, written byBarbara pleasant 
I was still a beginner of chickens in the back garden when I wroteTo keep chickens as part of a healthy gardenIn 2012. Seven years later I learned a few things about gardening with chickens that are worth sharing, and questions that are called by comments about the original article also deserve discussion.Here are my answers to the most frequently asked questions about gardening with a small herd of laying hens.
Criterium cages and chicken fences
One of the questions I hear most often is: "But don't the chickens tear your garden?"Yes, the chickens would like to scratch every freshly grown bed, eat every cabbage on a lump and spread mulch wide and side.To prevent constant damage I use box -shaped metal cages designed by wire fences to protect plants with low -growing plants, as shown in photos (above) of spinach and carrots.The cages also protect plants against rabbits and deer, which is why I stacked two cages over the roots.
I also have different rolls of knee -high chicken wing (spring -mode -stand) that I use to set up chicken barrels around crops that I don't want the chickens to eat, or grown vegetables with a deep mulch.kyllling loves scratching through mulch!And although chickens are generally not interested in eating tomato or pepplants, they will ruin every ripens of fruit in their reach.The installation of a chicken gate takes only a few minutes, but it is a mandatory task if you garden with chickens.
Healthier homework eggs
My main reason to keep chickens is to harvest healthier homework eggs.Chickens are very active and move all day, but for an afternoon nap in the shade.Sponsored byModer Earth NewsShowed that eggs of active, outdoor chickens had a third less cholesterol, a quarter less saturated fat and much more vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids compared to factory farming.
Eggs collected from a pure witch cabinet do not have to be washed because shells close against contaminants when they leave the chicken.When it is said, my chickens sometimes become frivolous and put their eggs outside on the floor or trump in witch boxes with dirty base.Defense against Salmonella I was visibly dirty of eggs under hot running water and let them dry quickly at room temperature.
Handling of chicken manure
Some people are concerned about possible health risks in contact with fertilizer, including me.When I work in Coop, I assume that everything I touch is as dirty as an unused public laundry room.I wear plastic gloves, take low breathing to prevent the dust up and keeping work sessions short.
Most chicken holders in the back garden use a certain variation of the deep cold method on the floor of Coop, where the chickens get coarse organic substances such as leaves, weeds, grass clippings or sawdust, which they powder and mix with their own droppings.A fertilizer collects during roasting -the bars, which is good to warm up a compost pile, but I am not worried to get every last bit.The chickens scrape everything over and over again in the winter and make it all in downy earth.
The chickens themselves are miraculously clean.Spend a lot of time to take care of themselves and each other and rarely shows dirt except in rain.Substance effect of the dust and dirt particles helps to clean the parasites that hide in the deep layers of the chicken.
Chickens for cross control
In recent years, signs that can transfer the potentially debilitating Lyme disease have spread to large parts of the United States, all United Kingdom (in particular Zuid -England and the Scottish Highlands) and the Baltic countries in Central Europe.I live in an area, where Lyme, where Lyme disease bricks are present everywhere on the housing paths, verges and in many back gardens, but not at my home.They ate the chickens.Use of chickens for drawing control really works and takes care of time in your garden and garden.
Unlike the normal faith, chickens eat nothing that moves.I have seen them alternate from the centipede and painted beetles and they ignore honey bees that feed just below the nose.But they love snails and will pursue small grasshoppers that are their status as useful sealing Garden Fund.
