North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[david liezen <chandos49@hotmail.com>]

All of the lightweight breeds and most of the mid-weight (Ancona, Welsh Harlequin, Runner, Hookbill, Magpie, Cayuga, Swedish, Campbell come quickly to mind) and even some heavier (Saxony and Appleyard) are excellent foragers. They will track down insects, spiders, slugs (snails, if you have 'em) and many weeds (plus some flowers, like tulips). Their manure is gentle (no burn). I think it reasonable to find they will help in your orchard if you put them to the test, quarterly or otherwise.
 
Ducks are durable in all kinds of weather, as long as they have adequate access to water for drinking and face-washing. The only weather here in Spokane that troubles my birds is below 12 degrees F. Too cold for their bare feet, and they spend much of the time with feet tucked into belly feathers, sleeping until things moderate.
I've had some apples drop from my Liberty tree, and the ducks can't (at least my Harlequins) bite into those windfalls. Perhaps really soft (rotting) apples would be...

 

My one concern is if you spray your trees, you must consider if what you spray would be a threat to ducks. They can handle flukes in pastures without qualm, are rarely susceptable to disease if kept in reasonable health (the starving birds I rescued last year succumbed to coyotes and racoons, not diseases.) But chemicals can be deadly.
I recommend Welsh Harlequin as a breed of many attributes: calm if you treat them kindly, able to brood their own (at least a percentage of this breed will do so), wonderful egg production (I supplement day length with a 60 watt bulb and timer these months), decorative (sugarfrosted mallards) and easy to obtain. I bought my stock from Dave Holderread, in Corvallis, Oregon. He's the best.
If you gather windfalls (sounds like yes), any duck manure is easily washed away if it is still evident on the ground. In the warmer months their droppings in my yard go to insects and into the soil quickly. I wash eggs if needed, and then apply a drop of olive oil rubbing it over the entire surface to retain moisture.
One caveat: ducks are terribly vulnerable to predators since they cannot run fast or fly. If you have adequate fencing to keep out deer you might need to modify things a bit to do the same against predation.
All I have is a back yard in town; no orchard. Am trying not to be envious. Hope it goes well.
 
Dave Liezen 

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From: mariaschu@vtlink.net
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:21:42 -0500
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] ducks

I'm considering getting ducks for our orchard-- but what about duck poop?  We use all of our apple drops.  Would the ducks still help with insect pressure if they were only in the orchard early in the summer (here that means around June 1) and in the fall after harvest? 

Maria z.3/4

On Jan 25, 2011, at 8:52 PM, david liezen wrote:

The climate around my back yard is drier than across the river, south of here. Often I see thunderstorms miss my place by a mile to the north (a flat-top hill about 300' higher) and three miles to the south (part of Palouse country leading to higher ground and the Rockies). I had planted what seemed likely cultivars of apples and found Queen Cox unsuited to the dry and hot we get every year. It's being top-worked this spring.
I'm trying several things: some look to be a sure bet and some a shot in the dark; some tried and true in similar conditions elsewhere in the state and others experimental. The plants teach me how to manage. That is part of the charm for me: keeps me in the yard noting how conditions effect growth and fruit.
My yard was a wasteland prior to introduction of some laying ducks. They've done wonders in the past 3 years: dandelions a dim memory; grass green, lush and mowed half as often as before due to ducks grazing; very little insect pressure to the apples because if they get close to the ground ducks snap 'em up and turn 'em into eggs!
My ducks are Welsh Harlequin. They don't have a pool to play in, but buckets low enough to drink from and wash their faces work fine.
You may find other means to improve your conditions. My hope is to make conditions good enough for my fruits to thrive optimally. Some won't make the cut. Good thing there are so many to choose from and, with grafting onto rootstocks (cheap!) or existing stock, the next decades shine with potential.
Have fun,
Dave Liezen E. WA, z6 

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From: kodama@riseup.net
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:16:37 -0500
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] global cooling

I am very interested in hearing folks' strategies for adding resilience to their orchards or adapting to possible future climate scenarios. Planting out of zone expecting a change? Keeping drought tolerant (or maybe wet tolerant) varieties in particular microclimates just in case normal rainfall patterns shift (are shifting)? Building swales for water retention? What are you doing? These sorts of things could make a fertile topic to explore...

But I have no interest in hearing yet another climate change debate, particularly on this list.

cheers,

Evan

Southern Appalachia, Zone 6b

just short of 3000'

On Jan 23, 2011, at 1:57 PM, Justin West wrote:

 I always appreciate when people decided and are willing to get into dialogue about climate destabilzation, because we desperately need to be discussing this issue more.  I also appreciate when those who do decide to register opinions on the subject of climate change actually have some real concrete information to share instead of just throwing around the old 'its a government conspiracy' conspiracy. 
The fact of the matter is that average global temperatures for every single one of the past 36 years have been above the 20th century average.  9 of the 10 hottest years on record have been since 2001.  These are not blips folks.  With business as usual fossil fuel emissions continuing through this century we will induce the planet into a state of heat it has not experienced for 30-100 million years (thats 28-98 million years prior to the existence of our species)  It is highly uncertain whether humans can exist in such a climate as we simply did not evolve with it.  (source: the latest issue of Science, not exactly a tree hugger conspiracy type publication.)  If those of you looking forward to some 'warming' of your frost bitten pocket of the planet can keep in mind that at this extreme rate of change (which is really the most crucial aspect of this all) mass crop failures such as the one seen in Russia this past summer will become commonplace.  As the equator possibly turns into a desert there may be billions of people who come knocking at the door of those air conditioned northern and southern latitudes.  Try to picture that.  As they pointed out in the article in Science, none of the figures I just quoted come from 'modeling'.  They are all derived directly from records of the past.  None of this requires 'belief.'  It is simply a matter of allowing oneself to look at the data without a predetermined emotional response.  It has been determined that the last time the planet had an atmosphere that carbon rich, it took tens of thousands of years to slowly draw it back down to the climate we evolved in.  Also please keep in mind that all of these projections are prefaced with 'business as usual emissions'.  We are all making a choice in this matter.  We are ,of course, all a part of the earth's 'natural' cycles in as much as we are a part of the Earth itself.  However, that does not absolve us from responsibility for acting appropriately see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/science/earth/22kenya.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22 in the NY Times yesterday for more on that ethical responsibility.  And yes, for those of you who want to say that extinction is also a natural cycle...true.  And we won't escape that fate either, but to bring it on ourselves?? silly silly...
I hope this doesn't raise a guttural backlash on the board here, but it is time to be hashing this out (well the time was actually probably in the 70's but we cannot go back)
 
Justin
1 degree F last night, zone 7 and counting...
yep it was cold last night, but that doesn't mean the climate is not heating up rapidly, just like when it gets dark out every evening that doesn't mean the sun was turned off:)

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