So the Mulberry has proven to be a good grower in the chicken yard. I’m thinking of putting another variety in this spring, but before I do, I’m wondering if there are other fruit trees you’d recommend that would do well there.
I didn’t know you had chickens, and in the 'burbs, even!
Or does “chicken yard” mean something else??
Yep, I have a small urban farm. 5 Red Sex-Links.
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Awesome, fresh eggs all year round. Those Links are quite the egg producers, I’ve heard.
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They were amazing up until about a month ago. Each were laying every day for quite a while, so I was getting 5/day. Cold weather set in and I took off for a weekend and the wife forgot to feed them, and they started to lay 2/day. It started to warm up a little, and they’re back to 3-4/day. I don’t remember the Golden Sex-Links I used to have slowing down during the winter. So next year I’m trying to decide which to get. Perhaps 1/2 and 1/2 would be best.
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My chickens like autumn olive berries, these shrubs can provide cover from winged predators and shade , also consider growing grapes on the fence, they like those quite a bit. Not much will out produce a mulb over a season, great fodder trees!
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Hey, I had the same thing happen. It dropped to -2 here one night and my seven hens stopped laying. Five of them are Red Stars and normally do well throughout the winter, but I’m only getting one egg a day.
I’m going to start thinking about growing a mulberry in the run and just let it grow until it hits the netting. I would then open the netting and wrap it around the tree. Maybe.
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All of my chickens are free range. They’ll eat pretty much any fruit that falls to the ground. And some will even fly up on some trees, and especially my grapes, to get the fruit.
I like to think that they keep the pest population down by eating the grubs before they can exit the fruit and burrow into the ground.
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Chickens are light sensitive so I run a small wattage led year around and the egg laying doesn’t drop in the winter.
I want to try the new green egg laying chickens from Mcmurray’s. Supposed to lay 300+ large/xlarge a year and very cold hardy.
I had the red/golden sex-links and remember them to be very small birds whose laying dropped badly if they missed a meal or a drink.
If you can find them, Hyline browns will blow them all away. Hugely prolific, tough, economical, 5-6 lb birds. Good behavior, lay an xlarge-jumbo egg, uniform colored eggs. They are the commercial brown egg layer of choice. We have a fellow around here that broods chicks for the large egg producers and sells 17 week old birds for $7. Heck of a deal!!
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All of my chickens are free range. They’ll eat pretty much any fruit that falls to the ground. And some will even fly up on some trees, and especially my grapes, to get the fruit.
Free range up here means drive thru chicken lunch for the coyotes.
Chikn is right, when I put a light on a timer set to keep the day length up, I have not seen a significant drop in egg productions. 5 hens 4-5 eggs a day depending on their laying cycle.
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Yup.
I had an egg laying duck living under my Reliant peach and got my best crop ever.
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