pest control

[BirchHatchery]

i am wondering what would be the cheapiest and best birds to have for pest control only interested in chickens! i would have these birds completly free ranging for most or all of their food in spring-fall i thought a flock old english game bantams would work they dont eat alot and are very active any thoughts? also predators are not a major issue also im gonna train them to go into a pen i made 8x8 with a 6x8 run but will advntulay let them free range once their use to the place and no were home is and were to go at night

 

[Shiloh Acres]

You mean chickens as in not guineas?

My bantams of various kinds do free-range more efficiently than my heavy dual-purpose layers. Even my silkies right now don't eat much feed and their yolks are orange.

But guineas are 10 times better, I'd say. Annoying, noisy, and have their own unique issues, but they do the job I got them for. Cleared a PLAGUE of grasshoppers and saved my garden. They refuse all feeds except a few grains of millet and otherwise have been totally free-ranged since I let them out of the brooder. They don't starve, so they are still eating all kinds of stuff, even in this cold winter.

Hopefully someone will have suggestions. I had some Rosecomb x rock bantams that resembled game birds that were totally wild and self sufficient. A rather large flock of them in fact.

 

[BirchHatchery]

ya i only want chickens i have 2 acres were the farm is with 2 good size patches of gardens this year im surrounded with corn feilds i was figureing on 10-25 game bantams should be enuff but i dk any other thoughts?

 

[BirchHatchery]

i am suprized that i can not find any info on this subject or no one seems to no on any of the forums i have visted

 

[lwheelr]

I highly recommend that you get a copy of Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds. This has a rundown of a whole bunch of chicken breeds, and describes their utility, ability to forage, etc.

So if you get a good chicken that can forage well, chances are they'll be good pest controllers - generally the better they are at foraging the more different things they'll eat (bugs included).

This book will also let you compare size, hardiness, meat or egg laying traits, ability to reproduce, etc. so you can end up with a breed that gives you all the benefits you need.

I don't care for Old English Game Bantams, because they tend to fight with each other more than most chicken breeds, they don't lay very well, and they don't produce meat well. They aren't terribly good foragers, and unless you are raising them for show, they tend to be fairly useless. I like birds with good utility, so I have an admittedly bad attitude about birds that look good but don't pay their way.

Dutch Bantams are ok as foragers, they do well in a free range situation though they are exceptionally good fliers (don't try catching them without a net). They lay ok, though not impressively, and they are very pretty.

I'm guessing if you get a copy of that book, you can find something that suits multiple needs, that you can really enjoy raising.

 

[BirchHatchery]

i actuly the only use i want out of these birds is for bug controle i have my white rocks for eggs and meat and also my cornish rocks for breeding and meat. I only want a flock of birds that can survive on their own with me giving them shelter and water of course and now and then grain

 

[lwheelr]

In that case, my top choice would not be chickens. It would be Muscovy Ducks. They are very hardy foragers, quiet, they don't take as much water as other ducks, and they gobble every bug in sight, with great enthusiasm. They have a lot of personality too.

 

[BirchHatchery]

i have a pond also i use to have white pekin ducks i never fed them but they kept goin to the nieghbors so i got rid of them i need something that stays close to home like chickens i no now and then i have to push the chickens home also but do muscovies stay around better than pekins?

 

[lwheelr]

Muscovies do fly - but federal regulations require that you clip their flight feathers. Ours are in our back yard, so I don't know how far they'd range.

If they cannot fly, they should stay fairly close. They are a bigger duck, more horizontal than Pekins. They walk fairly slowly, so they'd only be able to cover a certain amount of range per day.

If you feed them at the same time every day (I suggest doing so at night, even in the summer, give them a little treat at night, it need not be grain), then they'll come in at that time - they'll be waiting for you after a few days. That will keep them within that walking range for the day.

We found the Muscovies to be fairly trainable, and herdable. They trained really fast to going out of their pen in the morning, and to coming back into it at night. We threw out scratch in the morning, into the big yard, and then put some feed in their feeder in the pen at night. Took like four days and they were waiting at the gate to go both ways. They'll respond to vegetable scraps, apple peelings or other fruit scraps (which help meet the need for niacin), bread scraps, grass clippings, or plain scratch grain.

They herd easily, they tend to stick together in groups. Get a walking stick, which you use as an extension of your arm, to guide them (you never have to touch them even). As long as you move slowly, and don't panic them, they'll go pretty much where you need them to - moving slowly is the real key. They don't like bottlenecks, they don't like going where they can't see, and they'll chase grasshoppers a bit on the way, but if you understand that, you can get them to go. We've herded ours to the neighbor's yard to feast for the afternoon on grasshoppers. Through a gate, down a narrow alley, across the street, through another gate, across a small field, and through one more gate.

They aren't escape artists. A four foot lightweight dog mesh fence will usually keep them if their wing feathers are clipped. People who have them unclipped (before the law went into effect) said they fly AROUND more than AWAY, and that they do tend to be homebodies.

There are reports of people using them to control fire ants, but others who say they won't. Other than that, seems to be that they'll eat any bug that happens by. I know we had no mosquito problems after we got them, and the houseflies were not a problem this year either - usually they get really bad in the fall.

 

[BirchHatchery]

very interesting should i get ducklings or start with large fowl if im goin to get muscovies?