Polutry + Fruit Trees = ??

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by smagrath, Apr 19, 2006.

  1. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Smagrath,

    That is an observation we have made, too.

    The benefits of having chooks is more than just the egg and meat production. Chooks and orchards really go well together as the chook will keep your grass down a bit (reducing labour), manure the orchard (reducing need for external inputs to maintain fertility), eat insects and lizards (controlling pests), as well as the occasional small mice and rats (blind rodent babies are delectable balls of protein for chooks), speed composting both grass, grass seed, leaves of various plants, plus insects and table scraps!

    The best agroforestry systems and even monocultural (small scale, though) citrus farms I have seen have all had chooks or ducks involved for all the benefits and services mentioned above.

    We have about 100 chooks now, (perhaps 60 of them are small chooks), plus another 30 ducks and ducklings. We pen them at night, and free range them in the day. They wander and forage, providing all those services I mentioned, over about 12 acres of trees, though they hang out close to their house.

    Wehn we plant out pigeon pea (semi-perennial edible legume that grows to a height of 4 meters and lives for 2-3 years), we keep them in rotating pens for a few weeks to let the pigeon pea get established. Otherwise they chooks will damage them.

    The chooks also have uprooted a few vanilla vines from their mulch piles at the base of the trees we use for living standards (usually a tree from the anonaceae family, but sometimes a tree legume or a cashew tree, or cacao) but the damage they do is more than ofset by the work they do on our behalf!

    Precog, we grow a leguminous ornamental with spikes called "pride of barbados", which has pretty red, pink or yellow flowers. We trim them sometimes and pile the branches on top of the mulch, which makes it difficult for the birds to scrathc. We do this to protect the choko especially as they seem to derive a perverse chooky happiness damaging our choko plants.. I don't know if you have Pride of Barbados where yoou live, but if not, perhaps you have an analogue species that you can use for the same purpose.

    Peter, we leave the chooks in until about 8 AM, sometimes until 11 AM so that they lay their eggs in the house. Most of them will return to the house to lay after we let them out, if they haven't already, but this is not fail prooof, and sometimes we find eggs in the bush, big clusters of eggs that we "float test" to see if they are good, and then open them individually into a seperate container to avoid mixing in nasty eggs.

    For a while we had a chook tractor (large) for an area we wanted denuded and manured, so we would open them up a bit late, and, walking with a bucket of food, we get them to follow us into the tractor, and then we feed them and quietly walk out, leaving them in there to eat and poop and scratch. They always have a laying box for them to use, which enables them to lay in the tractor as well.
     
  2. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    Re: snakes.

    The only snakes we have here are small non-dangerous snakes that eat bugs, so this thought is NOT from experience. It would seem that keeping the grass short will at least expose the snakes so you and the kids and the chooks could see them. If your chook run/orchard is enclosed, and the chooks see and are afraid of the snakes, you would probably see them acting alarmed or crowded in one corner with their heads up (not eating). At least this would give you a warning that snakes are about, which would be better than a nasty surprise.

    Chickadee, methods differ. What works for you may not work for another, and they might not want to do the labor, anyway. It's okay!

    Sue
     
  3. Tezza

    Tezza Junior Member

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    In all my years of running chooks and running them in my garden,With the/my overgrown methods,Iver never seen a Snake in my garden,My guess is that snakes and chooks dont live together,or even get on with each other,so normally you wont se them near a chook pen.Rats and rodents,well that another story,Ive never sen rats and mice together,So you may get a choice there,..Ive found that,its all the excess feed laying around that attracts the rodents,NormallyIf grains are kept they should be sealed in tight bins or containers,Ive had rats chew thru several layers of hard plastic to eat wheat,
    Ive had wheat in a plastic bin for 5 months and its still uneaten...

