Chicks take on pest control
Ithink we may have started a new tradition in our garden this year, which is enlisting a team of chicks to take care of insect pests. Now not all insects are pests, for some their only fault is to be a bit scary but it’s lovely to have a set of scratching feet and beaks to trim down the wildlife.
Without much luck from our own broody hens in spring, we bought eight-day-old hen chicks from a commercial hatchery. For about three weeks we coddled them through the days and tucked them up at night with a hot water bottle in a box. Their day naps got gradually less and their outings around the front or back porch (depending on the weather) gradually longer.
Also, their need for verbal ‘‘parent’’ reassurances out the window dwindled as they became braver about roughing it on their own.
The first visit around the side of the house seems to have set them up for life. Until then they had wandered a bit aimlessly, not really sure what they were supposed to be doing – needing some motherly guidance.
They soon got the idea when they learned about proper hunting and scratching for themselves. We had lifted up a plank and called them over for an inspection, when, amid much scratching, a large black spider was sent flying. After an initial startled round of cries, the chicks were after it in a mob.
The spider found itself wrapped around a tiny chick’s neck, clinging on for life, but after a battle lasting several minutes, it was finally swallowed by one brave contender, who spent some time wobbling her neck to get the beast and all its big black hairy legs, down. It was the stuff of nightmares.
From then on, the chicks have become avid spider hunters and eat anything that tries to fly or scuttle away from them. They particularly love it when we’re weeding, happily chirruping away while they rush in to inspect what bug life there is as a weed is pulled out. The garden has never been so bereft of slugs, snail eggs or bugs, including the beautiful but slightly un-nerving nursery-web spider.
Chicks are one thing in the garden, fully grown chickens another. The girls will be firmly under control in the chook run once they’ve grown to crop-damaging size. But for now they are working well for their keep. Come next summer, hopefully, there will be a few less insects to contend with.
The hens and their chicks in the orchard are doing a similar job, helping to clear away bugs living beneath the fruit trees. They don’t just scratch around the bases but also catch anything they find on leaves within their reach.
Ducks are another useful animal to have in your orchard, provided they are fenced in, because they will wreak havoc in a garden. They will clear up fallen or diseased fruit as well as insect pests and the fertiliser they produce is a welcome attribute.
Not every garden can have chickens, but if you can, you’ll have either fresh eggs through their first autumn and hopefully winter, or cash from selling them at the end of summer. Plus, you’d have insect hunting fun and fewer insects to munch your veges.