Chicken tunnel or run in Garden, Salmonella?

[WhFarms23]

Hi all I am new to chickens and I have a large in the ground garden. I saw that people use chicken tunnels in their gardens to keep down bugs and weeds. It sounds awesome to do, however, what about salmonella? Will the chickens spread salmonella to my vegetables and other plants in the garden through their poop? How can I avoid salmonella spread to my plants in my garden and have chicken tunnels keeping the bugs down? Please let me know! Thanks

 

[DobieLover]

Hi all I am new to chickens and I have a large in the ground garden. I saw that people use chicken tunnels in their gardens to keep down bugs and weeds. It sounds awesome to do, however, what about salmonella? Will the chickens spread salmonella to my vegetables and other plants in the garden through their poop? How can I avoid salmonella spread to my plants in my garden and have chicken tunnels keeping the bugs down? Please let me know! Thanks

I'm not seeing a great advantage to chunnels between plants to help control bugs. The chickens peck the bugs, leaves and fruit off the plants. If they can't reach the plants, they can't reach the bugs on the plants. Just what they may find in the chunnels.
The green manure will not cause salmonella to spread to your plants. In fact, your garden would thrive if you started composting the chicken poop with grass clippings and turning that into the garden soil about a month before planting each spring.

 

[WhFarms23]

Thanks for your help! I agree about the green compost. However I have one question. What if I have the chickens in the garden eating and therefore pooping while the garden is in season. Will their poop transfer salmonella to the plants since they won’t have time to be composted?

 

[aart]

Will their poop transfer salmonella to the plants since they won’t have time to be composted?

It's possible, but unlikely.
Personally, I wouldn't want uncomposted chicken poop on/near my food,
especially root vegetables.

 

[Gizabelle]

They have a really nice set up at our local library around the community garden. We get a tremendous amount of rain in this region, so I can see this working to somewhat fertilize the beds,, but I still wouldn't want to have to maintain my own. (And my FR girls wound NOT be amused)

 

[Suzz]

Chickens don’t naturally have salmonella it’s an infection that they can get but its not in their DNA or anything