Backyard Poultry Forum

A few years ago I bought a bare root Black Mulberry tree. Well, you know those fertile Rhode Island Red eggs that you bought which hatched and grew up to be black and white striped birds ???????? well, my Mulberry tree had cherries
Today I bought another one (with Mulberry type leaves) The label says

"the high nutrient content of the foliage makes it a great fodder tree ------------------Ideal for chook pens."

Tomorrow I will be replacing the dead Melia in the duck run. Wonder what mulberries do to yolk colour?
Grows to 12m high 15 m wide so probably not for suburban back yards (maybe I'll eventually need to expand the duck run

I have a olive tree where I plan to put the chook run. It is only about 80cm tall at the moment. Do you think it will be alright? Or should I move it.
Thanks

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May be risky as olives are poisonous until you pick them , split them and then soak for a few days. Unsure if poisonous to birds or only people before treatment. Citrus is a better option, more shade for the chooks and citrUs love the chicken poo.

I suspect that Olives are OK for chooks. They have gone feral in SA due to bird distribution. What ever you plant, it is essential to protect the roots from chook scratching.

I have already planted a plum tree in our chook run, with wire around it to stop them digging at the roots. I'm looking for suggestions on another fruit tree. Another stone fruit or something else? I see above some have planted citrus trees; aren't citrus no good for chooks?

That apple crumble sounds like a good use of plenty of chokos to me, it sure is hard to keep up with them. Best I've come up with (apart from throwing them in stew/casseroles etc where they can soak up some flavour) is if if you put raw slivers of them in a salad, you can get through a fair bit without noticing. I mean, they're probably not the greatest flavoured vegetable in the world are they, but they're tough vines, and grow fast, so what can you do. Mycoola, about this choko mustard pickle, you'd better see if you can get the recipe off your Mum to share with us, who doesn't like a good pickle?

There are two Chinese pistachio in our chook run. The chooks nibble at the leaves and perch in the lower branches. Trees are deciduous, so shady in summer and let the sun in during winter.
If you are thinking about something edible: How about grapes? You would need to protect them until they got established, but they would climb higher than the chooks can reach pretty quickly.

Thanks, Okaru. I hadn't considered vines.

I run chickens in a vineyard and orchard with many different fruit trees. I get the same 2 frights every year:
The first one is when the youngsters turn up with blood all over their face (they have discovered the mulberries are ripe)
and the second when they all come with green and blue poo (the grapes start to ripen).

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Small free-range flock of Croad Langshans
http://croadlangshan.org/

Same Globi, except the cockatoos get first pick (and last pick, and all the bits inbetween). One day we will get netting over it, til then the poultry have to be happy with some shade from the trees, snacks don't happen.

One covered pen has a nice fig tree, good crop ripening this year, so hope the Araucanas leave some for me.

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PC

I'm almost ready to move the ducks into the orchard - hopefully duck house and bath happening between now and Easter - he suggested something 'temporary' (so not happening).
There are so many windfalls this year (too busy constructing to manage the fruit). Either the ducks will get very drunk or they will get mouldy fruit poisoning.

I have successfully grown pumpkins from a big compost bin (brick pallets) up a fence and onto the chook house - provides great Summer shade