Introduction

Poultry is a wonderful addition to any backyard or farm. They can also be easy to care for pets and provide you with flavorful, nutritious eggs. They can help you grow a garden and blueberries that are free of pesticides. Their droppings will help fertilize your garden. They have a voracious appetite for ticks, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, fleas, slugs, snails, and other pest.

The following are seven considerations when using free range chickens to help control pest on your blueberry farm and provide you with delicious eggs.

1. Free range game chickens must be fenced out of the garden because they scratch and will tear up the garden. Chickens are much more destructive in a garden than guineas in this regard. But, when the gardening is done for the season they work over the garden bed for the next season!

2. Chickens can be used to patrol the fence bordering the garden and really decrease the numbers of grasshoppers and other insects in the garden. This can help you grow pesticide free vegetables and blueberry plants.

3. Chickens will not totally control insect populations but can help reduce their levels. While chickens consume a lot of insects, they are probably of limited value in keeping insect populations at low levels. Chickens can reduce the quantity of insects in the garden. One person reported that before they got chickens, some garden crops were completely ruined by the grasshoppers. The chickens also help control scorpions. The chickens peck off the stinger and then eat the rest of the body. All birds need the protection of a building for weather extremes and safety from predators.

4. The game chickens (original bred for fighting) are wilder in their habits, which makes them wonderful survivors and great at reproducing. Game chickens are the best for running loose on the property. They take care of all kind of bugs and they help control carpenter ants, mosquitoes, and ticks. They will even kill young snakes and have them for a meal. Other breeds of chickens favored by some people are Silkies, Red Ranger, and Barred Rocks. The Red Ranger is a broiler chicken developed by S & G Poultry in Clanton, Alabama. It has good growth rate and feed conversion, Red Ranger is a versatile bird and is an excellent forager well suited for free range use.

5. Chickens can reduce fire ant residents by eating the bugs and seed on which the ants would otherwise be sustained. Chickens can also reduce termites which are some of the nasty pest that are around everywhere.

6. Where there are animals in barns there also are mice and rats. The animals leave bits of grain on the ground after they eat, and some undigested grain shows up in their manure. With all of this food, you can have a serious rat and mouse problem. The free range chickens will accompany the animals and clean up all the grain on the ground and in the dung. Their careful elimination of the source of food for the rodents, and will help keep these pests under control.

7. Chickens can also provide you with the benefit of fresh eggs. The eggs from free range chickens are wonderful!. Free range, organic fed chickens will produce eggs that make store-bought eggs look puny and pale by comparison!

When growing a garden you should include blueberries as one of the of the fruit crops you grow. Blueberries are easy to grow if you prepare the soil to the right pH (4.5 to 5.0). and supply plenty of water in well-drained soil or in raised beds to avoid standing water. Buy your pesticide free blueberry plants from a reputable nursery.

Conclusion

Free range chickens are a cost-effective way to have chemical free insect control while providing entertainment and gourmet food. Pesticide free vegetables and blueberries are also cost-effective and very healthy.