Chicken moat or Duck moat around your garden.

Thu Sep 15, 2011 12:35 am

I'm curious if any members have a moat around their garden.

I have a nice heavy fence around my garden. I'm in the process of adding the lite weight inner fence. The alley all the way around the garden will be only 2ft wide. The old rabbit hutch will be converted into a night secured duck house. Two raised beds in front of the duck house will be converted into duck yard with maybe a fruit tree in the middle.

Mother Earth News has a pretty good article.

Any thoughts?
Eric

Thu Sep 15, 2011 2:37 am

Very nice! I would have given it a try some time ago but we cant spare the water. I am very interested as to how yours will turn out though. Good luck Eric.

Thu Sep 15, 2011 3:02 am

pretty sure i read something like this in bill mollisons permaculture II.

Thu Sep 15, 2011 3:15 am

yes! that is where I have read about it before, I have been raking my memory for a little wile now as to were I have read about it before. I was just starting to think it mite be bill mollison but I wasnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t sure which one of his books it mite have been in. Thank you for reminding me soil.

Thu Sep 15, 2011 3:50 am

Water?

I will only be supplying them with a water trough to bathe and drink from.

Chicken moat http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustaina ... ntrol.aspx

Eric

Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:04 am

oh lol i had the idea of ducks swimming around your garden.

Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:09 am

DoubleDogFarm wrote:Water?

I will only be supplying them with a water trough to bathe and drink from.

Chicken moat http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustaina ... ntrol.aspx

Eric

Whoopsie! right you are, sorry about that my bad, this is even better I am defiantly going to make one of these in the next few years. Rite now though my chooks just Rome free range all 360 degrees around my fenced off veggie patch.

Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:45 am

If it were a real moat the ducks and alligators wouldn't get along. :lol:

Eric

Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:15 am

DoubleDogFarm wrote:If it were a real moat the ducks and alligators wouldn't get along.

Eric

I think that is both funny and scary. I am glad I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have alligators where I live, but if I did live were you live I would be to tempted to try an train the alligators.

Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:27 am

nickolas wrote:
DoubleDogFarm wrote:If it were a real moat the ducks and alligators wouldn't get along.

Eric

I think that is both funny and scary. I am glad I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have alligators where I live, but if I did live were you live I would be to tempted to try an train the alligators.

Not only alligators, I would have to build a castle, drawbridge and find a fair maiden. Fair maiden, hmm... now how do you train them? :wink:

Eric

Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:51 am

find a fair maiden. Fair maiden, hmm... now how do you train them? :wink:

Eric[/quote]

I believe the training of maidenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s of any type comes under the heading of recreational impossibilities :wink:

.

Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:53 pm

You guys are a riot! :lol:

I FINALLY got the chance to visit this thread and what fun!
Ducks on guard duty patrolling the perimeter!

...I'm seeing Daffy -- yeah, Eric's place is definitely a Daffy kind of a farm... Though I guess Donald Duck with the sailor hat/suit fits the island PNW image... Hmmm...?

Even though it,s not something I can do, I'm curious to hear how it all works out.

Thu Sep 15, 2011 9:16 pm

I'm poking a little fun at young Nickolas, I'm not sure if he knows there are no alligator in the Pacific Northwest. Sounds like Gumbo could stock his moat no problem. :shock:

Now I'm wondering if the fences are strong enough to keep the henway out?

Eric

Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:37 pm

plan on cutting down the size of ur garden area? the article says 6 foot moat.

its seem like a great idea. how many chickens or ducks do you have? mother earth said they planned on increasing the size of their flock to keep the grass down.

I am curious how many chickens take to ensure the insects out? cant they just fly over? or move in on sides where the chickens aren't patrolling?

I wanna try this though!!

Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:31 pm

luigonz wrote:plan on cutting down the size of your garden area? the article says 6 foot moat.

its seem like a great idea. how many chickens or ducks do you have? mother earth said they planned on increasing the size of their flock to keep the grass down.

I am curious how many chickens take to ensure the insects out? cant they just fly over? or move in on sides where the chickens aren't patrolling?

I wanna try this though!!

My moat will only be 2ft wide. This area was a mulched strip along the fences anyway, so not much garden lose. I will be loosing 3 raised beds to the duck yard. If you look at the picture, I've decided to take all of the the 3 beds instead of angling across one.

I currently have 14 ducks. 4 Acona, 6 Campbells and 4 Muscovies. I would like to up this to as many as 30 ducks. I'm thinking mostly Aconas for the duck moat.

This will be a fun project, but I don't see it making a huge difference in the insect and bug population. For me it's more a convenience setup. While out in the garden I can toss the ducks weeds, spoiled fruit / veggies, grubs, insect infested produce, etc... The moat will become a long narrow compost strip after awhile. Manure layered in hey, weeds. Maybe once a year the moat could be forked out and spread throughout the garden.

Eric