Chickens in the Garden
Chickens and gardens aren’t a match made in heaven, but they can coexist and even benefit from each other.
How chickens can coexist with, and even benefit, your garden.
Dozens of recipes pair rosemary with chicken. That’s why it strikes Nina Ronstadt as funny that her chickens won’t touch the stuff. Rosemary is one of the few plant varieties at Ronstadt’s Point Loma, Calif., home that her small flock hasn’t bothered or destroyed. Before getting chickens, Ronstadt (a chicken keeper and garden blogger at ninagarden.wordpress.com) recalls seeing several books and magazines with beautiful pictures of chickens in gardens. “It makes it look like having chickens in the garden is going to be all golden and great,” she says. “But it’s not quite that easy.”
Lisa Steele, author of Fresh Eggs Daily: Raising happy, healthy chickens ... naturally (St. Lynn’s Press, 2013), laughs at pictures of chickens on beautiful green lawns. “They must have just put the chickens there about five minutes earlier,” she says. “Chickens scratch the roots out, so grass doesn’t stand a chance.”
Steele, of Suffolk, Va., lets her chickens free-range on a limited basis — typically a couple of hours before dark. Part-time freeranging allows gardeners more control and gives chickens less time to get into areas where you don’t want them.
On my family’s single acre in Southern California, our small flock free-ranges all day. There’s no formal lawn but lots of flowering plants, shrubbery, ornamental and fruiting trees, plus vegetables and herbs. Like many poultry keepers, we’ve found a way to compromise that keeps us, and our chickens, happy.
A Symbiotic Compromise
Large, established plants and trees fare just fine, even when chickens dig about near their bases. Fallen leaves get turned, tilled and broken up, which aids their transformation into rich soil. Plus, the chickens add fertilizer in the form of their nitrogen-rich poop. Plants may also benefit from the soil aeration that chicken scratching provides.
Bonnie Jo Manion, co-author of Gardening with Free-Range Chickens for Dummies (For Dummies, 2013), says chickens clean up under fruit trees, eating fallen fruits, insects and maggots. In warm weather, the chickens appreciate plants’ shade, shelter from predators and nourishment from insects. Losing harmful insects benefits the plants, as well. My family’s chickens eat enough insects that we don’t need pesticides. Besides, they’re fun to watch leaping across the yard after a grasshopper as it flies, lands and flies again. Inevitably, the grasshopper loses, which leads to another funny spectacle as the hens contend for the prize. Often, one sneaky hen snatches it from the original catcher.
Of course, she then runs off with the stolen goods, with the other hens in hot pursuit.
Because our chickens eat plant-harming snails, we rarely see one on our property — ditto for slugs. We’re pleased our chickens don’t bother garden-beneficial ladybugs. Your experiences may be different. Some keepers say their chickens do eat ladybugs but won’t eat slugs. Because of slugs’ potential to devastate plants, some people train their chickens to eat slugs. Internet instructions abound, often with unsavory chopping and blending techniques not for the faint of heart.
Our chickens enjoy a happy, earthy lifestyle with plenty of room to roam and a varied diet, supplemented with commercial feed. We reap the benefits: fewer harmful insects, rich fertilizer and fresh eggs. However, chickens can wreak havoc on sensitive plantings, so we work at management and compromise.
Close to our house, we grow herbs and flowers in pots. Generally, chickens’ strong sense of smell means fragrant herbs repel them. Once established, the chickens don’t bother the plants. We “fence” potted flowers with inserted decorative wire sections bent to fit the pots.
New in-ground plantings also need protection. Professional full-care landscaper Jessi Bloom, of Seattle, Wash., is the co-author with Kate Baldwin of Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to create a beautiful, chicken-friendly yard (Timber Press, 2012). Bloom suggests placing flattish rocks, flagstone or wire mesh around new plantings. She also suggests “wing-holding,” that is, basic observation and management. “Just as is needed with a dog or cat,” she says. “Watch your chickens’ behavioral patterns, adjust and monitor.”
Watching your chickens will help you know which plants they will bother and which they won’t. Bloom often uses 2-inch galvanized mesh, cut and shaped into a cone and placed over new plantings, which are always vulnerable to possible chicken scratching. In time, when the plant gets more established, the wire can be removed.
Try protecting your new plantings with cloches (bell-shaped covers).
Make your own from plastic bottles, repurposed glass vases, light fixtures or other items.
You can also protect seedlings with small decorative fencing sections made of plastic or metal. The sections can be purchased for as little as three-for-a-buck at the dollar store. Ronstadt, who uses decorative fence sections, says, “The chickens can get in there if they really want to, but the fencing does discourage them.” Manion, who lives in Encinitas, Calif., recommends motion-sensor water sprinklers as a deterrent.
Gardening with Partners
Due to gophers, we plant most of our vegetables in raised beds. To keep out the chickens, we string wire fencing around posts at each bed corner. For higher beds, we use rabbit fencing in a dark-green color that all but disappears in the garden. The lower beds require taller, standard-sized chicken wire to bar out the fowl. The wire easily pulls back for picking or tending access. On a rotating basis, we open the fallow beds and allow the chickens inside. They dust bathe and scratch about for insects and fallen veggies, which helps till and aerate the soil. They also leave droppings, which helps fertilize the soil for the next growing season.
