Show poultry a garden or orchard area they can forage in and you’ll be astounded by the intensity of their hunting and gathering. Despite centuries of domestication, they’ve retained their instinct for live food — and gardeners can put this innate drive to use and so reduce their reliance on other forms of pest control.
But one species is not likely to solve all your needs. Poultry are specialists; each species has specific behaviours along with likes and dislikes. Happiness and success come from matching the right species to the garden pests they like most and to their style of hunting.
Species such as fowls alternate pecking the ground with scratching movements of the feet, behaviour ideal for locating larvae and grubs living around fruit trees.
By contrast, ducks like to slide their…
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Good Organic Gardening (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue#10.5 - 2019