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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Natural Pest Control

Not three weeks ago we had a day where it was 94F in the afternoon and 34F the next morning. The bugs and critters never know what to think when it happens overnight like that. Everything goes into survival mode and anything can happen.



Here is my newest form of bug control. These ladies can eat their weight in bugs everyday. And tomatoes, but that is another story. I love to watch them forage for good stuff to eat. They eat weed seeds, and probably anything I plant in seed form in the spring. We will have to see how that goes. I may need to fence them out of certain areas.  But for bugs they have been amazing. We finally let them out to free range when they were 11 weeks old and fortunately that has worked well for us. When we finally have eggs they ought to be fantastic and the color of gold.




Having had such crazy and extreme changes in weather has meant gross things like gnats hatched out again when the weather went from 27F to 60F. I would have rather had 40F and kept the gnats at bay. Hard to be outside cleaning things up when you breath those gross little things in. But the chickens have found them and are doing their best to get rid of  them. The gnats coat the trunks of certain trees in my yard and the girls have figured out which ones. Thank goodness. Prizes for the chick who eats the most.




This is not the best picture but you can see strings of the gnats hanging from it. The bark is completely covered in blue bottle gnats and it looks like the tree is crawling. Once is freezes solid and stays that way for a few days again this will all be over. Sad to say I am ready for it to freeze again. Yuck!

22 comments:

  1. Those hens are worth their weight in gold. What a wonderful way to control the bugs!
    Rosey

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  2. My hens do love their bugs. And their tomatoes. I hear you there. When ever I was in the garden they were there, waiting, because they knew I'd throw them a treat. Today I've rewarded them for another Very Good Thing.

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  3. I need to borrow those hens Heather! LOL

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  4. Such a peaceful community of hens, supporting and comforting each other.... the togetherness!! ~bangchik

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  5. I love the photo's of your girls. We used to have a hen that would swallow mice in one swift gulp! It's amazing what they will eat ;o)

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  6. Those is the cutest insect control I've seen. I've never seen that many gnats at once. I hope your hens can get them for you.

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  7. yuck gnats love the chickens those girls are so cute . hugs, Cherry

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  8. Oh, gross. If I could make a good cage thing to keep them in or out of parts of the garden, I'd let them wander around too.

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  9. I wish I had chickens to eat the gnats in my yard!! There are so many! I am hoping for a freeze to kill them off...sad but true. :)

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  10. I think we had the same gnats over in Montana today!

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  11. That is so fascinating. Your babies are pretty and very fat. Looks like they are living large off the land.

    I will give you a million dollars to change this word verification to something else.

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  12. Eeewww, those gnats are horrendous, Heather. Gross!!!! Thank heavens for your heroic chickens. Ours are bigtime tomato connoisseurs, too!

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  13. Beautiful chickens! Providing food and killing off the pests, sounds like they are doing their job.

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  14. Love that first photo of your chicks.

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  15. Wow! Precious chickens doing their bit! You got a fantastic garden and farm, Heather! What a wonderful life with abounding nature and all...just great!

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  16. The other day I looked out the window and thought, wow, it's snowing a bit. Then I realized it was just gnats. I'm not ready for it to freeze hard again, though. I would like some sunny skies - our weather has been dreary and grey for a while now.

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  17. ooooh. I don't think I've noticed gnats in that numerous a group before. yuck - that the tree is crawling?!

    How great that the chickens are enjoying their feast though!

    Such extreme weather changes - that's rough.

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  18. This gives me the creepy crawlies...YUCK is right! At least it's all natural...haha!

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  19. wow what a mighty difference in the temperature. Weather is getting cold here too but not as fast as that one. Like reading your post and love the first pic.

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  20. ewwwww... i enlarged the gnat photo! we don't have anything like that where i live. you need many chickens to combat those bugs. very interesting post, and congrats on your first egg!

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  21. As we know that prevention is better than cure,So nice prevention should to be taken in your blog to protect the offspring crops from damage by providing them selective pesticide and insecticide.Pest control N J

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Thank you for your ideas, suggestions or greetings. I love to hear from you and read them all.
-Heather

About This Blog

We started this blog in Feb. of 2009 to help us stay motivated and to track our progess in the garden. We live on 5 acres surrounded by Idaho farmland. We have wildlife galore and are attempting to attract more in the bird catagory. This is our journal. Welcome!

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