run turned into a garden?

[peepsmcgee]

morning!!
my run is 15x5 for 11 chickens and a duck, what i do is every week add grass clippings over the whole thing, about a half inch, my theory is that next fall ill move my run and coop and there will be a perfect 15 x5 plot that i can have a little garden in that already has alot of composted grass/poop. i have a 30x30 garden but i wante a little one too...
is this a pipe dream or a good idea, it keeps the smell down alot and my plan is to cover it with soil this fall and let it compost all winter and use it in the spring for veggies, i guess my question is...Am i doing harm to my chickens,, and if not will this compost well? i also have a 7x7 compost that i plan to add in the fall too
thanks
andrew

 

[peepsmcgee]

heres the run when it was new...the chickens turned it into a dirt plot in about a week....

 

[jvls1942]

andrew,I know of a few people who have two chicken yards. they alternate them anually for their garden..

I don't understand the question, will it harm your chickens ..? in what way? as you describe what you are doing , it make good sense to me..

unless your garden/yard is extremely sandy, you should not have to add topsoil..

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
I fenced in a 40 x 40 area of solid blackberry patch last year and there is not so much as a blade of grass left.. there is not much that can stand up to chickens scratching..

something else you will notice when you plant your garden.. a great absents of insects.. I had hardly no potato bugs in my next crop of potatoes.. and this was not even a fenced-in garden.. I just plowed up the garden and the free range chickens moved in and scratched for about a week before I planted..

I know of a guy who built a new house.. he fenced in half of his yard and let some baby pig in it.. after they had everything all rutted up and bare, he moved the fence to the other half of the yard and planted his lawn on the first half.. later on he got rid of the pigs and finished off his lawn..

 

[deenamr]

I am sort of doing the same thing. The chickens and ducks have a 400 sqft run year round. When I am done with the 1600 sqft garden I am opening their run gate directly into the garden. I am hoping they will spend fall and winter mulching and fertlizing for me then in the spring shut the gate - till it all under and start planting. I am hoping the chickens will reduce bugs and weeds both.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
It is called "permaculture," at its basic level.

It also eliminates all the tilling and backbreaking work of starting a garden. It keeps weeds down, too, because if you cover and do not disturb the soil - you do not give such seeds a place to start.

Good plan and kudos to you. To learn more, get the book "Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil."
I got mine off ebay for under $10.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

I saw the greatest design once. The chicken house was in the ceter with a fenced yard on either side. The farmer alternated side for garden/outdoor chken run eery year. That would be my perfect set up. LOVE the pig for the yard idea!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

That's what I'm doing right now. I have fenced off a third of my 40x80 run and raked all the straw, dirt, and whatever else I had thrown in there for 2 years to the one side. I made some raised beds for my veggies. The plants are huge and nearly free of bugs.

Come fall I will take down the fence so the chickens have full run of the garden to pick over anything that is left and next year, move it to another side of the run.

 

[peepsmcgee]

Quote:
im new to chickens, i hatched them from eggs and built everything just how i thought it should be done...untill i found you guys!!! i thought it made sence too,
thank you everyone for reasuring me that im doing ok and not a total waste of space..hehe

 

[peepsmcgee]

oh yeah.....do you guys put DE on your runs? should i?