FREE-RANGE GARDENERS

Put away the rototiller and get more nutritious eggs by allowing your chickens to work in the garden.

- AMY GRISAK

You’ll be able to park the rototiller in the shed forever if you can employ a small flock of chickens to care for your garden soil. Not only do chickens provide a tremendous nitrogen source to the area, they are champions of turning the soil, eliminating weeds and creating compost in place.

“I would keep chickens even if they didn’t lay eggs because of their working power,” says Justin Rhodes, who shares his homesteading experiences on Abundant permaculture.com “I don’t weed I don’t use synthetic fertilizer. I don’t till.” Chickens handle these tasks for him while providing a valuable fertilizer resource, and here’s how you can, too.

THEY GIVE YOUR CROPS A NITROGEN BOOST

Joseph Heckman, a soil specialist for Rutgers University, became interested in the soil impact of chickens when he started keeping them in 2005. He uses chickens on his lawn, as well as keeps a chicken tractor with 30 birds in his hay fields after the hay is cut for the season.

“One thing to consider when you’re buying chicken feed is you’re buying fertilizer, too,” Heckman says. “You’re actually fertilizing the land when you keep the chickens there.”

Heckman knows this firsthand. As the flock of chickens in his hay field is moved down the field, their path is obvious because you can see a green streak of fertile forage appear in their wake. “When I made hay this year, I could tell where the chickens were last year,” he says.