As I was doing research about chickens and gardening I learned that chickens are very helpful in home gardens. I've already talked about the benefits of having chickens roam the garden after everything has harvested - they eat all the bugs, dig up larvae, aerate the soil and help to remove even the tiniest weed seed from the soil.
Excellent!
But then, I read several articles and stories about people who were taking that a step further and letting the chickens roam the garden while the plants were still going. What? Natural pest control during the growing process? But what about our precious veggies? Won't they eat them and destroy the plants? Well as it turns out, according to several first-hand accounts, this is absolutely possible and definitely a worthwhile endeavor.
Now you all (I'm not quite southern enough to really write "y'all") know that we have been building a chicken hut (yes, I know it's called a coop, but ours will be a tiki-hut-shaped coop, so it is a hut.) and the guys have been doing a great job of it, but we originally positioned it in the back yard, next to the piglet yard. Our thoughts at that time were that the piglets (noise and smell) might help to keep some chicken predators away or might at least make a enough noise if a predator came around that we would hear and be able to scare it away.
But...if chickens could be used during the growing season, then wouldn't it make more sense to have the chickens in an area that attached to the garden. Then we could let them in the garden as needed. So we are building a chicken yard next to the area where the big garden is going to be. More on the big garden plans later, but suffice it to say that the big garden is going to take full advantage of the extended Florida growing seasons and it will be busy all year long with a few months of down-time for replenishing and rejuvenating the soil.
So, I presented the idea to Ken who immediately started getting the wheels going in his head about how to move a half-built chicken hut without destroying it and having to start it all over (and he certainly didn't want to move it when it was done and at least twice as heavy.)
Enter Lily Munster. No, not her, the truck. We have bought an F150 for use on the homestead and trips to Lowes, the feed store and wherever else we need to go. She is white with black accents (much like the character on the Munsters who always wore - what appeared to be, on black and white tv - a white dress with black accents) so her (the truck) name is Lily.
Measure the hut - measure the bed of the truck. Hmmm. about 2 inches too big to actually fit in the back of it. So he started thinking of a bunch of really ingenious ideas for transporting it across the yard, around the house, over to the side yard, around the front of the house and back around to the front side yard. In actuality, the hut would only be moving about 30 feet, total, but there are three fences and a swamp bank in between where the chicken hut was originally planned in the back yard and where it will be placed next to the garden in the front. So, believe it or not, it will be easier to take it the 400 feet that it will take to get it around the house, outbuilding, sheds and big pig pen area than to move it the 30 feet in a straight shot.
So, without the help of 4 strong men to carry it from one place to another, he and I got out there this morning, he constructed a make-shift ramp with 2x4s and a sheet of plywood leaned up against the tailgate, we inched and shoved and pulled (ever so gently) the chicken hut up onto the tailgate of the truck. Then he jumped in the back, held onto the hut to be sure it wouldn't tip out of the truck (don't try this at home) and he stood there in the back, holding the hut in place while I ever so gently drove the truck around the back of the house, through the side gate and around the house, backed it up into place and we unloaded it. I'm pretty sure I only smacked him in the back of the head once or twice with a low-lying branch. He doesn't seem to be any worse for wear.
Plus, it will probably make some good stories for this site when I'm chasing chickens through the garden because they're eating all our tomatoes and tearing up the garden. (You can't believe everything you read on the internet, but I'm gonna give this one a try - keeping our fingers crossed.)
OH! I almost forgot! For those of you who are going to try this at home as well - one thing I did read was that you can't let the chickens into a garden that has seedlings in it. First, it is very likely that they'll eat or tromple the seedlings and second, they really like fresh-turned dirt because they can find all the bugs that have been turned up with the soil so it is very enticing to a chicken to play in new seedlings. My plan? I'm going to ask for a large rectangular frame to be made out of either pvc or 1x2s that will fit over one square of the garden that stands about 12 to 18 inches high. Cover this with chicken wire on the top and sides, leaving the bottom open and this can be placed over the newly seeded areas. It will allow the seedlings to get everything they need, but not let the chickens in to go wreak havoc in the baby garden bed.
To see the beginning of this chicken hut adventure see:
"Building our chicken coop part 2: "Planning the chicken hut is almost harder than the actual building".
For the last part of this 3 part series, see:
Building our chicken coop part 3: "Looks Like We're See It Gonna Happen"
See also:
"Making chickens work with your garden for mutual sustainability"
"Best time to plant vegetables in central Florida"
"Best of backyard chicken breeds"
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