Some chicken breeds are more agile than others, a lesson learned by Suzanne McMinn, author of Chickens in the Road: An adventure in ordinary splendor (HarperOne, 2013). McMinn battles her chickens for berries. “I think they take turns watching for the berries to ripen,” she quips, “and they have more spare time than I do.” McMinn uses 6-foot wire fencing to keep out deer, but says, “Chickens can and do fly!” McMinn says clipping chickens’ wings may be necessary because some of them will still be able to get over 6-foot fencing.
Malia Britton of Gunnison, Colo., invested in rolls of portable poultry fencing, consisting of netting material with aluminum stakes. The fencing funnels her chickens directly from the
house into fallow vegetable garden areas each morning. Her husband coined their version of confined free-ranging as “row-tation.” The chickens turn and till the area, including a compost mound. “The chickens fertilize the whole area, which becomes the planting area for the next year,” Britton says.
The Brittons’ row-tation makes farming partners of the chickens, utilizing their natural behaviors. In Harvey Ussery’s book, The SmallScale Poultry Flock: An all-natural approach to raising chickens and other fowl for home and market growers (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2011), he describes at great length how he, too, partners with working chickens in the garden.
“Chickens boost the fertility levels without spending a dime on chemical fertilizers,” Ussery says. “And the idea that a home gardener needs a power tiller for a thousand-foot garden is ludicrous.” Chickens help clear areas for planting, till and enrich the soil. With chickens as gardening partners, Ussery utilizes natural solutions rather than expensive purchased ones with costs to the environment.
Plan with a Purpose
Whether you grow food crops or cultivate a decorative garden, to successfully integrate chickens requires planning. “It’s all in the design,” says Bloom, who recommends a diversity of plants that will provide food and offer shelter from the hot sun and predators, such as hawks. She suggests choosing plants with a purpose. Evergreens and thorny bushes provide shelter. Fruit and nut trees, berries and fruiting shrubs can provide food, as can seasonal crops, such as grains and sunflower seeds.
Where I live in inland Southern California, growing corn is easy. The chickens go crazy for the ripened ears, so we sometimes grow a small plot just for them. We’ve also grown plants we didn’t realize would feed the chickens. Who knew begonias were edible? The chickens devour them.
“You also need balance,” Bloom says. “The number one mistake people make is having too many chickens for their space. You wouldn’t put 25 cows on an acre and expect a beautiful garden. You have to manage your flock so that the land has a chance to recover.”
Keeping Up Appearances
Part of the gardening experience is enjoying a beautiful outdoor space. Will an ugly chicken coop spoil the serenity? Not necessarily. In her book, Bloom offers several case studies that incorporate coop design and function into the overall garden space. Manion offers the possibility of a coop with a “green” roof with plantings on top, “which can help make the coop an attractive part of the garden.”
While it’s difficult to landscape the interior of a chicken pen where the flock spends a lot of time, some plants are resistant to damage. A palm tree volunteered to grow in our pen and is thriving — so is a native willow tree.
As with the rosemary, Ronstadt’s chickens don’t show an interest in the nandina she planted in their pen. Also known as “heavenly bamboo,” nandina is one of the many “chicken-resistant” plants that Bloom lists in her book, as is rosemary.
Steele says butterfly bushes have become
a favorite for her coop. The chickens don’t pick at them, and the cascading branches provide shade. She also planted roses in the pen. “They’ll strip the lower branches, but the higher parts will be fine.” Protect young plants until they become established.
Steele made her chickens a “salad bar” for the pen; a wooden box covered with wire mesh. She plants wheatgrass and winter rye, and as the grasses grow up through the wire mesh, the chickens nibble the fresh greens. “It’s difficult to find grass seed without coating,” says Steele, referring to treated seed that may not be good for chickens. She often uses wheatgrass seed that’s intended for human consumption.
Outside the pen, Steele grows junipers and evergreens. “They make a nice border,” she says. “The chickens don’t bother them, and the plants act as a sound barrier.”
Vines can beautify the coop, which Manion views as an extension of her garden. She has planted climbing roses, saying, “They look fabulous when they’re in bloom.”
Attractive water features double as drinking spots. A low, decorative bird bath adds to the garden’s ambiance. A shiny copper bowl is a favorite refreshment stop for our chickens, as are shell-shaped ceramic dishes and a mosaic tile bowl with a decorative frog.
Picture Perfect
“Chickens are low-maintenance garden warriors,” Manion says. “They go about their business all day long.” They till and aerate the soil, add nitrogen-rich fertilizer, eat insects and sometimes get into things they shouldn’t. They’ll scatter mulch, requiring you to rake or sweep it back into place. They’ll scratch up new plantings and eat some plants, requiring you to install barriers. They may also poop on pathways, requiring additional clean-up.
For some chicken keepers, the rewards of fresh eggs and natural fertilizer are secondary to the fun of keeping poultry. Again, having chickens in your garden requires compromise. McMinn captures the sentiment best: “When you choose to let your chickens free-range, you’re making a choice to live with them and their activities. I choose to have fluffy chicken butts in the yard and perky hens clucking at my heels hoping I have a treat in my pocket over perfect gardens.”
Sheri McGregor writes and keeps chickens in rural San Diego County, Calif. Find out more about her and her writing at sandiegohikes.com.