Rotating garden and chicken run

[MyChickenShack]

I love this idea! The only thing I have done is let the chickens in my raised garden bed in the fall after everything is harvested. The scratch around in it up til spring when I install my chicken wire to keep them out so that I can plant again. I also add the coop bedding directly to my raised bed when I clean it in late fall and the chickens scratch around in it and it gets integrated into the bed. Love your idea!

 

[Trish1974]

I'm retired now, I've more or less always kept chickens but have now implemented a long thought of plan. I'll explain it and then would like comments.
I am only a summer resident at my farm now that I am retired. Each Spring when I arrive to the farm, I rent 1st season pullets that are already laying. I think I invented chicken renting.
When the whole family lived here I kept a garden that was 80' x 40'. I now have divided that in half and keep the chickens in 1/2 and the garden in the other half. I surround both with electric net fencing. I normally have 10 hens. I feed them 1/2 of the recommended commercial feed and the rest they get from all of my vegetable cuttings, clippings and peelings, table scraps, and anything else that I used to throw in compost. Also bugs and worms of course. I have a movable coop with an open bottom that I change the location of within the run, frequently. The coop has roosts built in. There are no laying boxes, just a nest of straw and grass clippings on the ground inside the coop. I normally get 85-90% egg laying results. In otherwords, 10 hens in 10 days give me 85-90 eggs. My hens are my composters. No extra work involved in composting. They scratch up all of the weeds and the run becomes barren. They fertilize the area at no extra cost.They also turn up a lot of rocks in my gravely soil and that makes the rocks easier to pick out. This is all supposed to create a weed-free, seed-free area, well fertilized area for next years garden. In the Fall I return the chickens to their owner and till the chicken run and the garden under. In the Spring I till again and put the garden in last years run and the run in last years garden.
Folks I talked to were skeptical because the manure was not rotted or aged. My contention is that 10 hens in an area of 40x40 is lightly populated and by tilling it under in the fall it is not a problem. I've followed this procedure for 4 years now. The garden is terrific but the weeds seem to just laugh at the idea of a weed-free, seed-free garden. The eggs of course are great and the hens just love summer camp. Has anyone done anything similar to this and how did you make out?
Steve

I haven't done this YET, but this is the plan for next year. I have a 50'x60' garden and this aging body can't keep up with it any longer. My garden is already fenced in with an 8' deer fence, and I plan on putting a few strands of hot wire along the outside. I'll need to put up a netted roof as the birds of prey out here are numerous. I'll be following along to see what others have to say. Great idea by the way!

 

[TAM Farm]

It sounds like a great plan. I am surprised the farmer is willing to loan you first year hens. I would expect them to want to give you the older past their prime girls for your project.

 

[sformel]

That would be a surprise indeed, if it was a loan of chickens, but I actually rent them, cash money.

 

[aart]

Sounds 'best of all worlds'.... pullets laying, fertilizing, 'tilling' and no winter care.
Overwintered chicken poop would be fine to plant by spring.
Curious what 10 pullets for 3-4-5 months costs you?
Wonder when farmer hatches to have them laying in spring, what's the timeline?

I have done this...kinda....only grow garlic(and not so much anymore)and would let them in there after harvest in July to clean up and fertilize until October then replant in November.

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[TAM Farm]

That would be a surprise indeed, if it was a loan of chickens, but I actually rent them, cash money.

Sorry you mentioned that in the original post. I missed it.

 

[PouleChick]

Really interesting idea that I would like to do except we get very hot summers and the chicken runs are in the most deeply shaded area of the garden and I would not like them to be in the full sun area that is the veggie gardens! I do have a henposting end to the run near the compost bin and everything they can eat goes in there and is gone within days! I'll have to work out how / when to get the compost out!

 

[Hokum Coco]

Has anyone done anything similar to this and how did you make out?

In the background you can see a metal shed converted into a chicken coop. The run is made up of 4" square concrete reinforcing wire panels that are held together with metal snaps which make them simple to move also my coop is on a trailer. Where the deer is browsing is where my run was the previous year. My run is now more than 3 times that size and so is my garden. I also have a bagger on my lawn tractor. All my lawn clippings go into the run.

 

[sformel]

A couple of other notes: Besides the coop, which is open on both ends, I have another fixture where the hens can go for shade or to get out of the sun. It’s just a sheet of plywood with legs, easily movable. It interesting to watch them run under it if a crow flies overhead and casts his shadow. Have not been bothered much here with chicken hawks but the hens must have that fear built into them! The electric fencing is not without problems-as the grass grows on the outside of the run or garden, it will start shorting out the fence. So every 2 weeks or so I pull up the stakes and temporarily stick them in the ground a few feet inside the , mow the grass and reposition the stakes back to their original position. I first tried weed whacking close to the netting. Not good. The netting comes with a pole permanently laced into the netting every 10. I found this allows the netting to sag so I put additional plastic poles, available at Tractor Supply between each of the permanent poles. That works good.

 

[nminusyplusm]

I have seen that story and the plan and operation is very well done. That operation is much more formal and better looking than mine is. One difference is that he is separately making compost whereas I just throw everything into the chicken run and let them do the work. If they don’t eat it and poop it, they scratch it into pieces so it rots faster.

He direct composts in his kitchen garden plots with food scraps and wood chips. The chickens eat what they want and till in the rest.