The benefits of Chickens for Organic Gardening - for my class <HELP?>

[aimeeinwv]

OK, for my master Gardener Class, I am expected to give a presentation on something I do at home to help in my gardens/flower beds.. or in our case it would be crops!

I would like to present a Power Point of how I use my free range chickens for the garden.

I use my chickens for: their manure in the compost pile. They peck my ground and areate my soil, eat up the yard bugs and peck weeds from the flower beds. Clean weeds in between rows in the garden with the use of the chicken tractors. They also keep the egg drawer filled with wonderful organic nutritional eggs of course!!

They also provide hours on end of entertainment for us and the smaller kids in our family who come over a lot more often now that we have the chickens they can feed!


So, I would love for all of you to submit your ideas and uses for your chickens. We are the only gardeners in our class with chickens, so I'd like to see if I can get some converts!

Let's show these folks just what our babies can do!

Please feel free to post pictures of your tractors, chickens at work and your coops but only if it's ok for me to use in my power point presentation.

Thank you so much!

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

I know you asked for chickens, but I can't add to any of the benifits you've already given. So...here's one for the ducks if you want to use it. I can go at least 6 weeks in the summer without cutting my grass:

 

[aimeeinwv]

I love it and will absolutly add them in! What a great idea! Here in my area we have lots of creeks and streams that are perfect for duckies. Thank you so much!

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Glad you can use it and you're very welcome! I honestly can't remember the last time I cut the back grass. Has to be probably since August, at least. Those are my silver Appleyard ducks. They are the best at weed control.

 

[Imp]

I've seen mine go after squirrels. And people have posted that they'll eat mice, slugs, snails etc. so they they are of some benefit to protecting crops from pests.

Imp

 

[aimeeinwv]

Good idea! Yes, my roo's have chased squirrels and I hadn't thought of that! They also do eat the slugs off my hosta's. Thanks again! Keep them coming!

 

[Imp]

OK another thought...

I throw scratch in the mossy areas of the lawn so they'll demoss that spot. Over the last few months they've actually done pretty good demossing the worst area.

Imp

 

[FlockO'Sheppards]

Don't forget pre-compost veggies, weeds etc... I call mine the clean-up crew, because they keep so much vegetable matter from entering the compost piles. Less work for me, more food for them=happier omelette making mornings!!!

This one might be a stretch, but they are helping unearth the sunchokes for me.

They make great companionship when I am feeling overwhelmed by the vast amount of fall work left to be done. When my back is aching and the to-do list only has a few items crossed off, I watch the "chicken channel" for a minute---laugh and get back to it---

 

[lavacaw]

I rake big bags of leaves and throw them in the run for the chickens to go through. By the time they are finished going through them, they are broken up and manured. I rake them up and put them into the compost and in no time they are ready for the garden. We use lots of mulch here in the hot south so occasionally, they go straight to the garden. There are no bugs or weed seeds left in them!

 

[faykokoWV]

Aimee, where are you taking your master gardner class? My husband is taking one right now too. He's taking the Kanawha co. one in So.Chas.

Here's our chicken moat around our garden

And our almost completed chicken tractor

edited to add: I guess I should explain the chicken moat. It surrounds our entire garden. The chickens keep weeds and bug from getting into the garden. The fencing for the chickens keeps deer out of the garden. At the end of the summer you can turn the chickens loose into the garden and they compost the remaining veggies and plant material, turn over the top layer of dirt and fertilize the area. we actually turned them loose in the garden some during the summer to help with pest control as well.