Chickens for brush clearing

[GCrumb]

Blasphemy! Lonesome Dove was one of my favorite books back in college, and Gus McCrae would surely have called it a shoat.

He wrote the sign, though. Hehe, read it again, it's so great. A shoat is a hog under a year old, the text calls one of Gus's pigs "the shoat" and the other "the gilt" (a female hog that's never had a litter.)

 

[fat brown hen]

He wrote the sign, though. Hehe, read it again, it's so great. A shoat is a hog under a year old, the text calls one of Gus's pigs "the shoat" and the other "the gilt" (a female hog that's never had a litter.)

Flipping through it now, and you're right :b My memory sure is bad. Why on earth would anyone keep a hog for more than a year

 

[GCrumb]

Flipping through it now, and you're right :b My memory sure is bad. Why on earth would anyone keep a hog for more than a year

By the way, to further tangentialize, there are two Lonesome Dove prequel novels and one sequel one. They've got continuity errors and are not the masterpeice that is Lonesome Dove, but they're a good time. And have their own little mini-series' too.

 

[fat brown hen]

To breed them? I can't imagine any other reason. My parents instilled in me a healthy fear of pigs, they will knock you down and eat you. The most unforgivable thing in Unforgiven is him leaving those children alone with those pigs, utterly horrifying. I am not at all trusting of pigs. Hogs, really full-grown pigs, are enormously bigger than any pig you ever see in movies, even when the pigs in the movies are supposed to be eating people.

They would do a wizard job of clearing brush, but while goats are supposedly immune to poison ivy, who knows if pigs are? I'd hate to be subjected to the sound of a pig with poison ivy.

We have actual feral pigs here. Not in my yard, but they have come through the neighborhood. They're kinda scary cuz they run in packs and have tusks. Apparently they're impossible to eradicate; they're so mean and tough that even mountain lions won't mess with them-- OH that would actually make them ideal for brush clearing! just put out a few calf-huts and let 'em have at it. My neighbors would probably kill me if the pigs don't do it first.

 

[GCrumb]

Gravel was better back then.

 

[Isabella6Storm4]

With a coop, or were they just out in the open? I guess if your chickens are hopping 20 miles through the snow, a coop would be an unnecessary luxury. Chickens are so spoiled these days. Back in my day, chickens roosted in a rolled up newspaper and the only feed they got was a stale crust of bread and some gravel.

yeah with a coop

 

[fat brown hen]

Turkeys, then?
I'm not really expecting the chickens to eat poison oak and brambles. 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.

 

[fat brown hen]

In some areas of the world chickens are used to clear growing plots of weeds and pests. They really are very good at it.

Please elaborate, @Shadrach :b

(Am I allowed to cross-quote from another thread? Quote stolen from here )

 

[MTR]

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

 

[fat brown hen]

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.

Hmm, maybe I can find a way to get my chickens to break up some of this dense clay soil... it turns to cement in the summertime.