Another in the Series on How To Raise Chickens, this time on the most under utilized energy source on the back yard farm. Chickens.
Conventional methods of raising chickens provide highly restrained outside space due to the destructive nature of scratching. Here at New Hampshire Man, we turn that problem into a solution by putting chickens to work!
Chickens are Highly Destructive
If you keep chickens the conventional way, a coop with an attached run, you’ll soon find that the ground cover in the run is devoid of vegetation.
The natural behavior of chickens is to lightly, but persistently, scratch the earth to reveal bugs and grubs buried slightly below the surface. In so doing, they also eat grass and other vegetation and over time no plant has the opportunity to take hold and grow.
So the ground turns to bare earth under their feet and beaks.
This destructive behavior is one of the most cited drawbacks of owning chickens.
Turning the Problem Into a Solution
Many of the agricultural activities we do around the homestead require clearing the land and exposing bare earth. If we can find a way to contain the chickens where we want them, and to focus their energy in the right place, we’ll discover an amazing resource.
Here are some ways that I have practiced and considered implementing this on my property:
Annual Garden Maintenance
Back in the day, I used to clean up my garden up in the fall. These days, I leave all the debris in the garden until spring and plant a cover crop on any exposed soil. If there is any parcel that I want cleaned up I will consider finding a way to close in a few chickens to clean it up for me.
Every spring, however, I do have to do some garden clean up. Enclosing the chickens over the garden can serve the following functions:
- Clean up debris – the chickens will scratch everything in the garden into tiny pieces and eat whatever they are attracted to.
- Till – Jump on the No-Till wagon and let chickens do the work for you. I have an opinion on tilling, but maybe that’s for a later day, for now, chickens do the best possible job on an established annual bed.
- Fertilize – While the chooks are out pecking and scratching they will be pooping. While it’s true that chicken manure is too hot (high in nitrogen) to put directly on a garden, when it’s dispersed and applied very early in the season, it can be valuable addition.
- Eat – Whatever the chickens eat on their own takes the place of the food you’re paying for.
- Time – All this action happens while you’re doing something else, thus saving you time.
I hope the value is starting to show through.
Annual Garden Prep
This year, 2018, is the first year I’ve tried this with chickens. It’s amazing, but patience is still in order.
Mid spring picture of a future 3-sisters garden plot that the chickens are preparing. The foreground would be green grass by now if the chickens weren’t in there keeping it at bay everyday.
If you can enclose the chickens in the space you want to turn into garden very early in the spring (like late winter) they have a fighting chance to get the space ready by planting time.
One trick that I found to work well is to entice their scratching activity by spreading scratch grains where I want them to work every morning.
You can see from the pic above how effective they were at keeping the field from growing in the spring, but it’s worth including that it will take a couple of years for them to truly turn that ground into the soil quality that we expect in a garden.
All Things Compost
Forgive me, I get super excited about this.
There is NO BETTER way to compost than with chickens. They make magic happen on time scale that works.
I’ve done the piles, the bins, the rolly things. They’re all gimmicks. Chickens are where it’s at.
Here’s how it works:
- Feed them all the kitchen waste. It supplements their feed and adds variety to their diet. They break it down and turn it into high nitrogen fertilizer. No more nasty piles of anaerobic slop.
- Build a pile of organic material: leaves, chips, coop bedding, manure, garden waste, grass clippings.
- The chickens will climb that pile, scratch for bugs and pull everything on top down and out to the sides.
- In a couple weeks or so, rebuild the pile in a spot next to where the original pile was.
- Chickens repeat the scratching and pulling the stuff on top down and out.
- Rebuild the pile a few times and you’ll have the best looking compost you’ve ever made in your LIFE!
Compost piles start in the bay on the left, then I turn them to the right, then forward. The chickens climb and scratch the piles expediting the compost generation.
All the while you’re giving the birds something to do (exercise) and supplementing your feed bill. Another case of the long series of winning you get when chickens to do your work for you.
Containment Ideas
On the surface, the ideas I’m sharing are predominantly Land Clearing and Compost Generation, but there’s even more going on behind the scenes like: feed supplementing, time saving, land improvement, fertility generation.
All this is IN ADDITION to the primary reason most people get chickens: eggs.
Most of what I’ve covered here is awesome, and it’s all bonus material that most people who keep chickens never capitalize on. That’s why I consider this the biggest missed opportunity on the backyard farm and homestead.
It’s all there, you just need to tap into it.
The biggest challenge in doing so is likely finding a way to contain them. All I’ve used is poultry netting and chicken wire fencing. I have a few that fly out, but they don’t venture far without the whole flock. If the flying does become a problem, I’ll consider clipping the wings on the high flyers.
I hope you found this helpful and useful, please let me know if there are any questions and shoot me some pictures of your magic compost or how you get your chickens to work for you!
