Gardening... with Chickens

If you have free-range chickens and an unfenced or secured vegetable garden, you know what the circumstances are going to be. Chickens can consume an entire crop in less time than it took you to plant the seeds. They are voracious eaters, who will think nothing of taking what once was a tall, proud brussel sprout stalk and tear it apart, rip it from the ground with their sharp talons and move on to their next victim. But it is these very same talons I like to utilize when it is time to prep the garden for spring.

Yesterday I was getting ready to clean out the hen house (yes, I know I said I was going to do this Monday, but it was raining, and yesterday was sunny and almost sixty so my excuses were gone) and decided to start prepping the garden boxes first. So I went over to our compost bin, opened up one of the four small doors at the bottom of each side, and began scooping out the already composted material and putting it on top of the garden boxes. I figured whatever I could pull out from each side would be enough for each of our four boxes, which turned out to be the bottom ten inches or so of the compost bin.

The girls went crazy, scratching all that compost into the soil in their quest for nummy treats, that by the time they were done, all of the compost was thoroughly worked into the garden boxes. I’m thinking of doing this again in a week or two, just to make sure that the soil is well fertilized, and at the same time, add some to the roses, which will need to be trimmed down for the season.

Yes, chicken talons can be good for tilling, which is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, the back wall which we have planted a variety of bulbs, has never looked so good from their scratching. I wasn’t so sure how they would do, as they kept digging the bulbs up, but to my pleasant surprise, the wall is relatively weed free and the crocuses are blooming better than ever. But on the other hand, that same tilling can wreak havoc on tender vegetable sprouts trying to establish themselves into the ground.

After planting, either from seeds or starts, I like to cover the boxes with bird netting. It looks ugly, but allows the plants to grow without fear of becoming Darth Rosenberg’s next victim, or any of our other chickens for that matter, just that Darth has the more menacing name. It is also a good idea to put cages, stakes or other supports around climbing plants, such as tomatoes and peas that are not the bush variety, while the plants are still young so as to not damage the tender root system. Having not had much success with the climbing peas however, I am definitely going to go with the bush variety this year, devoting an entire box to them so we can freeze the harvest.

But, even with all these precautions, you will probably have losses from chicken feedings. Green tomatoes tend to do just fine, but once they have a little color on them, the girls love to pluck their beaks into the flesh and run off to enjoy their kill. And broccoli and cauliflower will have their leaves plucked off every time they grow back, so these, along with their delicious cousin brussel sprout, should be well protected at all times to prevent death and destruction. Leafy greens are a favorite of chickens, but they grow so quickly that any losses we have had from chicken attacks don’t faze them. I usually pluck the outer leaves anyway on early lettuces, or just cut from the base on summer lettuce, both of which allow it to continue growing back and providing you with salads all spring and summer. However, some lettuces do get bitter in the heat, in which case I just throw down a few more seeds after pulling the bitter heads, which I throw out for the chickens to consume, or plant a more summer appropriate crop in its place.

I can look at the vegetable losses in two ways. First, while it means that there is less for us to enjoy, which there is almost always more than we can eat, it means that second, we are spending less on feed for the chickens. I’m sure the cost comparison evens out, and I’m sure the girls are healthier because of their diverse diet… which, by the way, produces the most delicious eggs for us to enjoy!