PLANTING IN A CHICKEN FENCE

[DOEBOY]

Last week a friend of mine brought over 20 trees (12 apricot 8 peach) to my house and we planted around the unused parts of my property. I would like to utilize as much of the dead space as I can. I didn't plant any of the trees in the chicken fence just because I didn't know how they would make out. So my question is this would it be detrimental to other trees planted in the fence. The fence is 50 x 70 x5 feet high. I plan on planting a few apple, fig, blue berry, and grape vines in the spring when available. My plan is to border the fence on the outside with grape vines, but would like to put them inside. I would also like to put some of the trees in the fence also. I have 20 layers and 47 4 week old chicks. They are housed at night til about noon in a coop 6x8x5 on top and bottom with attached run 8 x 15. So what do you think? Bees will come later maybe. thanks for your help. Doeboy

 

[Ema]

I think planting near the chicken fence is a great idea, but you don't say if these trees are still in their infancy...you see I planted a few trees near my chicken fence line and they are the foliage :-( so I learned that I have to keep the chickens away from the trees until the trees are much bigger LOL.

I so wish i lived in a climate where I could plant more fruit trees, thus far, I got a northern plum and an apple, which I hope will fare this winter of mine just fine as I was told they would.

I grew up in Spain and during my childhood have fallen off many fig trees, fond memories...lol...but fig trees are my favorite and I cannot have them here unless inside a big big greenhouse.

Warm figs and vanilla bean Ice cream...so delish....

Ema

 

[DOEBOY]

The trees would be smaller saplings, there is currently nothing in the fence other than grass, coop and chickens. Before the fence, when I would let the chicken out, they would in packs, run in different directions. One small faction would head straight for the old untrimmed grape vine. The others usually ran to the pine trees. Three reasons I would like to plant in the fence. First to use the space productively, seems if I'm going to have dual purpose chickens I might as well have a dual purpose lot. Second to give the chicken shade from the sun, the area I have is windy and gets sun for most of the day. Lastly I'd like to utilize the bug decimation power of the chickens to debug the plants, the june bugs had a bad year at my house last summer from under the grape vine. Will the chickens be able to get to the grapes? I didn't notice if they got the ones on the old vine this past summer. Will the chickens kill the trees? I thought about wrapping the trees in fencing to keep the chickens away till they mature. Thanks Doeboy

 

[DAFox]

There are pros and cons to planting fruit trees inside the run. I'll give you only the cons:
Trees that fruit are an invitation to wild birds to feast. Wild birds bring lots of diseases to chickens.
Other fruit eating animals will be attracted. Raccoons?
Chickens may prefer to roost in the trees as the trees mature. Are the trees Dwarfs/Semi-dwarf or standard?
Once you did a hole, the chickens will dig in the soft dirt. You'll have to protect the roots.
How convenient will it be to water the baby trees which should be watered for at least a year, if not two?
Trees, also, attract aerial predators.
My chickens have access to a small orchard when they free range. They don't bother the fruit on the trees. I wouldn't trust them with grapes and blueberries, though.

I remember reading about someone who put a chicken run around the outside of their vegetable garden, like a moat. They had very few bugs bother the garden, even though their neighbors gardens were decimated.
Dale-Ann

 

[Oregon Blues]

My birds have a fenced orchard as their day run. I had to put a small protective ring of wire around each individual tree.

The ducks want to dabble in the tree roots whenever the trees are watered, so they have to be kept off the root zone.

The geese will chew on the lowest branches, so they have to be kept away from the low branches.

All of them adore peach leaves and the ducks will jump to reach the leaves and in the fall, they hang out by the trees when the wind blows, waiting for a leaf to blow off the trees.

It really is not a problem to put a ring around each tree. For water, I've got drip irrigation lines. Watering is easy and the birds don't bother the water lines. I don't have to deal with fallen fruit. I've got a clean-up crew.