chickens/runner ducks in community garden

Has anybody got any experience with this? What are the Must Have's, Do's and Dont's?

Community chickens have been started in Switzerland in the cities of Geneva and Bern (article in Frenchles poules font l'école)

We would like to start a flock in our 600m2 garden, to control slugs and for eggs. There are currently 15 members, 4 elementary classes that use the garden in the middle of the town. The members live max 5min away, two immeadiately across.

ah, une helvete
Cool what they do with chickens in Geneva!

I have seen many awful chicken runs, with dead soils full of manure. So its good to plan ahead instead of just quickly building something.

The "Balfour Method" allows you to avoid the problem of overgrazing. This is good if you only intend to keep poultry, and not a veggie garden. See link below.

Something similar to the balfour method, but you let the chicken scratch the grass down to dirt allows you to have a clean, weed free, veggie garden. It can also be done with a chicken tractor.

Chicken tunnels can also work to direct your poultry, see link below.

Links

Balfour method, quickly explained in fourth post.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/356156/balfour-method

Chicken tunnel
http://goodlifepermaculture.com.au/chook-tunnel/
Edit: this link has a really nice video of the chicken tunnels!
http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/clever-tunnel-system-makes-chickens-do-the-gardening-video.html

Thank you Hans. We would most likely keep the hens in an enclosed coop&run with automatic coop door, filled with woodchips/leaves and what currently goes to our compost heap (deep litter method). Emptied once in a while.

Runner ducks would be let out to forage when somebody is in the garden. Not sure if you can keep runners and hens together?

My chickens and ducks all free range together. I don't have call ducks but I don't see why that would be an issue.
They all have separate pens for sleeping but there have been times where we had mixed birds in one pen. Our peacocks lived with the ducks for a while until they were ready to free range full time...
Most important thing is to introduce them slowly and give them plenty of space. And be prepared to give them another home if they don't work out...