Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Hi, quick Q to chicken-keeper/ gardeners out there. Someone of my acquaintance reckons their chickens won't eat the caterpillars of the cabbage white butterflies, either the larger or smaller whites.

Have you found this so?

When I was clearing my derelict allotment, I would have several containers around me; giant trug for the couch grass and perennial weeds, bucket of the glass and nails and tub for the cutworms, leather jackets, chafer grubs. Every hour or so, I'd stroll down to another plot (with owner's consent btw) to drop the critters into their hen run.

The birds knew what that was all about and used to give the happiest little burbles of anticipation, less than the full-blown hysteria of morning feeding, but still pleasant. She'd occasionally give me half a dozen eggs, but I regarded getting rid of the pests as a favour, not that I was doing her one.

I've harvested several kilos of runner beans and taken them to share with my family, and some beetroots as well. They're cooking now. I have grown bigger beetroot, but these are a good size, you really don't need veg which cause passers-by to say things to each other like Effing hell, wouldja look at the size of those effing things?! 'Sides, it's a PITA if they won't fit into a 8 incha saucepan.

Did read in a gardening book once that you don't have an excess of slugs, you have a deficiency of ducks.......:rotfl:

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

Did read in a gardening book once that you don't have an excess of slugs, you have a deficiency of ducks.......:rotfl:

Would they, by any chance, be adhesive ducks?

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Would they, by any chance, be adhesive ducks?

Dunno, Bob, I suspect that's meant to be funny but I'm too thick to get some of your jokes. Expanations for the comically-challenged, s'il vous plait.

thriftwizard

Never seen a cabbage white caterpillar in our garden in the 11 years since we've had chickens, GQ, so can't answer from experience, I'm afraid. Or maybe they are why I've never seen one? Mind you, we've not grown cabbages here, either... but we have grown kale, and nasturtiums, and still haven't seen them. Butterflies, yes; caterpillars, no.

VJsmum

GreyQueen wrote: »

Did read in a gardening book once that you don't have an excess of slugs, you have a deficiency of ducks.......:rotfl:

In South Korea, they have ducks in the paddy fields to keep the critters away from the rice, and they eat the ducks also.:D

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

Dunno, Bob, I suspect that's meant to be funny but I'm too thick to get some of your jokes.

Maybe you're just not a Big Bang Theory fan.

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Maybe you're just not a Big Bang Theory fan.

That's not casting any light. FWIW, I gave up watching TV in 1987 and watch about 1 movie a year, so pop culture references mostly go straight over my head.

I do know an interesting selection of unusual facts about a variety of mostly useless subjects, tho.

Butterfly_Brain

Just a word of warning to anyone with dogs that if they eat slugs they can catch lungworm

DawnW

GreyQueen wrote: »

Hi, quick Q to chicken-keeper/ gardeners out there. Someone of my acquaintance reckons their chickens won't eat the caterpillars of the cabbage white butterflies, either the larger or smaller whites.

Have you found this so?

I have found that they will happily eat the green ones, but not the green/black/yellow multicoloured ones (sorry not sure which is large and which small). Neither will the wild birds, so they are a real nuisance. For some reason our garden is caterpillar heaven, despite chooks which will eat any that don't have the warning colouration.



Did read in a gardening book once that you don't have an excess of slugs, you have a deficiency of ducks.......:rotfl:

Yes, I definitely have a deficiency of ducks these days I used to keep them, the ones I had were brilliant layers, but this garden is really too small. They need a fair amount of space because they are messy. I do miss them as they are hilarious to watch - not clever, but very amusing. If one does something, however random, they all have to follow suit. The kids always reckoned that there are fewer brain cells than the actual number of ducks, and so when a particular individual currently had a cell, and hence an idea, all the others would have to follow him or her

ginnyknit

I used to derive great satisfaction from feeding slugs to my chickens however I couldnt watch as it made me wretch Caterina I used to save all the scraps of peelings and bits of leftover food till evening, warm it up and feed them with that - they loved it. They had pellets of a morning but much preferred anything I threw them as I was passing. I even poured the oil or juice off tinned fish in the bowl.

I now officially have a jam mountain and it looks so beautiful. I dont think I paid for any of the fruit just the sugar. The best by far is my 'empty all the tubs out of the freezer' jam - yellow raspberries, redcurrants, blackberry and apple, gorgeous colour and flavour.My thinking is if all else fails we can have jam and crackers/bread.


Noticed in Mr S last week they have rounded a lot of the prices up and not just by a peenie but they have also started making lots of small packs of stuff for us poor people :mad: 20p biscuits/teabags. I suppose it works better to get the children a pack of biscuits to fill them up and we always need tea bags!