This is a guest post and entry in Round 1 of the Farm Dreams writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $300 gift certificate toward any purch

This is a guest post and entry in Round 1 of the Farm Dreams writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A $300 gift certificate toward any purchase of Featherman Poultry Processing Equipment, including pluckers, knives and more!

Second Prize: A 164' roll of electric poultry netting from Kencovevalued at $140!

Third Prize: A large heirloom pack of assorted seeds from Baker Creek (northern or southern region) plus a copy of Jere and Emilee Gettle's recently published book The Heirloom Life Gardener.Valued at $125!

Fourth Prize: A $55 gift certificate good toward any purchase at Lehman's!

Round 1 ends began January 15 and ends March 15 so GET BUSY WRITING and email your entry to us today!

Insecticides and Vermin Control for the Homestead, by P. Barr

We raise cattle and sheep, and keep various types of poultry for our only insecticide.  They control all our pests.  We also have “barn cats” for the vermin.

Chickens- Some breeds of chickens are one of the best foragers to be found in the bird world.  They regularly bust a part the various “pies” left by our animals not only for the grain that wasn’t fully consumed, but the larva left there also. I wish I could say I had a breed I recommend, however one of my requirements is that they be both broody and good mothers as well as great foragers.  I’ve yet to find that breed.  What I decided to try this year is use Silkies to brood and raise my other chicken eggs.  Silkies don’t do well free ranging (I’ve had a zero survival rate with any I let free range), so more feeding.  I have tried Silkies is in the past (from Hatchery chicks… I know all Hatchery chicks are incubated and the broodiness of the breed isn’t even considered when it comes to genetics.  I’d love to be able to buy any of the various Dorkings or Orpingtons from a local breeder I’d jump at the chance.)  I’m trying both Dorkings and Orpingtons again this year.  I liked both breeds for foraging as well as good egg production and nice sized carcasses but, I only had 1 of each ever go broody, and both times the chick that hatched fell out of the nest, and the hen took care of that chick.    

We also have Muscovy Ducks.  Originating from Brazil, Muscovies are the only domestic ducks that is not derived from mallard stock.  The males can grow to be quite large, weighing 10-15 lbs. Most of the females are 5-7 pounds but can reach up to 9 and sometimes 10 lbs. Their feet are equipped with strong sharp claws for grabbing tree branches and roosting. Muscovys are unique because of their bright red crest around their eyes and above the beak. They do not swim much because their oil glands are under developed compared to most ducks. Muscovy hens can set three times a year, and the egg clutches can vary from 8 to 21 eggs. The eggs are incubated for 35 days.  One of the main reasons they were brought here several hundred years ago, is to help keep down the mosquito and bug population, and that they do, and do it well. There are billions of insects on an acre of land, and the Muscovy ducks are worth their weight in gold at eating mosquitoes and insects. They eat the mosquito larva right in the water, and they nip in the air and eat the ones flying around. They love roaches and eat them like they are candy, they eat flies, and maggots and do a lot to keep down the fly population. They even eat those rolly pollies that you find under rocks and all around the outside of your house. They have a bad taste, and most birds won't even eat them, the Muscovies are one of the few things that will eat them. I have even seen them eat ants; they eat every bug they see. But what even makes them more valuable is they love spiders, and they eat even the poisonous ones, the Black Widow, and the deadly brown spider that is worse than the Black Widow.

Next in our arsenal are the mallard type ducks.  Khaki Campbell Ducks are an active, solid brown or khaki colored, moderately streamline bird. They have been bred without concentration on extreme characteristics. They are classified as a Light Weight Duck. Standard weights at maturity are males-5 1/2 lbs. and females-5 lbs.  Welsh Harlequin ducks Superior layers, these ducks can average 366 eggs a year.  Black Cayuga ducks are “good” layers, but are in the medium class of ducks (males 8 pounds, females 7 pounds) and are great tasting

All four breeds are guilty of eating grass; larva and help (a long with the stocked fish) keep our ponds clean and clear of algae.  They are very pleasing to look upon while they are taking their many swims on our ponds also.

To round out our poultry insecticiders, we also keep Blue Slate turkeys.   It will not grow as large or as fast as the bronze or white turkeys but is good to eat and will be a wonderful addition to the farm Turkeys soon became valuable hired hands on colonial farms. Some farmers today, if they're over 50, may recall how they were sent into tobacco fields as kids to remove big green worms by hand. But even George Washington, in his time, had a better idea.  Both Washington and Thomas Jefferson used turkeys for insect control in tobacco. A flock of turkeys will move through a field as a single unit, equally spaced so as not to miss a single plant, and systematically devour the insect culprits. The use of turkeys to find and destroy insects may again some day prove useful as a safe and inexpensive non-chemical approach to bug control.  The turkeys our ancestors ate were healthy, free-ranging birds. They had the native intelligence of their wild cousins and could subsist on insects, green grasses, and legumes. They were largely free of disease and mated naturally, desirable traits that cannot be matched by their modern white kin.

We also keep (raise) guineas but while their prime purpose is insecticide (at least for the guineas) they are also the “Best farmstead Watchdog”).  I had a neighbor (who worked 6 days a week) tell me after I’d been keeping guineas that he was going to complain about them.  They’d have a coffee kulich under his bedroom window every Sunday morning.  (actually every morning lol as they have a routine of where they travel to eat that is so regular you can set a clock by them.)  Then he realized he’d been able to mow his lawn, even sit on the grass without any chiggers nor ticks.  I normally pick 3 ticks off all 5 of my dogs a month, and maybe one off me. 

Lastly along with guineas (they love snakes) are our vermin catchers, the barn cat.  Our never named (well unless spectacular in coloring and / or temperament), never petted, and only fed about half to two thirds what a house cat should be fed are our only vermin killers.  In over 3 years of keeping feed (currently over 1000 pounds a month in 50 pound bags) we’ve only had 2 bags opened by other than me.  Barn cats shouldn’t want to be petted, and want blooded meat.  Ours know (and we never “taught” them not to) not to mess with young poultry (but will eat the wild ones).  They periodically will leave us a tail or feathers (bragging I think). 

The best part of these “Insecticides” is because they are foraging for the major part of their food, we don’t have much of a feed bill, and selling their eggs more than pays that.