Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[colburg]

@ colburg-- I see you quote Jefferson!! years go I went to Monticello, as a matter of fact I went twice in one week, far more interesting than the museums in DC. He loved the land!

I s Managing COver crops sole available via SARE, Otherwise I would like to try to get it via interlibrary loan.

I've only ever seen it on SARE, but you can print it out if you have enough paper and ink.

 

[colburg]

As chickens are ground dwellers I don't see that they would do the job. I have japanses beetles and mykids have learned to be clever about collecting enough quickly to make a meal for few chickens. THe birds know to come to my kids for these yummy treats. But these beetles live mostly on my black berry leaves, so are about 3-5 feet off the ground, and the beetles stay on the tops of the leaves so the chickens cannot see them,


Sorr y i'm no help here. In general I do think you are on the right track-- to bring in competition that will push out or minimize the stink bugs. Maybe that hwas the point of the hairy vetch?

YOu are in New Mexico, and I do wonder if what grow there will grow here in the cooler wetter region of southern New England. THe spring and fall rains are cold and annoying. THe soils are slow to warm up, especially as our section of land is on the north side of a hill that ends at a fair size river. THe air is always moving here, never still. In the morning, the warming air moves up hill, and in the cooling afternoon flows down hill.

I don't remember where, but I remember seeing the Egyptian Fayoumis and Sicilian Buttercups had the best chances of finding their way up into the trees during the day.

The only other idea I have to help control stink bugs is to tempt them to the ground and force the chickens to eat them. I haven't flushed this idea out since it came to me while I was typing the lines above so forgive if it's seems absurd.

Every year in our garden, squash and stink bugs will gather on the pumpkin vines, leaving almost all other vegetables alone. If patches of these were planted throughout the orchard, maybe the stink bugs would gather to them instead of my pecans. Then I can move my chicken tractor over the top of it, skip the chicken food and maybe they'll eat the stink bugs. HMMMMM ???

Each of the cover crops recommended in the SARE manual has a map that shows which regions each will grow in. There's also some very handy charts on pages 66-72. It's quick refernce of which plants do well where, Nitrogen, erosion control, grazing tolerance, drought and flood resistance, seed planting rates, pest risks, etc., etc., etc. I'm constantly referring to it.

 

[colburg]

Why was this not good for your use??
""
The ryegrass, bromegrass, orchard grass combo I planted last spring turned out not to be a good choice that wasn't discovered until harvest. But, it may be just what you want.""

My orchard is 600 pecan trees that I mechanically harvest. After shaking the trees, the next step is to sweep them into rows. The grass combo tended to clump more so than I thought it would when I planted, and when the sweeper was in the trial section of grasses, the nuts would "hide

" around the clumps of grass and not get harvest. We walked through the heaviest sections of grass and picked 50-100 lbs of pecans by hand. Where the stands of grass were thin, everything was fine.

The recommendation for the grass mix came from a friend of a friend who has about 16 trees, hires out the work and doesn't care how his crop turns out. That'll teach me.

Only 1/2 of the rye grass was perinial so everything else should die soon, and if I keep the rye mowed down maybe it won't reseed and I can find something else to plant that will choke it out.

Research for the clover and alfalfa was done a little better. We walked trough local fields of alfalfa and it was very thin stalks and didn't clump. I talked to extension agents and researchers in South Texas and California about the clover and they've seen it many pecan orchards without the clumping and harvesting problems. My research suggests that the vetch is similar to the clover, but I'm not sure abou the medics.

Chicken food was actually an afterthought when I planted these. My original goals were fixing nitrogen from the air, preventing any more soild and wind erosion, start a no-till program in the orchard, heat and drought tolerant(two years ago we had over 100 days over 100 degrees and on of them hit 116), bring in benificial insects, and get some organic matter into the soil.

I planted the alfalfa in some very young trees to se how well it will grow so that if we can acquire more land in the future, it will be planted in the new trees to serve as a cash crop while we wait 10-12 years for the pecans to start producing.

The clovers fit the bill really well to a degree so I tried yellow(sweet) and white. The yellow has better drought tolerance and the white has better shade tolerance. We'll see how things go this year, I may plant some medic and vetch.

 

[Arielle]

@ COlburg--

Ever application is remarkably unique. I can see why the pecans caught in the clumps is a problem. 50-100# is a lot and labor is not usually cheap.

How will you harvest the alfalfa in the new orchard, or is it as a long term nitrogen fixer and no need to harvest?? I could see chickens eating it, but anything larger, like sheep or goats will help themselves to the Pecans too. My sheep are good at stripping young trees.

I have also thought of using a combination of seed and see what thrives. SOme years one is likely to do better than another. I have seen an increase in the number of days over 100 degrees in the last few years. I think it is a trend likely to continue. You have given me a lot to think about. ANd lots to read!!

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Thank you everyone for your ideas and suggested reading. If you think of anything else, I"d love to know about it. PM me if you like.

 

[Arielle]

@cappa valley chick-- how do you control the mob grazing? Electro-nettting??

 

[capayvalleychick]

@cappa valley chick-- how do you control the mob grazing? Electro-nettting??

Depending on the species... electric rope or netting with a solar charger. I like Premier's products.

I actually stopped doing the mob grazing, where you let them graze a small space and move them frequently. It took too much time and labor to move fencing & animals every day or so.. That is what is recommended for improving the soil, though. I still use rotational grazing methods in larger pasture areas which have permanent electric fences, moving just the critters about once a week. I do move the pig quick fence once a week. I was using electric netting for the chickens but found that it wasn't needed. I do move their mobile coop. They get the hang of following along behind the other stock and cleaning up after them.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: More good things to think about.

I used electric netting from PRemeir for my sheep years ago. MOved it every day. I'm in a wooded area now, and the sticks get caught the netting. THe key then is to move their coop along.

 

[stonykill]

lets talk turkey. Who raises turkeys? What breed? Do you over winter a few hens and a Tom?

My only experience with turkeys is 30 years ago as a teen raising 25 to 30 a year for the freezer. So I have no idea how many eggs a turkey lays, if certain breeds are known for broodiness and if they are good mothers, etc. All of these things will help me make my decision on what, how many and if they need a perm coop or if they are just living there short term, then all freezer bound.

Thanks!

 

[Arielle]

I have loads of turkeys. I started with two about 2 years ago. I now have . . . lots that I wintered over as I purchased them late in the season from Porters. I'm still trying to understand where they fit in the scheme of things as they are not quite like chickens.

 

[Sebrightmom]

I hatched my first turkeys out two years old. Right now, I have two lilacs and one white holland. My son has been showing all of them for the last two years. My goal is to raise atleast 4 to 6 to put in the freeze this year.