Using Chickens to Enrich the Garden

Today's market garden minute is a quick breakdown of where and how I employ chickens in our certified organic no-till market garden.

The video answers: how to use chickens for fertility, chicken in compost piles,

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[tolbaszy]

My neighbor free ranged his chickens in my garden. Young plants are especially delectable to chickens. The one dressed bird he offered did not cover the damage, but was also delectable!

[parkwayconcepts]

My chickens did an amazing job spreading compost and killing grass. Now we switched sides and moved the garden and they are taking care of the other side for me! Should have a full garden 2025 and I can't wait!

[stephenrobb]

Getting in vs. letting in...
TOTALLY different!

[jonathanjochem]

The Balfour method of raising layers; hen house attached to rotating compost piles that you toss scraps and a bit of scratch to encourage them. Every so often, move them to the next pile. No garden damage and great eggs. And great compost. That Lady Balfour must have been a great lot of fun! Someone should make a movie about her.

[Mary-had-a-lil-farm]

90/120 rule is EXACTLY the information I have been researching for the last year. I have chickens and ducks and put the bedding directly from the coops (as mulch and feeding the soil) onto my gardens. I wanted to be certain how long was a safe time til harvest. It works well and I do not have to do a big formal compost pile/system which is quite a bit of manual work. I know it can potentially Ron nitrogen but not so much if put on top of the soil. It eventually composts in place. So THANKS!

[jeshurunfarm]

Chicken rules.
Respect from Africa 🇿🇦

[ThatBritishHomestead]

YES! I honestly think chickens have such a job in the garden.. I dont do a compost heap anymore my chickens with always have everything and will dig through it!

[lambsquartersfarm]

Awesome, love to see livestock in the rotation, and hey: yummy eggs to keep the farmer going!

[waynebusse]

I got so tired of worrying about cross contamination from manure from my chickens that I got rid of them. I used the quad to run out to feed and gather eggs from my free range chickens and then go pick tomatoes and run them up to the produce table on porch, I needed a hand-wash station out at the chicken tractor to keep the handle bars contamination free. I still use a tiller to work my high tunnels and fields but each time I till I'm working in a 24'' by 24'' windrow of chopped hay or grass clippings. Last season I purchased a Peruzzo 60'' collection flail mower to gather green cut hay and yard clips to till in for a green-manure and then add more to the surface between beds. Worms love all the organic matter and the tomatoes are able to absorb more potassium as the fungi feed on all those clips. This year will be my 29th season growing tomatoes and veg for a living doing 95 percent of the work by my self, producing 15, 000 lbs of tomatoes sold at $2.50/ lb last summer. Also about a half acre of veg and four acres of sweetcorn. The challenge this year will be to grow as much sweetcorn as possible using chopped clips in advance of planting seed. I add enough clips that it's about the same texture as a compost pile. I'm lucky to have over 50 acres of fields to cut for clips.

[Crystal-iljl]

I fence off a new garden plot and pen the girls inside. They clear it of all grass and weeds and weed seeds so that it's ready to spread with compost and mulch. Almost instant garden plot.

[johnmullis]

I have a chicken tractor that fits right over my beds and I just rotate the chickens across them in the winner when I'm not growing much They take out the cover crop fertilize it so all I have to do is broad fork it rake in additional addminments and it's good to go

[jillhumphrys]

I must be awesome bc I'm following!!

[ardenthebibliophile]

*brings in lettuce*
Chickens: RUN AWAY!!!
Chickens: ...
Chickens: food?

[ginnybadger]

A friend of mine has Cochin chickens. She works hard to keep her garden weeded the first month but after that, she lets her hens into the garden for BRIEF periods to eat any new germinating weeds. How long is brief? Watch them. As soon as the start picking at the garden plants, they have likely eaten most of the weed sprouts. Time to move the girls out!

[vincentlavella]

Jesse, always enjoy learning or just the motivation factor. Thanks for the videos

[gabec]

I just deployed my chickens and ducks to the garden. It's nearly december, so im not worried about what they're eating in there.

[vonsch]

Darned birds love rearranging my mulch. I'm slowly converting to agroforestry methods, so aiming to supplement the grass clipping mulch with couple foot lengths of tree branches and such that they can't kick around. I do prefer to see them running around all over and I have plenty of room for them to do that. I also have a smaller flock in netting like you use. That lets me concentrate some activity where I want it, rather than just letting them choose their own spots. I use a couple small (2x8) tractors for even more concentration and separating birds for breeding purposes. As you say, they are great... but they also can be great pains in the tailfeathers.

[christophera-realone]

My chickens have been working my garden all winter

[johac]

I'll have to ask for the product name, it's a black plastic mesh that is used like a reinforcing mess in Asphalt new roads, it's like a rebar,
I make tunnels between rows of potatoes at planting, the dig, weed, fert, then hilling time it gets removed and goes between the corn rows, I use short rebar stakes, putting it thru the 1" openings, comes in many widths, got mine from a construction site here in town, trim scraps, it's awesome.
I started writing this, I'll Google it and update this is I find more info.

[mylesfalconer]

Shout out to Harvey ussery and his book, small scale poultry flock.