PROGRESS REPORT
2011
North
Central Region
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program
Project Title: To use Chickens, Guineas, and Geese to mow and devoid the orchard floor of downed fruit in an attempt
to hamper the life cycle of the Curculio Beetle.
Project Number: FNC10-836
Producer/Project Leader: John Baumann
Address: 31092 Cotton Road
City, State Zip Code: Foristell Mo 63348
Phone:314-952-7041
E-mail: john@tlbaumann.com
Website:tlbaumann.com
1. Describe in detail your work activities
and how you used your grant funds this year. (Use another sheet if necessary.)
Spring of
2011 we started our grant program by installing electric poultry netting and rousts for the birds. For the geese we purchased
swimming pools and watering containers knowing that they are in need of constant water supply.
We kept the birds in their roust for 10 days so that they would get acclimated to coming back there
at dusk.
We rotated the geese to different sections of
the orchard to mow the grass.
The chickens were the easiest and stayed in
their poultry netting and returned to their roust every evening. The Guineas were not trainable very few would stay in the
poultry fencing even with one of their wings clipped. Once out of the fencing they would physically have to be put back as
if not able to figure out how to get back on their own.
We observed the
birds as they worked their way through the orchard and cared for them daily.
2. List the results of your project and what you have learned so far.
During the first growing season of the grant spring 2011 a warm up in early March caused all our fruit trees to be
in full bloom the last week of March. Enduring a snow and multiple hard frosts our fruit crop was down 90% from 2010
We kept the chickens guineas and geese
in the orchard as planed and what little fruit that hit the ground was given the most attention from the chickens.
The geese did an excellent job of mowing
the orchard floor but showed no interest in the downed fruit as the summer went on and the drought set in we found ourselves
supplementing the geese diet more than expected and the orchard floor started to look worse for the wear.
The guineas were a challenge we went through 22 birds
during the course of the summer. Guineas pay no attention to electrified poultry fence despite winging and trying to establish
a nightly roust. Some nights they would come back and roust with the chickens and some nights they would
head for the trees. Others would huddle together in brush along the edge of the woods making them impossible to find at dusk
unless you are a fox, coyote, raccoon, bobcat, ect. The ones that rousted in the trees fell prey to hawks and owls.
Guineas are good buggers; they are fast runners and entertaining to watch but showed no interest in the downed fruit.
Value added Benefits thus far:
All the trees in the orchard stayed watered
all summer due to the rotation of the swimming pools for the geese. When we would change the goose poop water every few days
we watered the trees around the pool location then relocated the pool elsewhere in the orchard before refilling. Summer 2012
will tell us if the goose poop water was good fertilizer as well.
Egg production was light throughout the summer but picked up in the fall and is giving us
enough for the table so for this winter.
Cons
thus far:
During
the peak of the drought, in an attempt to keep up with watering the vegetables and the geese, we ran our well dry. Luckily
after giving it a rest it recuperated within a few hours but we were forced to reduce the irrigation to the vegetables.
The
geese are not selective in the foliage they eat a small garden plot within the orchard fencing was reduced to nubs and 20
new pear seedlings in the orchard were kept free of foliage and ultimately destroyed. Geese also like to
nuzzle their bills into moist soil. Unfortunately throughout the drought. The only moist soil in the orchard was around the
trees that were just watered. There were a lot of holes in the ground around the bases of the trees. I’m not sure how
detrimental this will play out to be but there was some minor root damage to some of the trees.
Attach are some pictures depicting the
progress so far:
Desscribe
your work plan for next year.
Presently
we have relocated the geese out of the orchard for the winter to a neighbor’s pond to save the orchard floor. We still
have 5 chickens and 2 guineas (that still must be shown the way back to the roust sometimes) with the intent to purchase more
in the spring and continue the study with hopefully a bumper crop in 2012 .
4. How did you share information from your project with others? (Include the number of people who attended
field days or demonstrations.) What plans do you have for sharing information next year?
Posting pictures and this report on our website blog and face book page