    Good hygene stops/slow the onset of rodent infestation,....They also need allmost perfect conditions to live and breed,If a nest is disscovered,Its not allways a sign to get the attack cats,killer feed,shotgun,or a tactical nucluer weapons,Some times just a big soaking around their holes will P*&^ them off enough to make em move away,I alson have a cute jack russell who is allways on hunt for things and i find ,if shes with me or i let her run with the chooks occasionally ,shell bring home the odd body,she just crunches them in her mouth and spits them on the lawn,to show us what a good girl shes been.If you use a rodent bait,this maycure your rodents,butwhere do the chemicals go???.......

    Tezza
     
  4. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    I have had experience of carpet snakes, pythons being attracted to the chicken house to eat the baby chickens, but they probably gravitated to the area on account of the feed lying around that attracted the rats and mice...
    Never really seen any venomous snakes hanging around chookhouses, except for redbellies, who won't hurt you unless you are actively trying to chase the poor things.
     
  5. clonte

    clonte Junior Member

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    you guys are a mine of info, its just great. one way you can protect the tree roots if to put prickly mulch such as dried grape stalks, obviously not available to you city folk, but if you live in the riverland in sa or in the mildura area you could ask one of the local fruit block owners for some of their dried stalks. we have our own and it looks ok too. :wink:
     
  6. smagrath

    smagrath Junior Member

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    Found a usefule tip yesterday to stop chooks scratching up underneath fruit trees - get a square of chicken wire/mesh and cut a hole in the centre big enough for the trunk of the tree. Then cut from the centre to one side. You can then fit the mesh around the fruit tree. The wire stops them getting too far with their scratchings.javascript:emoticon(':eek:')
     
  7. Gruun

    Gruun Junior Member

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    Hi folks.

    I chuck a lot of branches around my little forest and the chooks have a hard time getting through that to the roots.
    I drag bits aside to give tham a dig here and there.
    Lots of logs.
     
  8. teela

    teela Junior Member

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    snakes and poultry

    Smagrath,
    Hi,
    We have lots of chooks here and see quite a few snakes each summer. I'm not sure if the chooks attract snakes, personally I would say no, but yes rats and mice attract snakes and humans and our food attract the mice wether or not we keep chooks.
    I know how you feel re the kids and snakes, I always worried too when my kids run about in the bush.
    The best thing you can do regarding young kids and snakes is to educate your kids about snakes and their dangers.
    Dogs and cats are a problem though, they enjoy playing with snakes, if only we could educate them of the dangers too.
     
  9. kathleenmc

    kathleenmc Junior Member

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    chooks and reptiles

    Hey perms.....and smagarth

    When I lived closer to the bush I had experience with both snakes and goannas with my chooks....with the outcome 3 to 1 for the reptiles. I had to make a cage totally reptile proof and kept all the chicken feed down to only what they could eat at the time of feeding, never leaving stuff around to attract rodents or small birds. This was recommended by Jackie French in her chook book, as both animals could bring in diseases to the girls. I let my girls out only after they have laid, usually in the afternoon, for a pick and a run. I never leave eggs in the nest, as this is what the snakes loved to get hold of. The goannas on the other hand went for anything. I had to keep an eye on the girls so they were safe...but I also had a dog that was great at guarding them. I also had to lookout for hawks. A good rooster can do this with warning crows if anything is amiss.

    One friend had to give up eventually with goannas as there was a huge one that could destroy every house they built for their hens...eating everyone of them. They rang the ranger and he told them that it was a big male that was probably 100 years old....so they decided to give in, that he was there before their chooks and bought their eggs in from somewhere else.

    Letting chooks out thru the orchard is a great idea to help clean up an area, especially in autumn. But all year can be a bit tryiing for the trees as there can be over-grazing and digging from the hens , especially if they find a particular place they like. I had comfry and tansey under my trees, so had to keep them safe from the girls when they were out. You can always put down wire around the base to protect the roots, but you really have to keep the weeds and grass down when you do this.....if the chooks can't.....

    just my two bits there.....love being a part of this space....yay
     

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