After coming back to this site from a long hiatus of chicken ownership, I am trying to find information about rotating a garden with chickens. My intent is to make a 1 acre fenced chicken run that is divided down the middle. Chickens can be run on one half while the other half is planted out as a veggie garden. The coop would be located centrally and have pop doors to each run. I know that I saw similar plans on this website years ago, and I was wondering if someone could point me in that direction. Has anyone had this setup for an extended period of time? Would it be possible to cover such a large area with netting?
I am worried about the amount of phosphates that are deposited from running chickens on a garden site for a year, but I'm not sure what effect 25-30 chickens would have on half an acre in one year. I think that the stocking rate would have to be much higher for them to reduce the area to bare soil, so I might need to move some sheep into that pen every now and again to control the pasture height.
Does this sound like a sensible plan to you, or have you done something similar? I have considered adding more fencing and doing a 4 run rotation, but I don't know the benefits to such a system over 2 runs. I have also heard of doing a "chicken moat," which may work in my situation by installing a 6' run around the acre, but fencing would be pricey.
ETA: I found the article I was looking for: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/silveira44a.html.
I am worried about the amount of phosphates that are deposited from running chickens on a garden site for a year, but I'm not sure what effect 25-30 chickens would have on half an acre in one year. I think that the stocking rate would have to be much higher for them to reduce the area to bare soil, so I might need to move some sheep into that pen every now and again to control the pasture height.
Does this sound like a sensible plan to you, or have you done something similar? I have considered adding more fencing and doing a 4 run rotation, but I don't know the benefits to such a system over 2 runs. I have also heard of doing a "chicken moat," which may work in my situation by installing a 6' run around the acre, but fencing would be pricey.
ETA: I found the article I was looking for: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/silveira44a.html.
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