I've wanted to plant a peach tree for a few years now. Everything we plant gets a good dose of chicken run compost.
But what if we planted the trees IN the chicken run, and let them soak up all those excess nutrients in place? Any imperfect fruit could drop to the ground and be eaten by the chickens, again, right where it lands.
Anyone who has tried to combine plants and chickens know that it is a path fraught with risk, as chickens will scratch up most anything.
Enter rings of welded wire fence to keep the flock away from the peach trees until they get established and larger. A little coop-cleanout (manure, shavings, hay) as mulch, and hopefully we're in business.
I expect the rings to say in place for 1-3 years, after which they'll be removed and some large stones or logs will be placed around the trunks to keep the chickens from scratching up the roots. Around the same time the rings come off, I expect we'll start seeing a flood of summer peaches for us and the flock.
The peach trees are a dwarf variety, so they shouldn't get TOO big, but they should eventually provide both food and shade for the flock while providing us with plenty of fresh, healthy food.
I've used rings in the run with some luck in the past to grow a patch of fodder for the flock, and to keep them off a patch of freshly seeded grass.
See the full blog post with info on putting our chicken tractor to work and moving some dirt!
But what if we planted the trees IN the chicken run, and let them soak up all those excess nutrients in place? Any imperfect fruit could drop to the ground and be eaten by the chickens, again, right where it lands.
Anyone who has tried to combine plants and chickens know that it is a path fraught with risk, as chickens will scratch up most anything.
Enter rings of welded wire fence to keep the flock away from the peach trees until they get established and larger. A little coop-cleanout (manure, shavings, hay) as mulch, and hopefully we're in business.
I expect the rings to say in place for 1-3 years, after which they'll be removed and some large stones or logs will be placed around the trunks to keep the chickens from scratching up the roots. Around the same time the rings come off, I expect we'll start seeing a flood of summer peaches for us and the flock.
The peach trees are a dwarf variety, so they shouldn't get TOO big, but they should eventually provide both food and shade for the flock while providing us with plenty of fresh, healthy food.
I've used rings in the run with some luck in the past to grow a patch of fodder for the flock, and to keep them off a patch of freshly seeded grass.
See the full blog post with info on putting our chicken tractor to work and moving some dirt!
