peach orchard run

[nellynelly]

we have an existing 3-4 year old peach orchard in about 2 acres of land. would like to turn this area into a chicken run to help manage the weeds and windfalls. at the beginning phases of planning, and am looking for some feedback on the below questions i have:

1) number of birds that would keep weeds at bay, but not damage the trees?
2) should i keep them in another area while fruit is developing/harvested?
3) should i divide the area into several sections, rotate the birds around as the weeds turn to dirt and the dirt turn to weeds?
4) the area has been used to potatoes, are the volunteer plants bad for chickens?

thank you

 

[chfite]

I doubt that the chickens would damage a 4 year old tree. They aren't that tall. They likely would spent most of the time on the ground eating weeds and scratching for critters to eat.

When my chickens are loose foraging in the evenings, they have not been observed up in any of the trees. They do eat the fallen apples, but they eat almost anything in the first place. They don't eat the apples on the tree even though some are close enough for them to reach from the ground.

If you want to eliminate the weeds, keep the chickens in one area until the weeds are gone, then move them. In a wide open space such as mine forage, they never eat anything to the ground. Well, except for the comfrey.


Chris

 

[nellynelly]

thank you. one followup question; the neighbor who supplied the peach trees, thinks that chickens would damage the root system of the peaches. they use a herbicide to control undergrowth. i think that would be more damaging to overall tree health than chickens. what do you all think?

also, i am interested in planting some herbs/flowers (rosemary, tyme, ect) in the orchard. will the chickens destroy these? how big do they have to be to get respected by the chickens.

the orchard fence is ~4' tall, i know that the chicken can easily get over this, but will they?

thank you again.

 

[mickey328]

The trees' roots should be deep enough that chickens scratching wouldn't damage them. If you're worried, you could bury a ring of chicken wire around the trees about 2 inches down...this would keep the chickens from digging too deep. I'd also make sure that the trees you got don't have any of that herbicide still on them...that could harm the birds.

One good way to keep them from flying over the fence would be to clip their wings. The drawback to this would be that it makes them more vulnerable to predators, so you need to weigh the pros against the cons.

I'm not sure about your herbs and flowers. Ours don't pay much attention to them; I think it depends on what they like. You might try it and see and if it's an issue, you could just throw up a chicken wire fence around them to keep the birds out. Sounds like they'll have a huge area to cover, so that little bit shouldn't bother them too much, LOL.

I do have to agree with Chfite...if they have too much area, they won't really "clean" it...they'll be too busy wandering...chicken attention deficit disorder, LOL

 

[chfite]

The fence around my 3/4 acre foraging area is 4 feet tall. None has flown over it. The run has a fence 6 feet tall. None has flown over it. I would not use a fence 4 feet tall around a run of traditional size.

If you going to use a herbicide under the peach trees, care needs to be take when allowing the chickens in there.

Chris

 

[nellynelly]

thank you. how many birds do you keep in the foraging area? while in the 3/4 acres, are they unsupervised?