Chickens in your garden sounds good because they eat unwanted insects but the fact is chickens eat small sprouting plants, budding fruits and vegetables, scratch the ground and sometimes scratch up the tender plants by the roots and will also eat pollinators such as ladybugs and butterflies. Not to mention the fact that the nitrogen level in fresh chicken feces can burn the roots and plants. In order to allow chicken feces in your garden it must be composted.
Chickens & Gardening. Photo by Sidney Pearce on Unsplash
Sustainable living, going Green and Organic Farming and composting are becoming familiar terms to everyone not just farmers anymore.
Everyone is going "Green" these days in the hopes of saving our environment, reducing our carbon footprint, and producing our own food.
If you are a urban chicken farmer or are interested in becoming one you may be wondering what to do with the chicken feces. Chicken manure is high in nitrogen and nitrogen makes plants grow better than any fertilizer you can buy.
However, if you put it directly on your garden it will burn the tender plants. Fertilizer made from chicken manure should be put on no sooner than twenty days after you compost it. You can make organic compost from the droppings, the litter, the hay and any other organic material you would like to throw in the pile.
Chicken feces will turn into fertilizer for your garden within 30 days if composted correctly. After thirty days you have the best fertilizer money can buy and you get it free from your chickens. It is also the most environmentally friendly way of disposing of feces.
Organic gardening is your answer. This is a way of replenishing the soil, not to mention it is one of the best fertilizers on the market today and you can get it free from your chickens. Raising chickens and sustainable living go hand in hand.
Raising chickens and sustainable living
Everyone is going "Green" these days in the hopes of saving our environment, reducing our carbon footprint, and producing our own food.
If you are a urban chicken farmer or are interested in becoming one you may be wondering what to do with the chicken feces. Chicken manure is high in nitrogen and nitrogen makes plants grow better than any fertilizer you can buy.
However, if you put it directly on your garden it will burn the tender plants. Fertilizer made from chicken manure should be put on no sooner than twenty days after you compost it. You can make organic compost from the droppings, the litter, the hay and any other organic material you would like to throw in the pile.
Chicken feces will turn into fertilizer for your garden within 30 days if composted correctly. After thirty days you have the best fertilizer money can buy and you get it free from your chickens. It is also the most environmentally friendly way of disposing of feces.
Organic gardening is your answer. This is a way of replenishing the soil, not to mention it is one of the best fertilizers on the market today and you can get it free from your chickens. Raising chickens and sustainable living go hand in hand.
Raising chickens and sustainable living
Can You Let Your Chickens Play in Your Garden?
Can you let your chickens play in your garden that you use for food? The answer is no. Do not allow your chickens in any garden that you grow food in until after you harvest your crop for several reasons with the most important one being that chicken feces are high in nitrogen which can burn your plants. Chickens will eat sprouting plants, scratch seeds out of the ground and eat them, eat the blooms that produce the vegetables. They may even eat the leaves of some plants such as lettuce, greens, and others. Basically, chickens will destroy your garden. Larger breed chickens will do more damage than small breeds.
Consider growing a garden just for your chickens.
I like to grow a garden just for my chickens. I fence off an area and plant wheatgrass, rosemary, oregano, lemon balm and other good herbs for chickens. Once the plants reach maturity I simply open the garden gate and let my chickens in and they absolutely love it.
Consider growing a garden just for your chickens.
I like to grow a garden just for my chickens. I fence off an area and plant wheatgrass, rosemary, oregano, lemon balm and other good herbs for chickens. Once the plants reach maturity I simply open the garden gate and let my chickens in and they absolutely love it.
References:
Rooster, farm, bokeh and blur HD photo by Sidney Pearce (@sid_pearce) on Unsplash. (2019). Unsplash.com. Retrieved 18 January 2019, from https://unsplash.com/photos/pmtePc7jm6A
Rooster, farm, bokeh and blur HD photo by Sidney Pearce (@sid_pearce) on Unsplash. (2019). Unsplash.com. Retrieved 18 January 2019, from https://unsplash.com/photos/pmtePc7jm6A
