How do I incorporate chickens into my fenced-in apple orchard?

[glib]

Fordguy, you may be interested to know that 90% of organic apples in the US come from orchards hosting free-ranging chickens. They clean up the two major pests of apple (and pear), codling moth and plum curculio, which both make grubs that overwinter in the first inch of soil. They also clean perfectly any fallen fruit, further reducing the population of these insects. Organic growers then minimize deisease by growing apples and chickens in semiarid areas of Washington State, where fungi don't thrive. Chickens, after all, were the only garden pesticide and herbicide humans had for several millennia. They can't beat virus and bacteria or fungi, things like tomato blight, but they are excellent with weeds and bugs.

My guess is that is really difficult to secure an orchard (what about under the fence, and under or around the gate? racoons and coyotes will dig under, and weasels will sneak in really small gaps), so I vote for locking them in every night. perhaps you can rig a system with a timer. And get big breeds so they are safe from hawks once they are grown. On the other hand, chickens in orchards can be managed successfully, as they are big business for their owners.

 

[bunch-a-chickens]

http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/door_opener.htm

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

I think silkielover's post was excellent advice, and would just add a couple of things:

I finally got my automatic door opener installed this weekend, and it cuts down on the amount of air movement in the coop DRAMATICALLY. I got it from Foy's, who gets them from the UK, but you don't have the long wait. It was pricey, but considering the fact that I don't like to leave my dogs outside at night, and we have a LOT of coons and possums, I feel a lot better about the hens now. If I was running a setup like you have, I would DEFINITELY have a coop in the orchard, and DEFINITELY have an automatic door on it.

http://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/catalog/2100-2107.html

I'm not sure where you are, and if you'll be having freezing weather during the winter, but there have been posts (Mac in Abilene and TxChickenRancher, I think) about using 55 gallon drums of water and automatically filling fountains

http://www.cutlersupply.com/store/item.0533.html

I ordered two of these to feed off the same 30 gallon jug because I am T-I-R-E-D of filling the three 5-gallon galvanized waterers I have (and no, they don't leak, but in the summer I was having to refill them every other day).

After having two different "learning opportunities", I don't put out more than 4 days of crumbles at any one time. That way, if there's a problem, you won't lose a lot of food.

Read some of the "predators and pests" posts; you'll be dealing with predators sooner or later.

If you don't want to get attached to your birds (in case you lose them to predation occasionally), I would recommend getting just one breed; my Production Reds all look similar enough that I don't get attached to them. My Americaunas are all very differen'ty colored, and I have gotten to know them on an individual basis.

Lastly, I know you are working long hours and driving a lot, but you should plan on treating your hens whenever you have a chance to see them (like the weekend days?). My three Americaunas didn't grow up here, and were wild-childs. Scratch, sunflower seed, scraps, nothing helped them realize I wasn't going to kill them if they got near me. About a month ago, I bought some crickets and "super meal worms" for a about a penny a piece at http://www.premiumcrickets.com/

The crickets were stinky and ran away too fast, but throwing out a "toilet paper tube" worth to the hens was better than any TV you can find. The mealworms have been gold, though. I sit in a chair, and all the girls gather in; even the Americaunas. 2 of the 3 Americaunas will now eat out of my hand, and ALL hens come running when they see me now. That is very helpful when I want to them go into the Chunnel and they think they want to continue to free range.

Anyway, I think chickens bring a little more "natural law" to your life. You will have more frequent new life (eggs) and more frequent death (predation), but the joy my hens bring me is worth the inconvenience they might cause (most of which is my own doing because I wanted their coop/living quarters to be 100% predator-proof; I like to spoil them with treats; and the engineer in me likes to buy cool toys [like the waterer and the autodoor] and uses the chickens as an excuse to do so!)