Chickens for brush clearing

[fat brown hen]

I have several acres of poison oak, thorny brambles, and dense thicket. I know a lot of people use goats for clearing brush, but I don't really want goats.

So... Chickens are good at killing established plants. Has anyone used a movable fence for chicken-brush-clearing? I'm not sure I can even get a fence in, due to all the thick brush.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I can't imagine that going too well. Chickens are simply too small, and you'd need thousands to do anything close to the type of damage you're looking for. They could clear shorter grasses and smaller weeds here and there, that's about it.

 

[GCrumb]

False advertising! They should be called 'Rent-450-Goats'.

Maybe somebody more in the hobbiest line has a more reasonable number.

 

[rosemarythyme]

And they have to walk barefoot, over thorny weeds, sometimes even in the rain.

Uphill, through the snow, both ways?

 

[fat brown hen]

One possibility: every time the chicken yard seems bare, add fencing to make it bigger. That way they could continue to keep the old area bare while starting to work on a new one. (This will not clear large areas fast, but might keep the "cleared" area actually clear while slowly expanding it.)

Of course, if I make the chicken yard bigger, then I will need to get more chickens to utilize the space. Funny how "more chickens" seems to be the solution to everything in life...

 

[GCrumb]

I expect he means for garden plots and land under cultivation. It's pretty ordinary practice to let chickens into the garden after the last fall harvest to let them glean whatever they want to eat and turn the rest under with their scratching about. Again in the spring to loosen soil again and tear up new weeds. You could go so far as to use something they like to eat as a winter cover crop (clover would do) and let them tear that up in the spring before you plant. Family stories say that great-grandfather with the horse-powered farm did this with pigs and amaranth.

 

[fat brown hen]

You don't buy goats to clear brush, you rent them. People come with temporary fencing and calf-huts and set it up where you want cleared and you have goats there for a month or two. If the area is already fenced off you may be the one who gets paid to run goats on it for a few months.

The local company that I know of (Rent-a-Goat) is not willing to bring fewer than 450 goats (!!!!) to a job and I just don't think my neighbors would be cool with that.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If they can scratch it up enough to kill new growth, that would increase the amount of time before I have to hire an excavator.

Mine just walk around things like baby blackberries (which are my invasive bramble) or anything else they find unpalatable, they can't be bothered to kill them when they can go kill grass instead.

 

[GCrumb]

You don't buy goats to clear brush, you rent them. People come with temporary fencing and calf-huts and set it up where you want cleared and you have goats there for a month or two. If the area is already fenced off you may be the one who gets paid to run goats on it for a few months.

 

[aart]

Of course, if I make the chicken yard bigger, then I will need to get more chickens to utilize the space.

Only if you make the coop bigger too