Chicken Landscaping (our plan)

[possumqueen]

Quote:
oh, baby, believe it!

A garden that's been full of chickens through fall and winter will get you the finest tomatoes you have ever seen in your entire life! Move 'em out about a month before planting time, get in there with a pitchfork when things have thawed out and warmed up and turn it a little, plant your seeds or set out your seedlings, and then mulch before it gets really hot.

There you are. Garden. Done.

 

[4CiTyCHicHENs]

Quote:
oh, baby, believe it!

A garden that's been full of chickens through fall and winter will get you the finest tomatoes you have ever seen in your entire life! Move 'em out about a month before planting time, get in there with a pitchfork when things have thawed out and warmed up and turn it a little, plant your seeds or set out your seedlings, and then mulch before it gets really hot.

There you are. Garden. Done.

WHOA!!!! I have a garden & now Im adding the chickens... Oh man! Ima Love having chickens more than I thought I would!!!

 

[traceyleezle]

Well after much sketching and pricing, etc. we finally decided we will be building a permanent coop in the front of our garden and a movable run. We figured having the run be movable would save some money and be easier to deal with as our awful excuse for a garden is a lot bigger than I remembered. After this season is over and the chickens have sufficiently landscaped for us we may just make the run permanent and have the garden be on either side of the chicken coop.

While I sat at the table with a pencil, ruler, and graph paper giving myself a headache figuring dimensions and proportions, my sneaky husband was in the living room stretched out on the couch designing the same thing on his laptop. I came in to ask him a question and saw what he was doing, after calling him a cheeky little bugger I sat next to him and we "designed" our chicken coop. I use that term loosely because it's basically built around the 4'x8' dimensions of the plywood and I see that used a lot in all the chicken coop plans I looked at. It will be 18" off the ground on 4"x4"s set in cement blocks with quickcrete poured in them. It will be 4 ft high in the front, gently sloping to 3.5 ft in the back. A door on the front in the center with two small windows on either side. Access to nest boxes (5 gallon buckets) on one end of the coop and the pop door with ramp on the other end.

 

[firsthouse_mp]

There's a book called City Chicks that uses this same approach. It espouses using chickens as living rototillers...essentially hoping that they help with biomass, compost, and laying eggs. It's a broader usage for chickens--a system of sorts--where it's not just chickens lay eggs for people. It's chickens help grow veggies, eat trimmings, compost beds and ALSO lay eggs....feeding the household both protein and veggies!

We are building our new veggie garden this way using 2 same sized raised boxes that will have a removable wire "top". For about a month, I hope to have chickens till the soil in there during the day, pooping, scratching and doing their thing with our scraps and lawn clippings, etc. Then after a month will move the top to the other bed and put the chickens in there during the day and plant the bed that has been "prepared".

The book also tells you to plant things right next to their run as the nutrients in the soil are great for growing tomatoes, etc and you can wire the plants up with chicken wire to protect them. Dump their dirty water right on the plant base! So smart!

 

[possumqueen]

Hey, traceyleezle!!!

Want pics!! Want pics!!!