Get Scrappy

Kitchen scraps can attract unwanted pests. Chickens will control pests that live in the yard naturally, but inviting new ones isn’t ideal. Feed only as much as a flock can eat within about 20 minutes. Abandoned leftovers attract ants, rodents and wild birds.

a skeeter incubator. While chickens don’t seem interested in adult mosquitoes, a backyard flock that is allowed to free-range will greatly reduce the population of mosquitoes in the yard by foraging for their larvae.

However, chickens do eat adult ticks, and they can virtually eliminate even the most abundant population in a single yard. functionality. The lawn and its inhabitants are an abundant source of whole foods that contain vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, carotenes and protein, among others. Collect grass clippings from your nontreated yard, and serve them up fresh inside the your chicken run. Your birds will forage through the damp clippings for plants and animals. What’s left will decompose and disappear into the run floor.

Forage Portion

Given the opportunity, the average chicken can eat about 7 pounds of supplemental foods per month, according to Foreman. So, a small flock of five residential chickens can eat 35 pounds of kitchen scraps, yard waste and backyard pests every four weeks.

Indulging your chickens’ natural foraging instincts will fulfill more than just their bodies’ nutritional requirements. With the ability to recycle hundreds of pounds of waste and bothersome backyard pests per year, allowing year-round foraging honors a flock’s desire for joyful eating.

Rachel Hurd Anger is an urban-farming writer raising chickens in Louisville, Ky.