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
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Double%20Dog%20Farm%20Vegetable%20Garden%20plants/DuckMoat.jpg[/img]
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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.DoubleDogFarm wrote:Water?
I will only be supplying them with a water trough to bathe and drink from.
Chicken moat https://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1988-05-01/Garden-Pest-Control.aspx
Eric
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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?nickolas wrote:I think that is both funny and scary. I am glad I don'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.DoubleDogFarm wrote:If it were a real moat the ducks and alligators wouldn't get along.
Eric
Eric
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You guys are a riot!
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.
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.
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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!!
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!!
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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.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!!
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
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Dono,
That was a fun video. It must have been taken on a cool day. It was a bit nipply out.
I'm a member of elsewhere, but have not posted.
Here are some pictures of the duck moat in progress. Taken in the dark, sorry.
Inner fence
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Duck%20Moat%20Sept%202011/DuckMoat002.jpg[/img]
Duck yard and future duck house
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Duck%20Moat%20Sept%202011/DuckMoat003.jpg[/img]
Eric
That was a fun video. It must have been taken on a cool day. It was a bit nipply out.
I'm a member of elsewhere, but have not posted.
Here are some pictures of the duck moat in progress. Taken in the dark, sorry.
Inner fence
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Duck%20Moat%20Sept%202011/DuckMoat002.jpg[/img]
Duck yard and future duck house
[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Duck%20Moat%20Sept%202011/DuckMoat003.jpg[/img]
Eric
wonder how well geese would work. And they might keep the deer out? Of course for deer the mote doubles as a deer fence. That is if you keep the fences about 4' apart. Deer won't like to jump up over 4 feet and down. And they might not like jumping in the middle between the fences either. Especially if you cover them with deer netting.