Using Geese and Ducks in the Garden
Taking a break in our normal sheep-maple syrup Factual Friday rotation to bring you an update on the poultry front.
This year, we decided to reintroduce waterfowl to the farm. A few years ago in our PL days (pre-Lew), Josh and I tried our hand at raising a few other types of poultry besides chickens. Figuring we had egg layers and meat birds down, we decided to raise ducks at one point, and at another, guinea fowl.
The guinea fowl turned out to be a total flop. They got into everything, were constantly roosting in strange places, and although we’d gotten them to be protective animals for the chickens, they ended up actually drawing more predators in because they enjoy screaming their heads off at all hours of the night. Perhaps one day we’ll try them again, but I don’t think that will be any time soon.
The ducks, however, were incredibly fun to raise, and we would have kept them longer had we not had a major weasel problem.
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What Are the Best Poultry for the Garden?
Flash forward to now, and we’re back to raising ducks, with the new addition of geese.
We’re looking forward to having duck eggs to eat, and both ducks and geese can, of course, also be raised for meat. But what we’re really excited about is how we plan to use them for vegetation management.
You all know how we use our sheep for vegetation management on solar farms, and that has worked wonderfully for us. However, it means that some of the vegetation closer to home has gotten a little out of control.
Last summer, I spent an average of three to four hours per week weed-whacking overgrown vegetation around some of our pens and in my garden. This year, we plan to let the geese and ducks do most of the work.
What Are Weeder Geese?
Geese, in particular, have been used for years to control unwanted vegetation, even in commercial crops. Although this is a practice that’s more popular in Asia, they’re also commonly found on fruit orchards in the US.
Geese aren’t fond of most broad-leafed plants, which is where most vegetable crops qualify. They don’t compact the soil like machinery, and since I do not use any kind of herbicides in my garden, I wanted a way to keep weeds down without having to do quite as much manual labor. They have a long, slender neck, too, which means they can get around crop plants where I might otherwise struggle weeding by hand or using a weed whacker.
Not to mention, they do all of this while spreading nitrogen-rich manure around the plants.
The key with using geese is that you need to train them early and often. They will happily eat horsetail, chickweed, clover, puncture vine, and other problematic weeds. They can be used to weed around tomatoes, onions, carrots, mint, corn, potatoes, garlic, and other garden crops. That said, you need to feed these weeds to young goslings early so they develop a taste for them.
Unlike chickens, geese don’t dig into the ground and “till” the soil, which means you don’t have to worry too much about them damaging your mature plants. They will go after freshly-transplanted seedlings, however.
Using Ducks in the Garden
Ducks provide another valuable service in the garden. Since geese are vegetarians, they won’t touch the slugs and other bugs that like to hang around your plants. Ducks, however, happily eat slugs along with weeds. Like geese, they may occasionally take a nibble out of your tomatoes or lettuce, but for the most part, they’ll stick to the pests on the ground.
One of the most endearing things to me about ducks is that they’re particularly helpful in the rainy season. Given how much rain we’ve experienced over the last few summers, I view this as a major benefit. They’ll take care of weeds while also making use of the puddles nearby (while doing so quite happily).
We’ve had a massive slug problem on our brassicas the last couple of years because of all the rain, and while diatomaceous earth has been helpful in keeping them down, it has to be applied after every rainstorm (which last summer, seemed like an everyday occurrence). Again, I do not use pesticides, so the ducks will be a helpful addition to reduce some of my summertime garden labor.
We purchased half a dozen Khaki Campbell ducks and four White Embden geese. As of right now, they are still less than a month old and are happily chattering away in our brooder. We’re looking forward to setting them loose for weed control in just another month or so!
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