North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

Our banties go anywhere they like, so there's not much hope of penning them among fruit trees.  The guineas barely managed to repopulate themselves, but I always did hate guineas and the only good thing I can say about them is that they are really, really easy to pluck.  Having ducks made me appreciate how easy chickens are to pluck.  I have some laying ducks now, and when my husband asked someone with an oriental grocery if people would be interested in buying duck eggs, she immediately asked did we sell ducks to eat?  So you might want to keep that in mind.  I definitely want to keep our ducks at least till winter is over to keep slugs under control.  I haven't seen a slug all winter.  I really like muscovies, they are so friendly and would follow us around, esp if we did any digging in the garden.  They also are capable of sleeping up off the ground on perches, except for the mature drakes and the little ones.  That makes them a lot safer from everything except great horned owls.  The trouble with muscovies is that they can't be butchered till a certain age, though if one had a market it would be worth it.  They are sure a lot easier to pluck than quack ducks!!!

    If my husband weren't allergic to eggs, I'd hatch some nice heavy layers, RI Reds or whatever, and pen them under my plum trees.  But something new has come to light, and I was so horrified that I immediately commenced to butcher every pullet and rooster that I don't particularly want.  (That still leaves me with some 3 banty roosters and maybe 5-8 hens and pullets, which is way too many.)  I may just get rid of the poultry altogether, at least for now.  I will miss them very much if I do, especially my cute little dark-eyed hens and the gorgeous little roosters, which can be kept in economically unprofitable numbers if they run loose, as they use space rather than battle to deal with their territorial instincts.  I have always thought of the banties as creatures that didn't really pay their way as far as meat or eggs, but in terms of pest control they have worked out well.  And there's a reason why "chicken feed" means a paltry portion of a budget, esp when your poultry weighs barely over a pound apeice.  Another nice thing about banties is that the roosters never attack us.  It's generally not safe to turn your back on a standard sized rooster after he turns 2 yrs old.  The best part of the banties is that we never have problems with blister beetles anymore, because the chickens catch the grasshoppers, and it's grasshopper eggs that blister beetles lay their eggs on.      Donna