Fallen tomatoes, squished berries, clipped leaves and garden weeds are the foods chickens adore! Rich in vitamins and minerals, there is good reason that many backyard growers are quietly adding a few hens to their yard. Letting chickens have first dibs on anything that would otherwise be headed to the compost pile is a wonderful way to turn your garden waste into buttery, delicious fresh eggs!
How to Turn Garden Waste Into Fresh Eggs
Chickens as Compost Managers
If heaps of weeds and clippings flood your compost bin and you’re struggling to add enough “browns” to break everything down, a trio of laying hens might be a great solution. Chickens are adept at scratching and pecking greens and food scraps into rich compost. Digging for bugs that come to feast on whatever is leftover results in them kicking and rooting through the heap until all of it is the consistency of fine garden soil. They even add their nitrogen-rich droppings which will boost future plant growth.
3 Months to Black Gold
Once chickens have joyfully reduced the garden waste to dirt, the mix needs to sit for about 3 months so their poops, the leftover green waste and any wood chip mulch that may have been used for the hen’s bedding can finish breaking down. It happens fast and you may find your hens produce more worm-rich compost than your garden can use! If that is the case, it is great for filling pots, topping off flower beds and sprinkling lightly over the yard for the most lush green grass imaginable!
What Do Chickens Need?
If it is legal for you to keep laying hens, they will need a secure coop to sleep in and an enclosed chicken run area so they don’t get into your garden. They will need a waterer that is easy for you to fill and a hanging feeder or pan in which you can give them seeds and chicken feed for a well rounded diet.
How Many Hens?
Chickens are flock animals so it is best if you keep 2 or more. A small flock of 3 is ideal for families of 2-4 people if you eat about a dozen eggs per week. Most backyard garden patches plus scraps from the kitchen can easily feed 3 hens and reduce the amount of bagged chicken feed you need to buy. Chicken feed can be purchased from Tractor Supply, local feed stores or delivered to your door by Amazon. One hen needs 1/2 cup of food per day, most of which she will get from the garden waste. (Affiliate links.)
Egg Shells are Recycled, Too!
The hen’s own egg shells can be crushed and offered back to them as a calcium supplement. The tiny shell pieces they miss end up in the compost where soil microbes will later break the calcium down into a form that can be taken up by plant roots.
Garden Pests Eaten!
Hens LOVE to eat bugs and will gladly devour all your garden pests. Mine are especially fond of grub worms, cutworms and hornworms. Spiders, ants, centipedes, millipedes, June bugs, cockroaches and just about any other bug they can get their beaks on will be greedily consumed. There is nothing more satisfying than turning garden pests into rich orange yolked eggs!
What Do Chickens Like to Eat?
Some favorite garden & kitchen scraps include strawberry tops, lettuce bottoms, pepper seeds and leaves, squash ends, melon rinds, beet, carrot and turnip tops, plus greens and weeds of any type. Chickens prefer cooked potatoes, cooked carrots and cooked onions so raw skins from any of these veggies will typically be uneaten by the hens and left to break down in the compost. Of course they love weeds, grass and clover of all kinds!
Chickens & Gardens – A Mutually Beneficial Pair
If you are ready to turn your garden waste into organic backyard eggs, I’ve got more articles that share how easy it is to keep backyard chickens, how to raise chicks and how to find hens to buy now. You’re going to love the year-round benefits of backyard chicken keeping and gardening!
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