When we had the chicken run built we had it built with the existing large shrubs and the apple tree left inside it. We planted the apple tree when we moved here eight years ago.
The apple tree produced more apples each year than the year before and they were really good to eat. What I hadn’t anticipated was that once the apple tree was enclosed with weld mesh the bees stopped coming in to pollinate the blossom. For the last three years there have been no apples at all on the tree.
I wasn’t that bothered because I thought it was nice that the run had a tree and the chickens are much more important to me than having apples. The tree also looks very pretty when it is in blossom.
The chicken’s apple tree
Apple blossom
This year I thought I might experiment with pollinating the blossom myself using a small paint brush. As I give the girls apples in the afternoon, to give them something to peck at, it would be good if they had their own supply for a while.
I have no idea if this will work but there is nothing to lose so I will give it a go. Watch this space.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
I do hope that works as I have always been interested in saving seeds so this would be an interesting project to follow .
I have just been researching it and most apple trees need pollen from another tree but some apple trees are self pollenating so I just have to hope ours is. It used to produce apples and I haven’t seen any other apple trees around but that’s not to say there aren’t some in gardens that I can’t see into.
You take a fine brush and collect the pollen then brush it onto the female parts. I am going to give it a try anyway.
My husband had the idea of putting bees in so he caught one in a jar and let it out by the tree. It flew straight out again. You can lead a bee to the tree but you can’t make it pollenate!