Chicken jobs - Turn over garden beds

It is the end of my area's growing season, and my garden beds are entering the pre-winter phase where tidying up is paramount. Between dropped/rotting produce, weeds going to seed, and plants shriveling up I have my hands full.

I'll admit, I'm a lazy gardener. I want to get food with the least amount of effort possible. This also applies to cleaning up my garden. What is there to do?

Send in the chickens!

My hens are having an absolute ball. I thought they would be attracted to the fallen tomatoes and the remains of cucumber plants but they are all over the place. Scratching up worms, eating weed seeds, turning over my wood chip pathways as well. I utilized raised beds so I was worried they might excavate dirt out of the beds with their scratching but it hasn't been an issue so far. Some seem more drawn to the leftover produce/seeds while others are really into the bug hunting. I'll let them in the garden throughout the fall and hopefully they put in a dent on unexpected volunteer plants/weeds.

Do you put your chickens to work? Do you think it makes a difference?

I knew a gentleman that used almost the same method as you.  His coop was adjacent to his garden area which was divided in half, each half with its own door from the coop, which was operated from outside the fence enclosure by a few eye screws, pulleys and string.  His "girls" cleaned up all the unwanted produce from the garden, did some weed and bug control and also applied a generous amount of almost free fertilizer.

He would rotate the garden from one side to the other each year.

It was a good example of simple country engineering at work.

Peace

My chickens have multiple jobs.  Some are part time and some are full time.  My girls free range during the day which is relevant to some of the comments below.

I use deep litter (fall leaves) in my run.  The girls poo, scratch around and break it down into a rich leaf mulch.  Throwing in a handful of scratch or other treats occasionally helps the process along while giving them some entertainment.  I clean out the run twice/year and use the mulch in my raised beds and under fruit trees and berry bushes.  I also make a little money selling some each year to my neighbors for their garden.

I use the "Back to Eden" method of dumping wood chips in my mini-orchard and allowing them to break down over time into rich organic soil.  I get the chips from the Chip Drop service, move a bunch of wheelbarrows-full to my orchard and leave them in big piles.  The girls have a ball scratching around in the piles and leveling them out.  Each year, I dig some nice dark soil out from under the chips, use a soil sifter to clean out clutter and use is along with the leaf mulch.  Even after the piles are spread, the girls love the shade/cover under the fruit trees and will frequently rest there, scratch around or dig holes to dust bathe in.

Clean up raised beds.  I open up the fencing at one end and the girls dig around, eating plant matter, seeds and bugs/worms.  Afterwards, I top with leaf mulch for the winter to protect the soil.

Waste disposal service.  The girls help by reducing kitchen waste.  When Japanese beetles come out each year, there are a few plants that they particularly seem to like (plum tree & blackberry).  Their primary defense is to roll off the leaves and fly away when you try to grab them.  So, I hold a bowl of water below them when grabbing and collect a good percentage that way.  Then the girls get to play "bobbing for beetles".

These "jobs" enrich the chickens environment, provide entertainment, food variety and allow them to express their natural behaviors.  In turn, they help me with some of my chores, provide a small amount of income and convert their foraging into tasty and nutritious eggs.

It certainly would solve the problem of an overgrown patch of weeds in the garden. Unfortunately, I didn't plan quite right and my chicken coop is too far from the garden, but that, certainly would have been superior planning. [I would have to carry them there every morning and evening.] Bummer!

How do you keep your chickens from not flying out of the garden.  My Garden fence is about 4 feet high.  
But I like the idea of a deep litter, I think this is something that i can easily do inside their run

Marc Siegel wrote:How do you keep your chickens from not flying out of the garden.  My Garden fence is about 4 feet high.  
But I like the idea of a deep litter, I think this is something that i can easily do inside their run

The main reason I installed a fence, since I live at least 6 miles from the closest tiny town is the deer pressure. For deer, 4 ft just won't cut it. Having raised beds inside the fence seems to help, although my fence is only 6 ft. Some areas are higher, some are shorter: that seems to mess up their depth perception, which is not the best on their best day.
Something else that helps to keep them out is that they can't always see what's inside the garden: grapevines obstruct their view.
When it comes to holding chickens *in* I would feed them well [so they are heavy for their size], and clip their wing feathers. That is not a painful procedure, but you may have to repeat the process after they molt and regrow their feathers. I would say, though, I've seen some Australorps jump 5 feet straight up,[without flapping wings!] so that may not be very effective either. You could also ask yourself: "What's on the other side that they are so attracted to?", and bring that inside the fence?
But I must say, sometimes, your best intervention may not work: that black Australorp I mentioned: I clipped the wings super short but she managed, day after day to jump the 6 foot fence. I even hung a small weight in the shape of a bell around her neck.
Yeah, I would go after the other chickens were inside in search of her. The bell helped me to locate her a few times, but finally, she jumped the fence once too many times and I could not find her, A hawk got her.
I hope you have better luck.

