Hit the Dirt; Chickens For Gardens

I hit the number two. April 16th. Hello and welcome to. The half ago show on what I called Pig killers raising pigs. So they're incredible reading ability be put to use turning over new ground. Well to talk about a similar concept which would be of interest to those who raise livestock as well as vegetables and would like to better integrate their systems. In this case I'll suggest that chickens could be very effectively worked into one's gardening system with the resulting increase in health in the birds decrease in toil for the garden or chickens or sorts of plant matter and in the process they scratch up every inch of the soil surface. Take a close look at

practically all dirt. And while they are going about their business the hens and roosters are frequently adding fertility in the form of manure. Meanwhile in a conventional setup after giving the flock its daily ration of store bought feed the gardener heads out to the garden trying to control the weeds and insects and build up the fertility of the soil. Even if the gardener utilizes the weeds in crop residue he or she pulls up by feeding them to the chickens. This still involves a good bit of gathering hauling the vegetable matter that could be avoided. Not to mention that unless the manure is then scraped up from the chicken yard and hauled back to the garden to be a net loss of nutrients from the garden. Yet by integrating the chickens into the garden the birds could gain some of their forwards needs on their own resulting in less feed expense as well as a reduction in weeds weed seeds and insect pests. Plus they could scratch up and fertilize a nice fine but on compacted seed bed at the same time saving the garden quite a bit of effort. While it is true that if they were allowed to roam freely over the entire garden those chickens would more than likely do a

good bit of damage to the tender crops. The use of flexible fencing or a portable pen can direct the chicken's energies where you want them. This movable confinement in conjunction with the use agreement to his new garden rotations. I would think could make for a real successful combination. To give you an idea of what happened mind a run through an example of how this might work over the course of a growing season in the early spring the chickens are given access to the parts of the garden to be put into early crops in order to clean up any crop debris from last season and any weeds in weed seeds as they scratch around breaking up clods and fertilizing. As soon as it's time to sow and transplant the early crops and green manures the birds should be moved and confined to the rest of the garden to perform the same cleaning fertilizing and bed preparation tasks. Then say around late May as the warm weather crops and fall crops are beginning to be set out and sown the chickens are moved back to the section of the garden sown to cover crops. These early green manure should have gotten a good start by now

and are ready to be grazed and turned in by the chickens returning most of the nutrient value of the green manure is back to the soil along with a good dose of active microorganisms from the chickens intestinal tracks and in the process saving the garden a good bit of effort. Then say By early to mid July the early spring crops will have finished yielding and the chickens can be let back into that part of the garden to once again clean up residue and weeds. While the gardeners sow seed of summer cover crops in the green manure section of the garden the sowing has germinate and grow quickly in the warm long warm days of summer and are ready to be grazed and turned in by the flock in mid August. At which time a late summer cover crop can be sown in the section that had been planted to early spring crops. Finally after the frost kills the warm weather crops in September the chickens can be let back into that part of the garden to clean up and fertilize while a full cover crop of winter rye is sown in the green manure section. This is just one limited example of how it could work. They're

actually both annual and perennial crops such as potatoes rhubarb and asparagus. The chicken would not normally bother after the early part of the season when the plants have gotten big and of course a flock would be very compatible with three crops in the orchard. This is opens up even further possibilities for integrating chicken tractors. As I've heard this concept called into our garden and homesteads perhaps the birds would be an effective control for the dreaded potato beetle. She would be picking the little buggers off by hand. Now admittedly I have not tried this out yet but I plan to and I have heard success stories from others. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has tried either successfully or otherwise to integrate chickens into his her her garden system along the lines I've described. Just drop me a note. Are you the hen house Blue Hill Falls Maine 0 4 6 1 5. And if you have chickens but have always kept them separate in their own yard I encourage you to give it give them a chance to work for you and your garden will buy for now and happy planting.

A.