With the
flock back in the pastures, I was curious to see how my
mulch
boxes would
work. The idea is that raised walls would allow chickens to
scratch through the mulch at the feet of our fruit trees without
flinging the leaves out into the pasture and baring roots. So
far, mulch boxes seem to be a success!
I saw our hens scratching
through the mulch a couple of times, but never when my camera was
handy, so you’ll have to settle for shots of chickens and mulch boxes
separately. But what you can see from these mulch boxes is that
even a solid week of chicken activity only knocked a minor number of
leaves out of the box.
The only question left
is whether chicken scratching will harm feeder roots in the very top of
the soil. I figured these more-established trees (in the ground
for two or more years) could handle a bit of scratching, but I’ll let
you know if results prove otherwise.
Anna –
Jane, ranch boss and head chicken wrangler, was losing the scratch scratch battle with our flock and started protecting her new plants by laying out chicken wire flat on the ground around the tree – or bush. She cuts a slit in it like you would a weed barrier and lays it over the plant. For a whole row, she rolls out the wire and makes the slits, then covers that with mulch so as not to be unsightly. I think she uses 18″ wire, so that would be 9″ on each side of the plant. The chickens scratched up the mulch a few times, hit the wire, and gave up. Now they don’t bother them at all.
I see that you are trying to get a little localized ground work from the chickens, but I do think your concern over the fragile feeder roots is valid. That scratch scratch is beneficial for a time or two, but then it’s just destructive. In VA probably not a big deal, but here in NW New Mexico at 6,400′ and 10″ annual moisture (not this year) we are lucky to get any little root to grow and want to protect it.
Have a PVC question posted this morning on your contact page. Look forward to doing some business with you guys.
Don&Jane
Devil’s Spring Ranch — Excellent feedback and suggestion! I may try adding the wire mesh in our mulch boxes — no reason to let even a little feeder root damage happen if you can help it.