Letting Chickens Loose in the Vegetable Garden!

Now (early August) that the vegetable and grain crops are mature and less susceptible to damage, I'm giving the laying hens free range access to half of the raised bed garden to forage all of their own food. They are quickly consuming all of the pests, chasing the chipmunks away from the grains and eating many of the weeds that I've allowed to grow in the garden specifically to feed to the chickens. Their favourite plants are by far the clover. They're eating the plants down the ground which will kill part of the roots, releasing nitrogen into the soil. That, along with the manure they're adding as they forage and a fall cover crop I'll plant soon, will make these beds extremely fertile for next year's growing season.
Welcome to our self reliant homestead! Join us, Shawn and Dervla, as we create a resilient, abundant and sustainable ecosystem that feeds our families from the land in Ontario Canada. Using permaculture as our guide, we strive to become independent in water, food, energy and shelter, focused on beauty in form and efficiency in function.
Our Self Reliance is a life of compromise between my two daughters and my wife's preference for culture, comfort and formality, and I, with my love of chaotic and beautiful but challenging and often uncomfortable wilderness living. The resulting homesteads are an eclectic blend of modern with traditional, whimsical with practical, formal with informal, civilized with rustic.
Over the last five years, my wife and I designed and built our dream homesteads from scratch with very little outside help; from undeveloped, declining forest to a comfortable home and cabin with a prolific edible landscape for people and wildlife equally. For many years, we have strived to lessen our burden on others by taking full responsibility for the health and welfare of our immediate family while building a strong community around us, both online and offline. Now that the infrastructure is in place here, we will be spending more time working cooperatively with community members, including extended family, to collectively become more resilient while living a deeply satisfying and meaningful life. Thank you for being part of that!

#homestead #sustainability #farming #offgrid #selfreliance

[bennyt.christensen]

They look like happy chickens 🐓🐤🐤 Their sound is relaxing to listen to.

[carleverett]

watching chickens do there thing is some of the best enrichment humans can experience, yeah we may lose a few crops... but the chicken entertainment is worth it

[sharvo]

I would like a 5 hour loop of chickens contentedly pecking around in the garden. I often have long loops of you tube bird song or nature sounds playing in the background while on the computer. Happy chckens would be a nice addition to the Playlist.

[stanleyj.mitchell]

Chickens are really good for the garden. Along with ducks they are an excellent pest and weed control.

[catherinecooper]

Those ladies are sounding very happy and content! I love seeing them.

[stevie-pea]

Nice ... natural bug and weed control .

[janamathis]

Love hearing the chickens. After the growing season begins another busy time.

[mikenuyen]

For being in the middle of a Northern forest, you have created a fabulous garden.

[LindaFirefighter]

We take those giant zucchini's and solar dehydrate them and then blend them to a powder and store in jars for the winter. We add it to stews for us and we also add it to the dog food we make.

[VotePedro]

Just beautiful. Everything is so lush! Love the aerial views ❤ well done!

[gladys]

Thank you for sharing this. I love watching the chickens.

[janetwithers]

I love seeing the chickens out on the garden/ yard. Love their clucking. ❇️💞❇️

[draigygoch]

absolutely incredible what you have done and are doing, true inspiration

[giselecontassotdesayvre]

très envahissant.bon courage dans votre jardin très productif....vos p'tites poules sont très belles, beau plumage, bien nourries, en semi-liberté 😁

[haroldfoust]

Hello a great video for Sunday morning August 4th.

[jeffrey-yeqv]

the fruits of your labor, huge sense of accomplishment

[stephenreiner]

Your very own bioculture established by virtue of your knowledge and your two hands. Now you can continually improve your bioculture.

[elizabethjohnson]

Love hearing your wife's beautiful voice in the background!

[kiddobee]

Beautiful garden! I let some spring greens go to seed and I found the bees really like fennel flowers and yellow clover. Yellow clover is a bit of a huge plant but attracts so many bees. It usually reseeds itself in a useful place.

[randywunderlich]

You e developed healthy soil from the sandy stuff when you arrived years ago. Good on