Quails or chickens for bug management in a greenhouse

[diegodenzel]

Hi,

I have never owned chickens or quails but I am hoping to do so in the coming months.

I have a greenhouse attached to my house with a GAHT system. I live in a cold and snowy climate.

My greenhouse had an infestation of aphids and fruit flies last autumn, once I started to keep the doors closed all the time.

I know that those animals can help in pest control. I am just struggling with the logistics. My plants are in raised beds of about 3 feet. And of course, it is on the plants that the bugs hang out. So could I put quails in my garden beds for a few hours at a time? They would be less likely to destroy my plants, I imagine?

Otherwise, I imagine that chickens could jump in my garden beds, but then I run the risk of them eating my plants?

I imagine both animals would be quite smelly if they spent a considerable amount of time in the greenhouse? Either animals could have an outside enclosure but I imagine they would spent a lot of time in the greenhouse in the winter period.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Nabiki]

The quail or chickens are likely to eat your plants too. You might be able to get away with letting the quail loose in the ground area. You could then shake the plants off into the lower areas where the quail can get to the bugs and reduce the population that way.

I keep my quail in my garden beds during the winter so they can fertilize the beds and eat any stray bugs that are infesting them then, but I move them out about a month before I plant. That gives the quail poop time to compost so the plant roots don't burn. In the fall, I move them into beds that I'm done with, but leave them the leftover plants to play in and eat.

 

[Severne]

It’s hard for chickens to eat aphids and in my experience they wil eat MANY of plants. Be careful what you keep them with.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I find I can keep chickens -or- keep a garden, but not both unless I fence my garden off with bird netting. I've lost a lot of my plants to my birds. I agree with letting them forage the beds for bugs, weeds and fertilizing. But if you can't keep plant and bird separate, the bird wins every time.

LofMc

 

[muddy75]

we had nice pretty grass/clover starting, added bushes around the perimeter and had a raised garden in our aviary.....we had to net the aviary after quail ate dh’s habanero plants, they dug up all my landscaping dust bathing, and ate every blade of green grass and clover!! We turned the raised bed into a feeding/dust bath area....moving the garden to different area, and will surround any landscaping with lava rock and buy larger plants/bushes that they will be less likely to destroy

Hi,

I have never owned chickens or quails but I am hoping to do so in the coming months.

I have a greenhouse attached to my house with a GAHT system. I live in a cold and snowy climate.

My greenhouse had an infestation of aphids and fruit flies last autumn, once I started to keep the doors closed all the time.

I know that those animals can help in pest control. I am just struggling with the logistics. My plants are in raised beds of about 3 feet. And of course, it is on the plants that the bugs hang out. So could I put quails in my garden beds for a few hours at a time? They would be less likely to destroy my plants, I imagine?

Otherwise, I imagine that chickens could jump in my garden beds, but then I run the risk of them eating my plants?

I imagine both animals would be quite smelly if they spent a considerable amount of time in the greenhouse? Either animals could have an outside enclosure but I imagine they would spent a lot of time in the greenhouse in the winter period.

Thanks for any help!

 

[702Quails]

Get Green Lacewings. They're the best overall organic pest control for the most common pest species. They will obliterate aphids. I released some over 4 years ago and can still see them flying around at night.

 

[Anitayuyu]

Hi,

I have never owned chickens or quails but I am hoping to do so in the coming months.

I have a greenhouse attached to my house with a GAHT system. I live in a cold and snowy climate.

My greenhouse had an infestation of aphids and fruit flies last autumn, once I started to keep the doors closed all the time.

I know that those animals can help in pest control. I am just struggling with the logistics. My plants are in raised beds of about 3 feet. And of course, it is on the plants that the bugs hang out. So could I put quails in my garden beds for a few hours at a time? They would be less likely to destroy my plants, I imagine?

Otherwise, I imagine that chickens could jump in my garden beds, but then I run the risk of them eating my plants?

I imagine both animals would be quite smelly if they spent a considerable amount of time in the greenhouse? Either animals could have an outside enclosure but I imagine they would spent a lot of time in the greenhouse in the winter period.

Thanks for any help!

1) Lacewings 2) Make sure you have enough fans going keeping air moving around all your plants. Bugs and fungus both hate moving air, and many greenhouse bugs both create fungus and feed on it to multiply. 3) Chickens like the same greens people do, so I recommend chickens for landscaping bug control but not active veggie/flower beds. They can annihilate anything they find tasty (like my banana tree.) and adore compost heaps. 3) Most likely the aphids and fruit flies hitch-hiked in on you! Here's why I say that. I made the connection (from a grower's tip!) that if I had gone to the grocery store, I should shower and change clothes before entering any grow area. Even if I didn't go near the produce section on my shopping trip, merely being in the store exposed me to spider mites and fungus gnats. Because I grew various plants indoors for seven years, and lost several plants to spider mite infestations, I found this to be absolutely true. If you bring a magnifying glass to the store, you can usually find some mites hanging out on the sepals of bell peppers! But these guys have no problems hitch-hiking to the checkout areas.

 

[Nabiki]

1) Lacewings 2) Make sure you have enough fans going keeping air moving around all your plants. Bugs and fungus both hate moving air, and many greenhouse bugs both create fungus and feed on it to multiply. 3) Chickens like the same greens people do, so I recommend chickens for landscaping bug control but not active veggie/flower beds. They can annihilate anything they find tasty (like my banana tree.) and adore compost heaps. 3) Most likely the aphids and fruit flies hitch-hiked in on you! Here's why I say that. I made the connection (from a grower's tip!) that if I had gone to the grocery store, I should shower and change clothes before entering any grow area. Even if I didn't go near the produce section on my shopping trip, merely being in the store exposed me to spider mites and fungus gnats. Because I grew various plants indoors for seven years, and lost several plants to spider mite infestations, I found this to be absolutely true. If you bring a magnifying glass to the store, you can usually find some mites hanging out on the sepals of bell peppers! But these guys have no problems hitch-hiking to the checkout areas.

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