Tick Born Disease Could Make You Allergic to Meat—and It's In New Jersey Now

​We are all terrified of ticks and ticks have no boundaries. I was living in the city, my property was adjacent to a small patch of trees, and I contracted lime disease from one bite.

After many months of research and being afraid of going in the yard, I was disappointed to find that the only recourse was to have an exterminator spray our yard with cancer causing pesticides.  

This was in 2008.  Although the web was well established, I found no other resolution to this problem by searching the internet.  I ran across an ad in the local paper listing guinea hens for sale and how they eat ticks.  Focusing my search on guinea hens, I found some information, however, not enough to confirm the claims.
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I thought, “what the heck, we have enough space to construct a small coop, I’m buying a few hens.”  We purchased 6 keets (which are guinea hen babies).  They were wild, however, we fed them in the yard for the first few weeks, made a perimeter around the property line with food each day and it worked!  Not only did they stay in the yard, but we were bug free in less than two weeks.  We had virtually no ticks, less mosquitos, as a matter of fact, we hardly found any bugs in the yard.  The guinea hens slept in the trees at night and they were maintenance free.  We had them for 3 years!

When it was time to replace the hens, since we were down to only 2, we were forced to drive 2 hours to PA!  This is when we learned that if we purchase Silkie chickens with the guinea’s, the silkies will lay on the guinea eggs for further hatching's, since guinea hens rarely lay on their eggs long enough to hatch.  We tried this too and it worked.  A year later, we had nearly 30 birds!
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Well this caused a little problem.  We out-grew our yard.  We lived in the city limits and could not raise the birds as we were.  We had no second thought, we were moving and that’s the bottom line.  After living with lime disease, I knew there was no choice and would just have to sacrifice and move so the birds could have a bigger yard!

We moved to the new place, 15 acres, and noticed that this place was loaded with ticks.  We could not go outside, not even around the house without finding a tick daily.  By this time had over 30 guineas, and in less than two weeks, we were once again bug free. This was in 2015.

Last year, we sold nearly 600 guineas!  We had people from long distances just to get guineas.  We now have over 50 of our own birds, including most of the 10 from the second batch in 2011!  We have over 60 silkie chickens and the hatching is around the clock. 

Now we have a new disease on the rise in New Jersey.   One of our customers from the area of exit 6 on the New Jersey turnpike, (near Great Adventure), informed us about a disease his wife contracted that made her allergic to meat for life without a cure!  As we encounter more ticks during the summer months, your chances for getting bitten by the allergy-carrying Lone Star tick increases in New Jersey.
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Alpha-Gal may sound empowering, but the nickname, short for galactose-alpha-1, 3-galactose, is a sugar molecule that might just cause you to become allergic to meat.

The sugar molecule is spread from the Lone Star tick bite, named for the Texas-shaped marking on its back. Once bitten by a Lone Star tick, the body's immune system is rewired. From this, your body creates Alpha-Gal antibodies and, from that point on, the body is wired to fight Alpha-Gal sugar molecules. If you develop Alpha-Gal allergy syndrome you will realize your illness after eating meat, which can be difficult to diagnose.

Although we did not invent the guinea, we feel honored that we can provide this resource to others that also feel a natural form of pest control is far more valuable that using cancer causing pesticides to control harmful, disease carrying ticks.

We have guneas available now!  If you need them, just call and leave a message.  We can be available nearly 7 days a week for pickup.  Call 856-459-5580 or 856-332-3817. 
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Remember, guinea hens are insect eating.  They can make an enormous difference to you bug population and your quality of life.  As a matter of fact, guineas eat 90% of all bugs. 

Find out more information on Guinea Hens here!
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