating ticks etc and free range well (not easy to pen in, so I've heard..).

[in the hills]

Mmmmm ..... don't know 


I read that ducks were good to keep if you had wet ground and kept sheep as they consumed the slugs and snails and hence helped to control fluke. My chickens never seem that keen if I toss them a slug or snail    ..... maybe too well fed  .


Having said that we have had no fluke or ticks ...... yet.


Slugs and snails consumed EVERYTHING in my veg. patch last year though so chooks didn't help much there. 


Good excuse to do a bit of hatching though CW, cause you'll need way more than 3 !!!!! 

[Brucklay]

I think my ducks make a difference - 36 of the gobby wee devils that free range over the sheep paddocks - they must be eating something......

[Bionic]

I have 7 chickens who free range with the sheep. All seem to be happy with the situation 

[FiB]

I have wondered about that (although we have had a pretty full range of sheep parasite probs    ) - our chooks always seem to be scratching around where the sheep are so I have wondered if thay are eating worms/eggs.   Any excuse for more chickens is a good one!

[JMB]

Um, yes I'd read that ducks can help, but I also read that they didn't have much effect...
 Depends if you want an excuse to get ducks. I expect you'd need a lot.
J xxx

[Dogwalker]

Ducks probably help if they stay in the right fields, mine spend more time in the neighbours fields than in mine.
The chickens have just finished off my kale, not impressed.

[Marches Farmer]

Ticks can come in on deer, badgers, foxes, stoats, weasels ......  Our guinea fowl are fairly tame but they were raised in the farmhouse living room for the first three weeks so pretty bomb-proof - television, telephone, vacuum cleaner, and so on.  When we put them in the pen from which they were later allowed to free-range we kept them shut up for a week first and they go back to roost there every night. They also come to call.  They pootle around the farm buildings and rarely go down the fields.  Go completely mental if you try to pick them up, though.

[jaykay]

And apparently that triangular 'ark' type chicken house was developed so that you could put it in sheep paddocks and move it about, whilst preventing the sheep from getting up on top of it 

I'm not convinced how effective chooks and ducks would be about keeping the fluke, worm and tick populations down but it sounds a very good excuse to have lots of each, it seems to me 

[Fowlman]

I have a few arks in the field and they are over 6ft tall and i quite often see my shetland ram climbing them.

[Penninehillbilly]

And apparently that triangular 'ark' type chicken house was developed so that you could put it in sheep paddocks and move it about, whilst preventing the sheep from getting up on top of it 

The goats would love it though, I can just imagine them balancing on the top 

[clydesdaleclopper]

For controlling fluke try to encourage Lapwings as they eat the intermediary host - the snails.

[GaddesdenGal]

For controlling fluke try to encourage Lapwings as they eat the intermediary host - the snails.

We see so few here, but have seen lots in other places. What is the way to encourage them?