Why Gardening with Chickens Just Makes Sense

Growing a vegetable garden and raising chickens together makes for a beautiful self-sustaining mini ecosystem. Much of the waste from the vegetable garden supplies feed for the chickens, while the chicken manure and bedding provides feed for the garden vegetables. Plus, chickens are great for pest control in your yard and in the garden once plants are harvested. Pairing vegetable gardening with raising chickens just makes sense!

Because I adore my chickens, and how well vegetable gardening and chickens complement each other, I want to convince every gardener I can who is able to get backyard chickens to do the thing and GO GET CHICKENS!

Gardening with Chickens Reduces Waste

Since we have had backyard chickens, I feel so little of my garden goes to waste, and I love this fact! You know that time of year when all your lettuce is ready at once and you just can't give it away fast enough? Bolted lettuce makes a wonderful, nutritious chicken treat.

You know those beautiful sunflower heads plump with seeds? You can turn those into free, organic eggs!

When I grow cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower and so much of the plant is leaves (most times with bugs on it by the time I harvest in the fall, who am I kidding), well this is a garden treat with added protein that the chickens go crazy over!

Those weeds you pull in the spring? Chickens love them! Especially the young dandelions.

So many plants at the end of their garden life make for great chicken food.

Chickens in the Garden Reduce Pests

Because chickens require a high-protein diet to maintain healthy feathers and egg production, insects and bugs are a favorite treat of theirs. If they are able to spend some time in your garden (think spring and fall before you plant and after you have harvested what you want) they make quick work of eating garden pests and eggs of garden pests.

Our chickens free range in our yard. This helps keep the grasshopper, caterpillar, aphid, tick and other garden pest population down.

Chickens can eat over 1000 ticks per day, EACH. That is a lot of ticks.

Chickens Work the Garden Soil

Chickens love to scratch garden soil, naturally loosening compact soil so that roots are able to grow well in it. This works best for in-ground gardens, and is okay for raised beds if you don't mind a bit of displaced soil while they are doing it. Seeing their joy as they play in the soil makes it worth it.

Chickens Provide Great Garden Compost!

Chickens, along with their bedding, make for a wonderful, nutrient-dense compost that can be added to your garden once it is broken down. The manure along with the bedding provides sufficient levels of green and brown material so that it breaks down and composts very well.

Instead of buying expensive compost and soil amendments, why not make your own?

Chickens Bring Joy!

While watching chickens scratch and cluck as they enjoy the pile of weeds you offer them, you just can't help but smile at how happy they seem with your offering. There is something very peaceful about chickens.

With all that said, if you are able to have backyard chickens wherever you live, I you are able to make that a reality.

What a great experiance for kids!