It’s that blissful time of year again! Garden centers are getting in flats of Pansies and early spring vegetables. The snow peas are planted and the asparagus is making it’s way through the cool spring soil like blades of green triumph. It’s garden season!
Chickens, in addition to laying eggs and being adorable, can also aid in your gardening endeavors. They will turn waste from your kitchen and garden into fertilizer. They provide nitrogen rich manure which helps develop green, robust leaves in plants. Chickens will also help you turn compost by scratching and pecking through the piles.
In addition to helping in the garden, there are plenty of ways to garden FOR your chickens. Home grown chicken gardens can provide free food, healthy treats and even some natural, medicinal aids for your flock.
Composting
Chickens love to scratch, peck and sort through organic matter. They use their feet like little rakes, looking for insects and bits of scraps yet to be broken down. The turning that they do in the compost pile helps break down the vegetation faster. It delivers oxygen to the microbes in the compost and mixes the uncomposted bits into the pile.
Chicken Tales! – Using Fall Leaves
Composting with the help of chickens
Using Chicken Manure in the Garden
Chickens provide wonderful nitrogen rich fertilizer through their droppings and soiled bedding. But there are a few processes that should be done to chicken manure before adding it to your plants and edible vegetables. Learn how to compost chicken manure properly so it is safe for you and your garden.
DIY: Chicken Manure Tumbling Composter
Reader’s Question: Is chicken manure safe to use as a fertilizer?
Gardening WITH Chickens
Here are some readers stories of how their hens help in the garden!
Stories From Neighboring Coops–Cynthia’s Gardening Hens
Gardening with Chickens Update and a DIY Project
Gardening FOR Chickens
Plant a garden for your chickens! Learn what chickens like to eat from the garden, what is safe and healthy and how to care for these plants.
Growing Broccoli Sprouts for Chickens-a Review
7 Early Vegetables to Grow for You and Your Flock
Planning a Chicken Garden~A Grower’s Guide
Help Pollinators and Your Chickens with Sunflowers
7 Common Weeds your Chickens Will Love
Gardening with Chickens – Part 1 – Why Chickens?
Gardening with Chickens – Part 2 – The Setup
Gardening with Chickens – Part 3
Gardening with Chickens – Part 4 –
Using Garden Features to Decorate your Coop
Give your coop curb appeal with garden elements. Plant a living roof or decorate with cottage flowers!
Chickens Decorating the Farm Landscape
Going Green: Planting a Living Chicken Coop Roof
Classic Cottage Flowers for Your COOP
Using Egg Shells in the Garden
Not only do chickens provide manure for the garden, but their egg shells can be used in many ways as well! Learn how in the following posts.
9 Practical Uses for Egg Shells
Using Eggshells to Control Garden Slugs Organically
Do your chickens help out in the garden? Share your experiences by leaving a comment below or visiting the Community Chickens Facebook Page.
4 Comments
I loved the information on herbs to feed to your chickens. I will start to incorporate them into my chickens weekly routine!
Thank-you!
I get boxes of organic produce scrap from Natural Grocers or mixed produce from New Seasons. The flock goes wild over the scraps. Its also a great greens and veggie supplement in thw winter. Best of all its free it healthy and it stays out of the landfill. It attracts worms and other insects so it increases the protein when I don’t let them free range.
Leaves are awesome and full of minerals, as tree roots mine the minerals with the help of mycorhizza. Roots can go down 100’+ in some species, when the leaves breakdown they are bioavailable to other plants on the surface. If you dont want grass, weeds and oth we plants germinating a thick layer 3″ of leaves on the surface is a highly effective mulch layer that prevent a great many plants from sprouting as it traps air and water. A top coat of aesthetic mulch is also far cheaper. As well leaves are great bedding.
Local landscape maintenance companies that care for Apts and business parks in areas with lots of deciduous trees, will vacuum up piles of leaves in the fall. Next time you see a truck stop and get a card or talk with the operator or owner. They often pay to dispose of the leaves at the local landfill. I got a load of 10cu yards last fall. I spread a 1-2″ layer across the 20×30 chicken run area, i let them go to town. This spring I rototilled the area which is now going to be a garden area. I also added 3″ of compost and biochar for remediation of any herbicides, synthetic fertilizers etc from the compost I purchased at the local yard debris collection site.
We use the eggshells to help provide our chickens with the calcium they need. We keep a brown bag on the counter. We keep the eggshells and zap them I the microwave for :30 to kill any bacteria. Once the bag is full (picture a lunch sack), we crush the eggshells to make the pieces as small as possible and give them back to the birds. They like them so much better than the store bought oyster shell.