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Picture III

That's beautiful and your trees look good. I think my orchard needs a name and signage. Thanks for the idea!

Please post back with results, observations, or questions.

So exciting!! I'm new to this myself, so no advice, but it's certainly beautiful :)

Very cute!

Will your hens be free ranging in there? What kind did you get? If they are free ranging and good flyers, you will want to clip their wings.

Our ladies love to eat apples and the leaves off the apricots. And they love to kick in the mulch. If yours will be free ranging, you might want to make wire cages to protect the trees of garden wire. But if the wire is near the fence they may jump to the wire and then over the wooden fence. It does kind of depend on the type of hens they will also keep your grass trimmed.

Buy big beefy hens and flight will not be a problem. I love your orchard and the fence. I have similarly developed an orchard in my backyard that is slowly maturing. I have 3 types of peach trees, an apricot tree, a plum tree, 2 jujube trees (if one lives, doesn't look promising), 2 paw paw trees, two fig trees, 2 asian pear trees, raspberry, blackberry and blue berry bushes, a strawberry patch, 3 hardy kiwi vines and 3 fuzzy kiwi vines. I also have a small garden and a raised garden where we grow beans, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, greens, zucchini, eggplant and peppers. In my front yard I have a cherry tree, a persimmon tree, 2 cherry bushes and another strawberry patch.

Conway you are killing me. I was happy with my simple, small back yard fruit trees. Now IâÂÂve got to make a sign, install a fence, and start a chicken farm. Keeping up with the ConwayâÂÂs is tough. All jokes aside, your setup is beautiful. I will at least use your idea for an orchard name. Thanks for showing us how nice a backyard orchard can look. Bill

@Kippy-the-Hippy - The hens will be golden comets. I will look to create some sort of barrier between the trees and the chickens. I like the wire cage idea but I do think they would be able to use that to jail break the 24 x 24 area!

Thanks to all for the kind words. I will keep trying to grow these trees and keep you posted. Hope to get an apple or two this year just to keep the hope alive! :)

We have a "chicken most" with the fruit trees and hens on the outside of the same fencing and a veggie garden on the inside. Our Easter Eggers try to sneak under the gates (stepping stones under the gates stopped that) or try and fly over (wings clipped) the other thing I do to discourage digging under plants with out cages is to make a frame of crooked branches

That is amazing looking. I am just starting with fruit, been a veg/flower gardener for years. I am so excited about my fruit trees but it is not nearly as impressive as yours. Keep us posted on the orchard!

Good Morning!

After an eventful 24-hrs, I am happy to report my hens are settled in and cleaning up every beatle, bug, grub and daddy long leg from the orchard. I am a new chicken owner, and its pretty cool. One tried to jail break the fence earlier this morning as I am letting them free range in the orchard but don't need them all over the neighborhood.

Thanks-
Chris

You've made your orchard look very lovely and so practical.

I can only dream of such a garden!!!

I thought trees had to be much further apart.........Now I need more trees. We have been putting 20-30 feet between fruit trees and 30-40 feet between rows. YEAH I can put in more trees!!! Yippe! I think Honeycrisp apples will be a nice addition to my 2 acres.

Careful there Baditude. Some trees do require greater spacing, depending of variety, rootstock, how you train your tree, etc. Investigate and choose wisely and hopefully you will only have to plant once, and not be forced into transplanted as many of us have. btw, my orchard is on about one acre or slightly more and I have about 150 trees. Many commercial orchards are going to the tall spindle system, hitting upwards of 1000 trees and acre. Spacing is 3 ft between trees or less, and 14 ft between rows or less. That's a lot of upkeep too.....Also, HC are a great apple, good luck.

Some of my trees are only four to five feet apart. They are happy. Mrs. G

I'm concerned about your plastic tree guards. My practice is to take these off in the spring, as they trap moisture against the bark, which can lead to problems, especially with stone fruit.

When I want a year-round trunk protection, I use hardware cloth.