Chickens and gardening: in some ways, these two are incredibly compatible. After all, chickens eat plant pests. Their droppings and litter can be converted into some truly fantastic compost. And there’s a certain symmetry in making choices that allow you to produce eggs, fruits and vegetables on your own little farm. Local food can hardly get any more local than if it comes from your own small firm.
But in many ways your chickens can be at odds with your garden. Yes, they eat plant pests but they can also cause havoc on it. They’ll trample or eat your new seedlings and young plants, if you let them. Further, what they don’t eat, they may scratch your garden, looking for grubs or wallowing holes for dust bathing. This isn’t to say you can’t realize your vision of having chickens and gardening, of course. But this IS fair warning: make sure to plan your garden or your chickens accordingly. Here are the tips on how to do that:
1. Contain your chickens away from the garden
One of the best ways to combine chickens and gardening is simply to keep your chickens confined to their house running space. However, this doesn’t appeal to everyone. For one thing, keeping them in one area cuts down on the amount of pest control they can do.
2. Use your chicken house inside your garden
In some instances, you can contain your chickens within your garden instead of outside it. Place a mobile house directly in the garden, between rows. This allows your chickens to access fresh pasture at all times. This method is probably one of the most foolproof ways to manage a small flock of chickens in a small yard.
3. Limit your flock’s garden time
Once your garden plants are established, you might consider letting your chickens roam your garden in short, strategic sessions. They won’t do much damage that way, but it will also allow them to decimate infestations of squash pests and grasshoppers while depositing small amounts of fertilizer directly to your soil. As the sun goes down, they will retire to their chicken house.
4. Fence your chickens out of your garden, rather than inside their running area
Another good choice is to fence your garden and let your chickens roam the rest of the yard. Fencing can also protect your garden from other pests and livestock. If investing in a permanent garden fence is not in your future, remember most adult chickens can be excluded from garden areas with inexpensive plastic netting or chicken wire. These products maybe too weak to protect chickens from predators. However, if your aim is simply to keep your chickens out of the garden, they can work nicely.
If you have a small backyard garden and a flock of chickens,the above tips will come in handy.