Chicken garden tillers

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

2.5 lbs of food for 11 chickens does sound a little high for me for times of the years when grass and bugs are available. You could try cutting back a little and see how they do.

I like the idea of having the run and coop side-by-side, but I'd add an extra twist - every year, you should switch them. Set up the compost pile in your chicken run, the girls will scratch around the pile and compost anything you throw in there.

That should give your garden a huge boost of nutrients every year, while giving the chickens some new treats to pick at every season.

 

[Chic Rustler]

2.5 lbs of food for 11 chickens does sound a little high for me for times of the years when grass and bugs are available. You could try cutting back a little and see how they do. 

I like the idea of having the run and coop side-by-side, but I'd add an extra twist - every year, you should switch them. Set up the compost pile in your chicken run, the girls will scratch around the pile and compost anything you throw in there.  

That should give your garden a huge boost of nutrients every year, while giving the chickens some new treats to pick at every season. 

Thats an awesome idea! I wish i had thought of it before i built the coop. The corner posts are buried.

I am going to back them down to 1 1/4 pounds of laying pellets only. We will see how they do.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Thats an awesome idea! I wish i had thought of it before i built the coop. The corner posts are buried.

I am going to back them down to 1 1/4 pounds of laying pellets only. We will see how they do.

Too bad the coop isn't in the middle of the run...you could make that work, too.

Keep us posted on how cutting back on the feed works!

 

[tmarsh83]

You can still compost in the run, you'll just have to dig it out every year.

I'm doing similar things, but evolving the plan almost daily.

Last fall I blew my leaves into a compost area adjacent to my garden. What didn't fit in the area, I blew into the run. I wish I would have just put them all in the run and let the chickens break them down. The did a far better job than my pile did.

This year, I'm running ducks on the garden, while the chickens free-range outside of the garden. I'm planning to feed out a hog or two as well, opening up areas of the garden to the pig as they are harvested. Letting them turn the soil, clean up what's left, and fertilize.

The plan then for after the hogs have been butchered (octoberish) is to keep both the chickens and ducks in their runs (adjacent to the garden) and the garden, by leaving the fencing up I'm using to keep the ducks in during the summer.

Hard till and fertilize from the hogs, fine till from the chickens.

I'll likely pull the chickens off the garden area sometime around February/March to let it compost in spring rain, and break down the fertilizer before planting, so it isn't hot.

 

[Chic Rustler]

They still haven't made much progress. Gonna add 16 more to the run in a couple weeks. That will help. Then maybe next spring i can pull them off the garden and plant