A Bountiful Mess!

Raspberries, blackberries, black raspberries, we've got 'em. Sometimes I think the blackberry/raspberry patch is a monsterous being trying to take over the world, or at least our fruit orchard. They are armed and dangerous, covered in thorns that seem to reach out and attack when one walks nearby. Quite a few years ago we cleared some heavily wooded land to make way for fruit trees.

Woodland behind the swingset around 2006.

The swingset became a grape arbor once the kids outgrew it, the woods beyond have been cleared and fruit trees planted there over last 6 years. 

BUT..... The prickly, thorny, mean spirited blackberries and raspberries have take over!

There were SOME blackberry and raspberry plants even when the area was wooded but once the area was cleared of most trees the berries took off, literally. They spread more each year even though I pull some up and dig some up and chop some down and try to give some away. Last year I cleared all that were close to the fruit trees thinking they may be robbing the trees of resources. This year of course the berries are back so I'm thinking I will leave them around the fruit trees to see if their thorns will keep away woodland critters that like to eat from the fruit trees.

There is a fruit tree in there with 6' and 7' tall berry bushes surrounding it. 

The berries are tasty and make great jam and food is a good thing but how to limit them? It's hard to tell by the picture but the whole area, a very big area is like a giant wave of berry plants,  a sea of green and later red and black when the berries ripen, they are all through the area.  How to have just the right amount or have the hoards in a better area, how can I solve this issue?

Peach tree surrounded by Raspberry and Blackberry plants.

The chicken yard fence seems to be holding back the mountain of berry plants. The chickens and ducks will gain a lot more room once we extend out there but will they even want to deal with the berry bushes?

For now we will let them fruit and possibly they will protect the fruit trees a bit? This area has the younger fruit trees in it. I will be transplanting some of the canes that will fruit next year. I'm in the process of extending the chicken and ducks fenced area through this part of the orchard. Maybe they will help keep the berry plants down but they tend to avoid the ones currently in their yard, I guess they don't want to get pricked any more than I do! Since I have to work regularly in this area I might as well get used to being all scratched up!  I will keep trying to find the solution for this bountiful mess.

Thorny berry plants everywhere!

Strawberry season

So happy that our strawberry area is doing well this year. The area we've set aside for strawberries gets better every year. We have a lot of wild strawberries on the land too which caused some problems early on with strawberry growing. The tiny wild strawberry plants seemed to intermingle too much with the larger cultivated strawberry plants. Now though the cultivated plants have taken over to a good extent in their area and the wild berries while prevalent in other areas don't intermingle with the large strawberries as much. We're getting a bumper crop of strawberries this year, happy rto have plenty to eat and possibly bake with as well. Of course KitKat is on hand to help out or maybe supervise!

Pondering Pear Pollination Problem

I realised that the oldest pear tree we have, planted around 10 years ago, STILL has never fruited. About time to do some research. The problem...pollination problems. The pear tree in question is a Moonglow variety. It needs a couple more similar pear trees within close proximity to fruit. We do have two additional pear trees, they're not in close proximity though and one tree we don't know which variety of pear it is. If it's an Asian then it may not pollinate the Moonglow tree. The third tree was added last year and it's a Kieffer pear. This could be a good pollinator for the Moonglow Pear  but it's quite far away and pretty young. The Kieffer can be somewhat self pollinating (would be more so down south) and has one pear growing on it! We didn't set out to have non pollinated pear trees but two additional pear trees that were added in past years both failed to thrive and eventually died. Our mission now is to purchase and plant at least one more good sized, healthy, European pear tree in close proximity to the Moonglow and probably add another close to the Kieffer pear tree.

Moonglow Pear 10-ish years old

Trunk diameter 5" plus

Kieffer pear tree

One pear!

KitKat supervises.

Pear trees to far apart? 

At last, signs of spring

New green shoots coming up, garlic and onions and chives. Young chicks exploring outdoors. Ducks able to paddle in their pools. The snow is all gone. The cats happy and warm in the sun.

They grow up so fast!

The four Easter Egger chicks are growing up so fast. It seems like we just got them but already they are ready to move out to the coop and get to know the other chickens and the ducks. Having a February 26 hatch date did not allow these northern chicks to get out much for their first 6 or 7 weeks. Finally it was warm enough and they were feathered enough to start having an hour or two outdoors and now they are ready to live in the coop with the other birds. We use the cage in coop and cage in run (or attached separate run depending on amount of chicks) to get the old and new birds acquainted with each other. They've been in the coop for a week and today I let chicks have a little supervised time lose in the chicken yard. They had a great time flying and pecking around. The adult birds were quite nosy and pecked them a bit but nothing major. The adult birds were far more interested in the chicks food since the other groups food is always better than your own, no matter what, always!

The Catsndogs4us Chickens have marked themselves safe from aerial predator attack!

Thankful that most of the time our flock is able to protect themselves from predators. I was worried after hearing a ruckus just before sunset, heading out to the coop and finding a pile of feathers, then a trail of a few feathers here and there. The trail led to the coop and ALL were safe and sound, The birds, chickens and ducks had brought themselves in and gotten safe from the predators. The flock seem to have an effective system, the roosters sound the alarm and we also have a fairly large contingent of crows who carry on loudly when trouble is near. The birds know that when roosters or crows are sounding the alarm they need to get to safety. It was almost bedtime so I counted the flock, all present,  checked over the bird with feather loss, no wound at all just a small patch of feathers pulled out, then shut them up for the night. The whole flocked has marked themselves safe from whatever trouble was in the air this evening.

It's never nice to lose animals to predators and can be very awful but I have had to find a mindset of being careful, taking all the precautions I can and then hoping for the best. I worried so very much our first year with a large flock that I didn't enjoy them as much as I should. Now I enjoy each day with my flock and try not to worry about all the possible things that can happen. I enjoy them while I have them. Each day is a gift in life and in flocks :-) and it's best not to worry about the next day too much. 

3 fat squirrels!

That's who is sharing our chickens and ducks food. I'm none too thrilled about it but I could have so many worse predators or rodents. I guess I can live with three fat squirrels. They're always in the chicken yard the birds seem to have accepted these interlopers into the flock.