Do any of you run poultry in your orchards?

I have a big enough orchard that it's a pain to mow. The trees are mature. I'm thinking of just running 6' horse fence around my orchard and putting a lot of low value chickens, ducks and geese in it. I can put some Kangal dogs with the poultry to kill predators. I have 3, 7 month old pups that are approaching 80 pounds, that are big enough to kill, or at least dissuade any predators in my area. Kangals hate vultures and birds of prey.

I want to use the poultry to keep the grass and weeds down, clean up dropped fruit and to lower the number of insect pests.

Are there any potential problems I need to worry about?

I have lots of experience with poultry, but limited experience in semi free ranging it.

Keith

I read poetry in my orchard all the time,,but it doesn't seem to keep the weeds down much.

I ran my meat bird in closures through my blue berries. But it's a 10x 12x2 enclosure that gets moved daily. The grass is down to dirt between the birds and nitrogen in poo but it's recovered in a month and the strips the birds have been in stay noticably greener thicker and 2 xas tall and where the birds have not been.

Depending on the size of the area # of birds and amount of time there are there it could work and build the soil well . I always thought sheep would be great for that.

Your chickens will be happier, ticks and insects not so much. These whistling locust right now seem to be a main attraction. You might have to clip their wings to keep them out of the trees. Ours will roost in trees rather than go to the house. I only have one small dog with a big bark and a Rem 1100 standing in the corner in case he needs backup.

I just lost my last chicken and I am NOT sad about it. They were horrible with my apple trees and were constantly scratching the mulching away and digging holes to dust.

Did your chickens harm the trees?

Keith

Did your chickens damage the trees roosting in them?

Keith

Would sheep eat the leaves and thin branches they could reach?

We have goats and they would do as least as much damage as deer would.

Keith

Its best to keep them out of the trees, they crap on fruit and are sitting ducks from air attacks. Even with the wings cut you will still have some hoppers that hop to lower limbs and up if you don't keep them trimmed.

No, they never roosted in them and always went back to the coop at night. That said, they did kill several by exposing the roots during the summer heat. I have decided I can have chicken or apples but not both.

Geese, you want geese as they are grazers and don't roost in trees.

Sheep are good if the trees are pruned high enough. They will clip leaves but aren't anything like goats.

Sheep prefer grass and goats browse. The goats would eat everything they could reach on their standing in their back legs. I don't think sheep would be near as bad. But I didn't have sheep long since they were more flighty . My goats are like dogs sheep would run from me so they were sold. So I didn't run them near any trees just in the fields so can't say for 100% sure.

Will sheep stand on their hind legs to eat leaves and branches?

I thought about running geese in big numbers. I only have 2 Chinese geese right now. The hen is laying. The last goslings I bought were 77 cents each, for 168 Toulouse and Brown Africans, as over hatch. The 2 hatcheries I used to buy goslings from no longer carry them. Most of the hatcheries want $15.00 to $40.00 per gosling now. None of the overly expensive hatcheries want to discount over hatch much. They prefer to cull most of what they produce to keep prices high.

I've also thought about getting muscovy ducks. The only ducks I have are a trio of call ducks. I can buy mallard based duckling for dirt cheap, 40 cents each or less, but don't have a good source for cheap muscovy ducklings.

Keith

If all you want is poultry then I will 2nd the geese as they eat a lot more grass without destroying it then chickens do. If it were me there was a 6 foot fence I would put sheep in and let them graze your grass. You could section with some electric type tape and rotate. With sheep in there you could then put some chickens in to scrounge the droppings. Creeps can be used for younger lambs if wanted or for the chickens as well.

Bryce

If I recollect right, geese and ducks have been used in vineyards for your purpose with no damage to the vines.A few Muscovy hens will produce a lot of chicks with no assistance provided nothing eats them. Any extra geese produced is worth a good bit of money too.

Sheep will chew the bark off of apple tree trunks (been there, done that!)

The only true American breed of geese Cotton Patch Geese were used for weeding purposes in, as the name suggests, in cotton fields.

Geese. Geese. Geese.

I have had a flock of emdens for several years now.

I originally wanted the Pilgrim geese breed, but found 8 emdens at Tractor Supply for $6 each and couldn't pass on that deal.

I read that they could be a tad more aggressive than the Pilgrims, but all of ours except one have been great. That one mean one was sent to the freezer.

I do not treat the birds like children like you see a lot of people do online. I teach them to come when called and thats it.

When they are young and in the brooder or small pen, I only feed them the greens of the weed/plant that I want them to eat. I read that it teaches them to target that plant and they can/will develop a taste for it.

I use mobile poultry netting and move them around my berry bushes and fruit trees. They keep it mowed down really well. When I do move them, I can zip over it with my mower and cut down the few rogue pieces.

Keep the area smaller so they actually have to eat what is given to them versus having a large area where they can be super selective.

Good luck!

When I was a kid the strawberry farms ran geese in the fields for grass/weed control at certain times. They called it "goosing" the berries.

My dad used to run geese in the strawberry fields in late winter early spring. Had to take them out when the crowns opened up or they would stomp out the bloom.