Chicken run & vegetable garden.....

[fizzy]

I have been thinking about designing a henhouse with 2 fenced yards. Run the chickens in yard A and grow a garden in yard B. Then, the next year, run the chickens in yard B and the garden in yard A. It seems to me the chickens would fertilize the soil & eat all the weed seeds & scratch it up good so it would be ready for a garden.
In turn, all the garden surplus & waste would be there for the chickens to finish off. The henhouse would be in the middle, to make it easy to divert chickens to either yard.

So, what am I missing? Is there a reason this wouldn't work? The only drawback I see is both yards would have to be in full sun (for the garden). My girls are used to big trees for shade, so I'd have to go with artificial shade of some sort. What do you think???

Wendy

 

[Omran]

I think it is a great Idea and I did read in one of the old gardening books that man should make to gardens any how to let one of them rest for next year.
And I think your chickens will get used to full sun may be put just a little area with a shed if it get real hot then they can go and hide there.

Omran.

 

[hcammack]

I see no reason it wouldn't be great !!! is sounds good my hens get to go into the garden sometimes and also I use their composted poop and shavings for fertilizer.

Henry

 

[gottaknit]

I think it's a fabulous idea and would definitely do it if I had more space in full sun!

 

[peeplessinNC]

Here is a link to an excellent article in Backwoods Home Magazine to tell/show you how to do this:

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/silveira44a.html

 

[MojoWorkin]

That is genius!!! I am so impressed with the cleverness of this idea! If we ever build a house we will need to incorporate this into the plan. Right now we don't have enough property and our garden is already in place, etc. But man, that is super-smart!

 

[Weasleymum]

That's a great idea, and quite similar to what I'm planning to do as well, except that I'm using a portable coop/run to move my girls all over the backyard, which will eventually all be garden. I'm also composting the litter/manure for later use in the garden.

 

[fizzy]

I just sent you a private message -- I meant to post a reply. Sorry! I am really new to this board & trying to figure out how it works.

That article is EXACTLY what I had in mind! Thanks for posting the link.

And what about this Backwoods Home magazine? I need to find one of those....never heard of it. Is it like Mother Earth News *used* to be???

Wendy

 

[fizzy]

OK, I'm not stupid, really I'm not. I thought I could post a response to someone else's post -- but apparently I can only post again in line after the last post?? Bear with me! Wendy

 

[Reinbeau]

Quote:
Backwoods Home is a fantastic magazine, I like it much better than MEN - and I love MEN so you know it's good! I also like it better than Countryside, another favorite.

I've just purchased a three year subscription.