Just let me get this soap box on level ground and I'll get on it.
I've had the why are the chickens locked up when there is so much they could be doing on the allotment discussion on a few occasions. I may have done a "you're doing it wrong" to the person who sort of deals with allotment matters which probably didn't go down well; some times I forget to take my book, "How To Make Friends And Influence People".
Most of the chicken keepers I know in person do exactly the opposite of the keeping arrangements at the allotments. It's let the chickens on the land and fence/net off the new plantings and chicken tasty, or otherwise, delicate plants.
A few chickens can turn over a lot of soil in a couple of hours.
They eat the grubs and eggs. They are as efficient at killing off future pests as a bucket load of pesticides if you get them on the plot at the right time of year.
It costs less in feed and despite what one can read on various feed threads, with a bit of management they'll get a balanced diet.
The chickens will be healthier because of the excercise and the diet variety. It's possible they may lay a small percentage fewer eggs per year, but if they live an extra year thanks to their lifestyle then any egg loss in previous years should be compensated for.
They like it.
I've got a new allotment plot right next to the chicken run. It was a bit of a mess. Stuff had just been dumped in it and over the years it's become too much of a challenge for most. It's got a couple of raspberry bushes growing, a small overgrown gooseberry bush and a couple of fruit trees growing in it all on the prevailing wind side which will hopefully give some wind protection. Any way, here are Henry, Fret, Carbon, Ella and Lima helping out with the weeding.
A bit fuzzy but I had just cleared the pieces of wood and geo textile matt from around this area and this lot got in amoungst the weeds and plants and cleaned up.