Marc Siegel wrote:How do you keep your chickens from not flying out of the garden.  My Garden fence is about 4 feet high.  
But I like the idea of a deep litter, I think this is something that i can easily do inside their run

In my case, I don't.  The raised beds are comparatively small (2 4'x8' beds).  They free range during the day and are naturally attracted to the beds since they are normally fenced out.  The girls can come and go as they please until I close the beds again.

If you are thinking of leaves for deep litter, now is the time to collect them.  Preferably collect and bag when they are as dry as possible and you can use some now and some 6 months from now in your run.

I have a short chicken wire fence around my garden to deter woodland creatures. If anything tried it could most definitely come in but so far so good.

I think what keeps the chickens contained is all of the leftovers for them to eat. I haven't had any escapees yet.

I stumbled on a video on this thread's topic.

Timothy Norton wrote:I stumbled on a video on this thread's topic.

For this property, it seems that the biggest problem was actually the steep slope, with chickens scratching the upper land and removing all verdure there and then the rains pushing everything down.
But the idea of chickens doing the weeding has a lot of merit. for my situation, the land is flat but the chickens are way too far. They are in an orchard so they do a great job there, but I sure would like to invite them in the garden like... Now, as I'm getting ready to plant. They are laying well, so I have not quite figured out moving them in a temporary building that would allow me to keep them safe at night while getting eggs. I need to look up "temporary buildings for chickens", I guess, or "chicken tractor with all the conveniences for 33 chickens"

We are starting to approach the end of my gardening season and it is about time that I hand my enclosed garden space over to the hens. I had some amaranth that has turned 'weedy' that I hope they can help me root out. There are TONS of dropped tomato this year due to the drought we experienced so cleanup will be their primary duty.

I'm starting to get some weeds popping up in my woodchip pathways, this indicates to me that we may have some rich compost built up that will need harvesting. I will start digging up the pathways to sift and spread the material into the beds after they have been picked over. I however need to get ahold of some new carbon rich material to put into the pathways.

My goal with chickens eventually is to have a run that is parallel to my garden fence - along the exterior. Our grass constantly invades the garden and I am hoping that a chicken patrol will help keep it down. The run will open up to the garden at a few points so they can be let in to tidy up when necessary.

Timothy Norton wrote:We are starting to approach the end of my gardening season and it is about time that I hand my enclosed garden space over to the hens.
I'm starting to get some weeds popping up in my woodchip pathways, this indicates to me that we may have some rich compost built up that will need harvesting. I will start digging up the pathways to sift and spread the material into the beds after they have been picked over. however need to get ahold of some new carbon rich material to put into the pathways.

My ladies who are just about to lay have been merged with the old flock with minimal pecking and quarrelling about the best roosting spot, so I'm happy about that. The 11 roosters remaining have been placed on garden tearing duty. They found the comfrey bed, unfortunately, and there are not enough of them for the surface to be cleaned, but they are at work every day.
What I did wrong is that I didn't put them on scratching garden early enough: There are some mighty tall weeds and they have trouble even trampling them. I wish there was a chicken/ turkey, duck renting outfit in the area to help with this cleaning chore in the garden!
I placed some carpeting materials in some paths, some chips in others. It takes about 3 years for the chips to get integrated, then I can flip them into the neighboring beds.
We are lucky here: The town demand that everyone who has leaves rake them and place them in paper sacks along the streets. So right around now, when the maples are just starting to turn color, I'm making a mental note of where there are maples etc.. Later, I'll swoop by with my Murano and pick up the sacs [with the owner's permission, of course -some of the smarter folks put their leaves in a pile in the back for their [tiny] garden]. Drats!
Last year, I got 92 bags [the big kind, like 55 gallon bags]. With one of these Ryobi vacuuming tools, I suck and shred the leaves to add to the garden as mulch for some bushes.
I started from essentially zero good soil (just sand). Now, I'm happy to report that I have almost a foot of pretty darn good soil... on top of 35 ft of sand.