Who uses chickens for tillers?

[Nifty]

My girls are great for weed abatement! I use them to keep a very large area of our backyard completely weed free.

 

[Smitty's Farm]

This past spring we would let a few of our chickens in the gardens with us when we were weeding. They loved it! When they were little they were go good about eating the bugs off the palnts and leaving them alone, but as they got bigger they wanted to eat any plant in their path. I'm not sure if I'll let them this spring b/c of the hawks. I'll have to monitar the area first. The chickens live in our back yard and the garden is way in the front yard. We will probably put them in a chicken tractor so they can hang out with us and be protected. Have to wait and see.

 

[Reinbeau]

Ummm, people - I sense an urge to turn all the innocent gardeners who sign onto this site into Chicken People, like us.

What will we Chicken People stop at? Cooking forums (coddled eggs today)? What's next - crafting forums (what can we do with all our feathers...)? Heaven help the un-chickened person who sees this forum.

When we're done turning them into chicken people, I think we should turn everyone into beekeepers!

 

[hsm5grls]

It's my first year with chickens so I have never had them in my garden, but I can't wait for there fluffy butts to play in it. I am really lookin forward to that.

 

[KayRI]

I love gardening with my chickens.

They were just pullets this summer so they really didn't do a lot of damage, but they did eliminate my grasshopper population. They also found a whole mess of grubs? worms? must have been 1000's of them (really gross) underneath my peach tree in early fall and ate all of those.

I admit they would peck holes in the occasional tomato and Patches has been known to snatch the green beans out of my hands, but I have learned to plant pole beans and use a bit of hardware cloth around low ripening tomatoes.

Nothing better than a day with the chickens in the garden. They dig, you dig, everyone is happy about that. (Although I also really love cross-country skiing and running when my knees aren't kiling me. )

 

[bigredrooster]

I have an experimet I am thinking about trying next year in the garden if I get my chicken tractor built.
I want to let the ckickens get all the grass under the tractor then when I move it go ahead and till it up good with my mantis tiller and then put books of wheat straw to keep the grass from growing back.
When I am ready to plant I just pull the straw back at the rows then plant.
Cant wait to try it.

 

[Rio_Lindo_AZ]

thats smart

 

[bigredrooster]

Wish I can find a good chicken tractor pan.Have a good idea in my head how I want to build it.

 

[Mothergoat]

Big Red, I've been doing that for years. I put down a little cardboard or layers of newspapers under my mulch stuff. My mulch stuff is also high in nitrogen, as I use the soiled bedding from the chicken and goat barns. I leave it there all winter long to mellow. If I'm in a hurry, I will put some plastic over it for a few weeks. It doesn't work if you have quackgrass, though. It will manage to come right up through all of the layers and take over the world.

I like to use the "chicken tractor" to battle the quackgrass.

 

[coopy]

I wish I could let my chickens in my garden. Heck I wish I could turn them out and not have to keep them locked up. We have a problem with coyotes and racoons here. Afraid they would kill my chickens.