Backyard Chickens in the Garden

While I am very appreciative of the many benefits to letting our chickens free range, including but not limited to them being allowed to eat a wide variety of bugs, insects and what most people call “weeds,” I am very aware of the large hawk population that moved into our woods. When we moved in, our chipmunk population was very large so it's no wonder that the hawks would move in eventually. And move in they did! They aren't very afraid of me either. In fact, after we recently moved the chicken coop next to the garden I had one very curious hawk land in a low branch only feet behind me to check out the situation. Witnessing this told me that free ranging, at least unsupervised, was out of the question. Besides, letting them free range in a neighborhood where others do not also have chickens is, I feel, pretty rude! I don't think my neighbors would appreciate my hens running through their yards, ripping up their gardens, and potentially just freaking them out. I had to find another alternative.

Even though I currently only have four birds in the coop, I didn't feel that the outside pen would give them sufficient pecking space. The ladies are also already between two and three years old so their laying days are numbered and I will want to add more birds to the flock. I am no backyard hen purist, by any means, but I still put some thought and time into the keeping of chickens. I got them knowing full well I do not plan to cull them when they are done laying. I understand the whole process and economic necessity for farmers that do this.

I am not a farmer but a backyard keeper that has very different needs. They produce just enough eggs for our family of six, they produce quite a bit of “fertilizer” and the appreciation my kids have for them is priceless to me. While I do buy them organic feed, I also feed them a fair amount of kitchen scraps. I can do a quick blog on what they eat at a later time but there was a very, very clear and difference between the taste of their eggs when on the organic feed we switched them to compared to the feed they were on when we got them. And an even more glaring taste difference between their eggs and the organic ones from the store! But again, I will revisit this later. My first order of business was figuring out how to get them more space to run while being protected from out hawks.

I was at the feed store getting some supplies and I just happened to come across a April/May issue of Mother Earth News magazine. One of the descriptions of the contents on the cover was "Use Chickens in Your Garden."  To read the full article go to "Chickens in the Garden."  The timing of seeing this magazine couldn't have been more perfect!....

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