Chickens vs wife's flower garden.

[lazy gardener]

Got a chicken run? Have they yet stripped all the vegetation from it? When most of the vegetation is gone, simply start hauling all of the compostable material you can get your hands on into the run.

You can start with any bedding you remove from your chicken coop. I use dry leaves for bedding in the coop, so have a DL composting thing going on there as well. Currently, I think it's about 15" deep under the perches. Have been topping it off, building it up since October. Smells very fresh in there. In the spring, when I open up the rest of their run (they have a smaller, winter run right now) I'll simply rake a bunch of that litter out the clean out door, move the litter from the front of the coop towards the back (under the perches) and add more leaves in the front. I do this 2 - 3 x/year.

The goal in the run is to have a 6" layer of compost covering the whole run. Leaves, grass clippings, garden debris, used bedding from the coop, hay, wood chips. Their winter run is 12' x 12', recently covered with 2 x 4 welded mesh (due to year round hawk predation) with a 12 x 7' sun room which makes up the east end. The sun room has DL, and I've been adding to it all winter.

I only buy shavings when starting chicks, and that's more for convenience than any other reason.

 

[Labradors]

Thanks Lazy! I don't have any chickens yet and thought you HAD to buy shavings/straw. I will look out for some dry leaves to use! Oak leaves are always the last to fall, so there should be some of those around that haven't gone mouldy. I guess the chickens will love the grass clippings c/w dandelions in the spring too! That's great that I can get some compost action going on in the hen house

 

[rosemarythyme]

Right now I have "shallow" composting in the run LOL. I didn't realize just how much leaf litter they could turn over so the leaves and garden debris I dumped in the run only lasted for half the winter (now it's all broken down). I did shovel some out to add to my garden beds and will probably clear more out once things dry out a little more.

I'll definitely be prepared for next fall - I sent out 3 or 4 carts of stuff for compost pickup and if I'd kept it, I'd still have leaf litter to add to the run. Probably going to have some trees taken down soon so I'll let those chips age so I can add them in later as well.

 

[Labradors]

Thanks rosemarythyme. I can see that I'll be saving tons of leaves next fall and stashing them somewhere to keep them dry. I usually only save a few to add to my composter over the season. Hopefully, the chickens will enjoy my garden debris, as well as the extra tomatoes and apples in season

 

[mobius]

Thanks rosemarythyme. I can see that I'll be saving tons of leaves next fall and stashing them somewhere to keep them dry. I usually only save a few to add to my composter over the season. Hopefully, the chickens will enjoy my garden debris, as well as the extra tomatoes and apples in season

You can now sell your composter on Craigslist.

 

[aart]

I can see that I'll be saving tons of leaves next fall and stashing them somewhere to keep them dry.

I use feed bags for this.
We had a very dry fall and I was able to gather about 10-12 feed bags stuffed(I really packed them in) full of nice dry leaves.
Stored them in a shed and dole them out on occasion, I like to mix them with straw when I clean out a nest.

Always good to have a mix of materials in 'deep litter'.
I only use the deep litter in my mesh covered run, as my coop is not conducive to it,
but man it really does the job keeping the stink down during wet weather.

Here's a great description of contents and how to manage organic 'bedding' in a run or coop...and there's a great video of what it looks like.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1037998/muddy-run-help-please#post_16017992

I knew it would happen sooner or later. I prayed for later, much later. I have 15 assorted chickens. My wife HAD one very beautiful flower gard n. HAD!!! I don't want to have to make a choice here, but if I have to chose her or the chickens I think she will write to me eventually, don't you? how can I keep my chickens our of what's left of her flower bed. Do I pen up my chickens or fence off the flower bed. Thanks.
Fence 'em in or fence 'em out.
Best of cLuck!

 

[GeeGi]

I went out this morning and the few flowers I had are gone. SNIFFLE. I love my flowers but I love my babies more! Is there any flowers they cannot eat?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Those they don't eat will be destroyed in their digging. Best to switch to shrubs.

 

[GeeGi]

Those they don't eat will be destroyed in their digging. Best to switch to shrubs.

I'm going to have to buy some kind of fence to block them even though they do a great job of getting rid of weeds in flower bed around the house. I waa thinking about putting up a little cheap white fence but they would probably just jump over it anyway. It looks like I'm off to spend more money, these little things are expensive!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hold on a minute, I've had great luck with chickens not jumping over the cheap green fencing that is 2 feet tall. It's quite economical.