Gardening with chickens (and other poultry)

[snoggle]

That's what I want to do this fall when my chicks are bigger and older. I figure they can till up the whole spot, I can add in some amendments that need to sit and simmer, then in the spring have them till things up again so I can plant. I hate our tiller - it is front-tine and difficult to manage on our uneven ground so having chicken tillers would be terrific.

Having the chickens work the garden for me is the main reason I got chickens. The way gas prices are going up, it's probably pretty cost-effective compared to running a tiller. Eggs are just a bonus. Plus, I'm newly pregnant and the thought of eating eggs makes me want to hurl! I guess it's a good thing that isn't all I want them for right now!

 

[rumdom]

3 years ago 2/3 of my tomatoes were stolen by my chickens so I made a seperate fenced tomato garden and plant plenty for both them and canning. Last year since they couldn't get to the tomatoes they decided to eat the cucumbers.So this year I fenced that off and will feed them by garden items on my rules.I think between the tomatoes and cucumbers they hardly ate any of their food so it pays to plant extra for them.I am adding a sweet corn patch and hope I don't have to buy more fence?

 

[laughingdog52]

That is what I love--spoiled chickens. Good advice.

 

[jandrusrn]

Spent my afternoon today hollering at my hens to stop eating the cucumbers..... alas, their English isn't so great.

 

[jomoncon]

A couple of days ago, I released my 8 RIRs to do some weed/grass eating in a certain area. My DH was sitting 5 feet away from the corn bed, and the corn had sprouted about 5". I asked him to watch the girls while I went inside for about 2 minutes. By the time I got back outside, half the corn bed was gone!! DH was polishing a new axe, his latest passion, and said he just didn't see them. All I could say was there goes half your fresh corn on the Cob!

 

[SkyeSchazade]

We had a problem with some coyotes in the psture behind the chicken house, so we had to let our girls into the garden for a while. They ate about 1/4 acre worth of seeds and seedlings

. As frustrating as it is, I am willing to sacrifice those seeds to keep the girls safer. As of this week the coyote problem is no more and the chickens are free to return to their woods/pasture behind the garden. And I am free to return to planting seeds. Luckily looks like a few of my corn plants survived!

 

[buckabucka]

I'm going to try chickens in my garden for the first time this year. They used to be accustomed to going in a small tractor. Now they "free range" in a fenced in area, so I'll have to train them to go into the tractor again.
DH is also building a large mobile hoop coop. The chicks will spend the winter in that, on the garden. Can't wait to see how it all works out!

 

[SweetSilver]

We will be trying a new system when we move to our property in a couple of weeks. I don't like keeping chickens in tractors--seeing them run freely as much as possible is such a joy to me. I see the purpose, but I'm a big softy. I do need to keep at least most of the chickens contained so their poop lands somewhere I can benefit from directly (OK, I guess it's always "indirectly" to some degree.

)

Since we need to protect our garden from deer, we fenced off a large area and will place the coop (divided coop) on one end with doors to underneath the roosts on the garden side. The reason the coop is on one end instead of in the middle is due to sunexposure--we only have so much and the garden needs it all.)

We will eventually start sectioning off the garden in about 3 (4?) sections. The idea will be to start the freshest beds (the ones that the chickens have been running on) on tomatoes and squash and broccoli-- the hungry ones. Next rotate it into kale and leeks and lettuce crops (long after the chicken poo has mellowed). Then hopefully some cover crop/peas and beans (no grasses for this gardener!) to run the chickens back into. We can also run them to finish off the crops if we want. The system is still in my head and I'll need to work out a few kinks, I'm sure.

Hopefully with this system, the only work will be the coops--and the roosts are strategically placed so all I need to do is scoop out the litter and poo and turn around and plop it back down in a pile to compost. Having a pile of compost on hand to use wherever I want is nice.

We could also incorporate dh's worm bin system (a plastic 35 gallon bucket with the bottom cut off--as pro. gardeners we have a lot of old ones) but the veg garden is not as close to the kitchen door as would be convenient. We had to choose sun exposure over house proximity. Using this would have been nice to provide that mid-season fertilizer boost from spreading the finished compost (shoveshoveshove!)

I don't think our fence will keep in the most ambitious flyers, but a few free-ranging chickens wouldn't be bad. (Especially for the coyotes!)

 

[kaykaypw]

I made a huge mistake with my first garden. We have truly backyard chickens and raised beds. I really didn't think the chickens would get over the little fence I had around the garden. It took them three hours to destroy the entire thing.

Now we have a chicken wire and posts monstrosity that I even have trouble with getting into to tend. I should post a pic of the fortress so everyone can laugh with me.

Karen

 

[hereorthere]

yeah... but chickens are not garden birds. they eat leaves and flowers and baby fruit growing... i have mine eat wild raspberries. my man says they'd eat all the flowers before they made fruit. but guinea fowl are complete opposite. guineas are garden birds. they do not eat plants like chickens would.

Just out of curiosity... can you house guinea with chickens?