![]() ![]() #Combining two flocks of chickens plusLike many in the suburbs, we have a combination of straight clay due to our natural soil in this area, plus the horrid stuff (subsoil) they dug up 50 years ago when building the house and then dumped in the rest of the yard. Eggs are scrumptious, but most important, it turns out, is how they are helping change our soil ecology. "We have 5 hens (2 Australorp and 3 Speckled Sussex) in our yard in Victoria, B.C. Chickens in the garden simply make it a better place to be. But I think the bird intelligence the chickens bring to garden is what I like the most. Our five chickens provide all the eggs we need and few to share, and a continuous supply of high-nitrogen manure for composting. ![]() The chicken-keeping trend is equally strong across Europe, where some experts say backyard laying hens now produce 28 percent of the total egg crop. Three years ago, chicken enthusiasts in Durham, NC, organized as HENS (Healthy Eggs in Neighborhoods Soon) and eventually won unanimous approval for a city ordinance allowing backyard chickens. In communities without specific laws on garden chickens, many people use the "don't cluck, don't tell" approach and quietly work toward change. ![]() Local laws are spottier in the US, where Backyard Chickens hosts a bulletin board of community ordinances affecting chickens. #Combining two flocks of chickens registrationThe UK is generally poultry-friendly, only requiring registration with the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) if you keep more than 50 birds. Are Garden Chickens Legal?Ī small flock of hens makes little noise, so they can be kept in many areas without restriction (roosters are notoriously loud). Being fussed at by unhappy chickens every time you go outside takes away from the fun. People with larger flocks move them around using chicken tractors (portable chicken coops) or enclosures of electrified netting, but my hens are already so spoiled by the freedom to roam that neither would please them. The misery experienced by confined, factory-farmed poultry becomes unimaginable. Once you get to know chickens, you realize how much activity it takes to keep them happy. Rather, they are incredibly busy creatures, obsessed with finding insects, and almost constantly on the move. Not that chickens are inclined toward laziness. Though I may think of them as garden chickens, the girls much prefer scratching in the dark shadows beneath evergreen shrubs and trees. Chickens don't like being out in the hot sun, so the open garden is not a preferred place to loiter anyway. And, the chickens can do much more good plucking up insects under our front yard fruit trees than enclosed in a yard, so as summer gets under way I use chicken wire to fence them out of the vegetable garden. The foraging yard is planted with greens and grasses the chickens like to eat, but it is not nearly as interesting to them as ranging around our large landscape. They don't like it, but when I must, I use polyester chicken netting to enclose them in a roomy foraging yard for most of the day, and let them out to roam an hour or two before sundown. These measures work great until the garden gets really busy in late spring, when I have no time for aggravation from chickens. To keep them from digging up what you just planted, mulch around the plants with flat stones. Chickens can wreak havoc among perennials flowers and herbs, too.Old blankets are the best way to keep chickens from renovating cultivated beds that are ready for planting.Tunnels covered with row cover, tulle netting or bird netting are another easy way to keep chickens from damaging food crops.The arches should be so low that chickens cannot comfortably get under them. Low arches of wire fencing are invaluable for keeping chickens off of individual beds, whether you are protecting mulched garlic or beds of tender salad greens.Here are some of the best ways I know to maintain harmony between chickens and the garden. They are also plant pluckers, mulch movers, and diggers of hen-size holes in any soft soil left open to them, so keeping chickens in the garden comes with special challenges. Garden chickens are gifted compost shredders. Our little mixed flock is also great company, inclined to follow me around the garden in hopes I will toss them a cabbageworm plucked from the Brussels sprouts, or perhaps rough up a compost pile. Their primary purpose is to provide fresh eggs and pest control – garden chickens have an insatiable appetite for slugs. ![]() Like thousands of other gardeners, recently I added a small flock of laying hens to my big organic garden. ![]()
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