chicken tiller

[Kassaundra]

Yes I grow things specifially for the chickens, and this year have added even more to that.

No I don't gather the chicken poop I let it stay where they drop it then turn it in when I plant it out. I do over spray w/ LAB both coops and runs, but just started that this year.

One possible answer to your rotation problem is a moat set up where the chickens can patrol the perimeter (sp) of the planted area while they aren't in rotation w/ the gardens at least that is the direction I am going.

 

[homewardbound]

Yes I grow things specifially for the chickens, and this year have added even more to that.

No I don't gather the chicken poop I let it stay where they drop it then turn it in when I plant it out. I do over spray w/ LAB both coops and runs, but just started that this year.

One possible answer to your rotation problem is a moat set up where the chickens can patrol the perimeter (sp) of the planted area while they aren't in rotation w/ the gardens at least that is the direction I am going.

Ive thought of this- give the chickens an area that only they use (but rotating from one part to another so the pasture/forage crops can re-grow) and then put them in the vegetable beds only when I need to get them ready for the next planting. And Ive thinking about all of this in terms of egg laying, but I wonder about adding meat birds to the scheme since they wont have a long growing season the way laying hens would.

 

[ducks4you]

I'm with you, Kassaundra. Chickens won't eat everything, but I think if somebody has a grub or insect problem with a bug that chickens want to eat, you can really use them to diminish the numbers. I would HAVE to build a tractor bc my dog, "Rose" (she's the one with the Husky markings on my 2012 flock thread) will injure my birds if they free-range. She's quite the rabbit and baby bird hunter. If I build a tractor I think I'll use at at the END of the gardening season to help with bed cleanup, just like many cattle owners put up an electric fence in the cornfield and let their cattle glean the corn that spilled during harvest.
Sometimes you end of making a job for yourself trying to get out of another one.

 

[catjac1975]

I can only tell you this. Our veggie garden is around 90X90. The chickens, 40, are let into the garden after the season to eat, any weeds, leftover vegetation, bugs, etc. They are there until the first crops are planted in spring. WHen it is tilled they walk behind my husband scratching, eating, and of course fertilizing.They flatten the soil out so beautifully. I don't know if this is any help.

Does anyone know how long it would take a single chicken to dig up all of the vegetation in a 4 foot by 4 foot area? I am trying to figure out a way to use chickens in a rotation scheme in a vegetable garden. I figure Id plant a cover crop to improve the soil and then let chickens do the work of tilling the soil and then plant a vegetable crop.