Breeds to start with for insect control in an orchard?

[Phage]

Your Guineas may "terrorize" your chickens if you mix them.

Also if they can get to them, wouldn't the birds also eat the berries?

 

[Digby57]

Well, I wasn't too worried about losing berries since I have to bird net the rows anyways, because birds will definitely take them once they're ripe. But now I am second-guessing that. They are elderberries, for the purpose of wine (mainly). They are fairly tall plants with the berries mainly 4 or more feet off the ground. A lot of the berries are found between 5 and 8 feet from the ground. Should I be concerned about Game Bantams or Guineas taking fruit from that kind of height from the ground?

 

[Digby57]

I was considering trying to find female guinea keets and only having 1 or 2 male guineas with 30 or so females. I was going to start those after the chicken flock was well established at something like 60 chickens with the eventual goal of 40-50 total birds per acre on what is a little more than 3 acres of land.

Does this sound like a bad plan?

 

[SunHwaKwon]

We have mulberry trees and they will eat the berries off the ground but I have never seen any fly up to eat them. They don't eat as many as I would like them too but they and our new resident squirrel and groundhogs seem to be cleaning them up enough to keep the flies under control

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Also, the guineas eat very little of berries and vegetation in general compared to the chickens. They are more insect focused and supplement with plants.

 

[Phage]

Well, I wasn't too worried about losing berries since I have to bird net the rows anyways, because birds will definitely take them once they're ripe. But now I am second-guessing that. They are elderberries, for the purpose of wine (mainly). They are fairly tall plants with the berries mainly 4 or more feet off the ground. A lot of the berries are found between 5 and 8 feet from the ground. Should I be concerned about Game Bantams or Guineas taking fruit from that kind of height from the ground?

Aren't elderberries (or the seeds) poisonous to chickens?

 

[Digby57]

Great, that is what I had envisioned. Another good reason to have a small breed. I have never seen a chicken jump up and pull food off a stem, but then again Ive never seen chickens run loose in a berry field!

 

[Digby57]

I don't know - I'll research that right now. They are certainly poisonous to you or I (raw) but wild birds love them.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Great, that is what I had envisioned. Another good reason to have a small breed. I have never seen a chicken jump up and pull food off a stem, but then again Ive never seen chickens run loose in a berry field!

They will. ...it's rather entertaining to watch (unless they are plants you are growing for your own consumption lol) my they don't get "that"high with each jump and usually tire after a few repetitions (depends on the payoff as to how many jumps are worth it I suppose). My current flock favorite targets are the leaves off the rose bushes in the back yard. ....as I'm not attached to the bushes (came with the house, haven't bothered to take them out) I let them have at it.

 

[Digby57]

Well, I see some general "lists" that say elderberry is poisonous to chickens, but then I see several people saying that the ripe berries are not a danger to chickens and that the chickens don't try to eat the green berries. The leaves, stems and especially roots are poisonous, but I'll keep looking in regard to keeping chickens with elderberries.

They grow wild all over the place here where I live and I guess that given what I knew about birds and elderberries I was not concerned. Of course I realize a sparrow or starling is not a chicken.