Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

We have several mulberry trees here, my chickens love them. There is one by the side of the garage that I like to go & shake to get berries down & they will stand under it & gobble them up.

 

[lizzyGSR]

All this talk about how much chickens love mulberry trees. Mine like mulberries if I pick them, but they leave my trees alone. My mulberry trees are HUGE (40-50 feet tall) and have hollow trunks. I've wanted to cut them down for years, but my DH has been against it until this year, when I convinced him to cut at least 2 down so we could plant an oak tree in their place. I called the local tree service and asked for a quote to get all 6 cut down because I was intimidated by the idea of doing it ourselves, and a little worried about the danger factor. However, with a quote of $7,000, my DH easily convinced me we should do it ourselves. Ugh! That's a small fortune! We cut the first one down this past week, and that was an all-day chore! Now, we've got a big pile of mulberry branches/limbs in the yard. My chickens have investigated the trees a little but not all that much. The wild birds sure love the trees though - they spread the seeds around and we now have mulberry weeds growing everywhere. Plus, the fly and mosquito populations have skyrocketed in numbers since the mulberries turned ripe. I am so ready to get these trees out of the yard! I'll miss the shade, but hopefully the cedars that are right next to them will provide enough shade. I might miss the fruit eventually also, but they've always been too tall to really be able to harvest much from them (safely).

 

[Ghostnuke]

My neighbors have some kind of pear tree that is growing fruit this year. I threw a few of them into the coop the other day, but the girls weren't interested at all. Maybe if I cut them open first...

 

[NewWolf]

All this talk about how much chickens love mulberry trees. Mine like mulberries if I pick them, but they leave my trees alone. My mulberry trees are HUGE (40-50 feet tall) and have hollow trunks. I've wanted to cut them down for years, but my DH has been against it until this year, when I convinced him to cut at least 2 down so we could plant an oak tree in their place. I called the local tree service and asked for a quote to get all 6 cut down because I was intimidated by the idea of doing it ourselves, and a little worried about the danger factor. However, with a quote of $7,000, my DH easily convinced me we should do it ourselves. Ugh! That's a small fortune! We cut the first one down this past week, and that was an all-day chore! Now, we've got a big pile of mulberry branches/limbs in the yard. My chickens have investigated the trees a little but not all that much. The wild birds sure love the trees though - they spread the seeds around and we now have mulberry weeds growing everywhere. Plus, the fly and mosquito populations have skyrocketed in numbers since the mulberries turned ripe. I am so ready to get these trees out of the yard! I'll miss the shade, but hopefully the cedars that are right next to them will provide enough shade. I might miss the fruit eventually also, but they've always been too tall to really be able to harvest much from them (safely).

Ours only eat what is on the ground and we have a lot

 

[chicken danz]

Thanks Lizzy, for reminding me why I keep cutting the mulberry trees down. They are so invasive. NewWolf chickens like pears but they have to be ripe. I don't have any animals that will eat the green ones. They don't usually ripen until early fall or late summer. Before I put in my fencing the coyotes would come and eat pears off the ground. I always thought that was a strange thing for them to crave.
My fruit trees have been here for at least a decade and they have fire blight so I don't get much fruit. The others I had all died during the drought a few years ago. I want to establish a few more but have to place them where I can water them easily. I only have one that I can do that with right now. Someday I'll run some piping and put in more spigots so I don't have to drag hoses every where.

 

[NewWolf]

Our first Americana/salmon favorlle mix!

 

[chicken danz]

Congrats on your chick.
I got my cows moved to the pasture finally yesterday and it went as smooth as silk. I love it when a plan works like it should. Sure didn't take them long to find the green grass even though the pasture had just been baled. A rain would be heavenly for them now. My hay was a failure. We barely got any hay at all. I am sure it was because we just haven't had the rain. Looks like I'll be buying hay this year again.

 

[Its ME]

I have a newly hatched silver mallard ducklings for sale!

 

[Trish44]

I'm getting no notices of posts here, ugh. I don't mind the mulberry trees for food for the birds. There is only one that is kind of a nuisance & I'm going to have to cut some branches back when it cools off some. That one is at the corner of the garage. The thing that becomes a nuisance tree for us is hackberry trees. They come up everywhere & spread like crazy. They are a fast growing tree so if you want shade faster they are good for that. I just have to cut down or dig out the ones I don't want that come up. I prefer those to the darned hedge trees we have though. The hedge is good for firewood but not much else. We have a lot of them around here & they're a real pain, I just hate the thorns on those things. If they stick you or scratch you they have some kind of poison that really makes it inflamed & sore. We do burn the hedge in our closed stove & it burns really hot. All of the trees are really suffering this year with the drought. We had lost some before & probably will lose more. We just haven't had enough rain this year.

My chickens love fruit, maybe they're just weird, but I throw all of our apples out to them that get too soft & they go nuts & the guineas like them as well. I haven't found any fruit so far that they won't eat. Chickens are scavengers so they will eat about anything.

If anyone is interested in Japanese Ohiki Bantams I have 9 chicks the little hens hatched. The Ohikis are the cutest little birds & have so much personality. I also have several Silver Penciled Rock chicks that need new homes. I have had so many broody hens this year it's crazy. They need to stop already. I have a Self Blue Ameraucana hen setting now so I will have those as well when they start hatching. Send me a PM if you're interested in any of the chicks.

 

[chicken danz]

My birds love fruit and veggies. No beans though. I wish I had more to give them.