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  • From: Matt Cheselka <cheselka AT freestateproject.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Natural Insect Control Question
  • Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 22:40:41 -0500 (CDT)


Good day everyone!

I'm trying to think ahead a little bit and we have a serious problem with
grashoppers come August and September. Last year they didn't do much
damage in my *very* little patch (the lettuce came out perfect, the
mustard was slightly damaged), but now that I'm a little bigger and have
more variety, I'm a little more worried about them doing some serious
damage this fall.

I had a friend who was growing veggies on an acre and had real good
success with using chickens (he moved away over a year ago, so I haven't
talked to him recently). He probably had 1-2 dozen of them must patroling
around all day, and then he closed them in at night. As far as I could
tell, the chickens left the veggies (even seedlings) alone.

I have another friend who I was talking to just today that swore that if I
had chickens they'd eat everything in sight just like they did on his
uncle's vegetable garden. He said they even got into the trees and ate
the leaves off of them.

Obviously there's a conflict here....

So, my question is in multiple parts:

1. Are chickens useful for natural insect control?
2. If so, is there a specific kind of chicken I should
get ahold of?
3. If chickens *are* harmful to vegetables, *how* harmful
are they in terms of risk (do they destroy 10% of the crop,
50%, or 100%)?
4. Is there some other kind of animal that can be used
for such a thing? I know that ducks work well, but I also know
they can damage seedlings, and ducks are slightly more
word to keep happy.

Thanks in advance,

Matt Cheselka
Cosmic Lettuce





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