Orchard Chickens, a Theoretical Question

[3KillerBs]

Quote:
I guess I wasn't clear about this idea.

The egg layer and meat birds would be completely different flocks in their own pastures/runs with the use of more appropriate breeds for those purposes.

The sole purpose of the lightweight, small-egg breed orchard birds would be to eat the orchard pests so as to protect the fruit. If they would do more harm than good there would be no reason to put any chickens there at all and it would be a complete waste of money on fencing and structures to use them for only a few months in the winter.

And finding out if it would be good or bad for the fruit is why I'm asking the theoretical question.

 

[mountaintopchicken]

It seems that there would be very little point to running the chickens in the orchard when there wasn't any fruit since the point of having the chickens in the orchard would be to eat the pests that would be destroying the fruit.

Well, actually, yes there is a point

. You see, the arthropods that attack fruit are in the orchard year round, in different life stages. For instance, they may overwinter in the leaf litter, or on dropped fruit, though they are in a different life stage than the one that attacks the fruit. If the chickens cleaned up the orchard of potentially overwintering insects in the fall, then there would be less of a population that would present itself in the spring.

Many, many diseases overwinter in leaf litter (on the decaying leaves). If the chickens were run through the orchard after the leaves have dropped, they could possibly help break down this leaf litter so that there would be less disease inoculum in the spring, and you would start with a cleaner orchard. You can look up all of the research done on flail-mowing orchards in the fall to control apple scab inoculum. Chicken scratching might help in a similar manner.

There is a real art and science to managing insect and disease populations, and I found it fascinating when I was involved in it. It's something that anyone who plans to run an orchard must learn.

I agree that pasteurized cider doesn't taste like cider - I like it raw, too. It's just that producers in a very tough business are trying to hold on to their business, and every negative event hurts all of the growers. Remember the recent spinach scare, when everyone stopped eating spinach, or the peanut butter issue, when all peanut butter brands suffered lost sales, not just effected brands? The orchard business is so tough that no one wants to loose business, because it could mean loosing the orchard. Thus food contamination issues are taken very, very seriously.

There is a really cool e-mail list called Apple Crop that you can join. It's got researchers and orchardists from all over the world on it. Issues like this have been discussed a bit - here's a couple w/animals in orchards:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00378.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00414.html​

 

[Happy Chooks]

I should add that I don't spray my fruit trees. And the chickens eat the fruit that falls on the ground. I've read that not removing fruit from the ground can bring in disease and pests to the trees.

I don't mind sharing some of my fruit with my chickens. It's a win win for me. I get good fruit without pesticides, and my chickens give me good eggs.

 

[sred98]

If you are looking for strictly bug control, you might want to think about some of the smaller more active breeds like OEGB. I had one (she was white and got eaten by a hawk) and watched her snap a fly out of the air while never breaking eye contact with me (I had treats). They are excellent insect control! She preferred to free range, rather than eat chicken feed, and stayed fat and healthy. I'll probably get some more this Spring. She also preferred insects and frogs to fruit.

May have been just her, but she never touched my peaches or apples, but she did hang out under the trees, snapping up the wasps that would come to feed on them.

Shelly

 

[3KillerBs]

Quote:
That's why I was asking about the Hamburgs, Fayoumis, and Lakenvelders. They're so pretty. But the small size of their eggs and small carcasses don't justify keeping them unless they're good for something that the Australorps, Delawares, Wyandottes, and Sussex aren't.

So I was wondering if the active, even semi-wild nature that makes them less suitable for the usual backyard flock would make them more desirable for the orchard role.

I'm grateful to everyone who is putting their experience into this theoretical discussion. Even if I never get to put it into practice, information is never useless.

 

[EweSheep]

My Hamburgs were excellent for that reason! They are flyers and do it well to get out of situation that might harm them.

You can select the Golden Pencilled or Golden Spangled hamburgs because they do not show out like the Silver spangled ones do.

I had three apple trees, one pear and numberous mulberry trees in my farm I used to live in and they done the job very well.

Lakenvelders, no, they dont seem to forage wide or keep things at bay.

 

[jvls1942]

I have one large 5 trunked apple tree in the back yard.. my buff orps clean up every apple that falls to the ground.. they never fly up into the tree.. I have never sprayed that tree for any reason and I have never had any problem with bugs..

one time I had a bunch of sap suckers growing at the base of the tree.. I dumped a quart of cracked corn right amongst the shoots and the chickens moved in and scratched all the corn and shoots out.. I have hundreds of trees in the yard and if I want the weeds cleaned away i just do the corn thing..

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Even those flightier breeds are capable of being cuddly and good pets.

One thing though, is that, even though they may like eating the pests on the ground, these birds are light enough to fly into the trees if they are tempted to eat the fruit.

 

[SimplyForties]

Coincidentally, there is an article in the August/September Backyard Poultry Magazine called "Improve Your Land with Grazing Waterfowl". I know the OP is not asking about waterfowl but, for anyone else following this thread who is interested, the article talks about the use of waterfowl in renovating a "pasture, hayfield or orchard".

The author had an orchard which had been neglected for 20 years and said they noticed a difference after 2 seasons of letting their waterfowl graze it. She says the waterfowl add to the fertility with droppings and they clean up the fallen debris. She noted a marked positive difference between the area where her waterfowl grazed and the area where her horses grazed.

Pretty amazing stuff!