Putting Your Chickens to Work
Have you ever considered putting your chickens to work on your farm? Here at Valentines Farm we are experimenting with using our chickens to help till and fertilize our beds for the spring season.
Our chickens have been living under a net for the Fall and Winter seasons to protect them from aerial predators. While this provides them with plenty of room to move around, they have exhausted most of their green food options and they are hungry for some fresh veggies! In the Fall of last year, we planted various crops in our beds that grew slowly but surely through the Winter season. When the time came to pull these crops and prepare the beds for the coming season we decided to let the chickens do the work for us!
Not only do our hens get a tasty, nutritious meal and allowed to fully express their inner “chicken-ness”, they also aerate the soil by scratching the top layer and “recycle” those nutrients back into the soil with their droppings. If you’re trying this yourself, make sure to allow beds to rest 90-120 days so all pathogens can be properly composted.
Using a portable electric fence we sanctioned off the beds we wanted them to till and let the ladies loose. We let them do their thing for about a week before moving them to another bed. As you can see, they did a great job!
On top of the benefits mentioned above, using chickens to till also helps us maintain our goal of being a low till farm. Reducing tilling helps to sequester carbon, improve soil structure, retain moisture, and foster the growth of beneficial microbial life. Needless to say, we are grateful for all our chickens provide, from deliciously fresh eggs to their unmatched fertilizing potential!