5 Great Ways Chickens Can Help Your Vegetable Garden Grow Better! :- Having a backyard flock of hens is undoubtedly beneficial for obtaining fresh eggs every day, but did you know that hens can also help your vegetable garden in a variety of other ways?
5 Great Ways Chickens Can Help Your Vegetable Garden Grow Better!
The past several years have seen a significant increase in the popularity of backyard hen farming. It appears that more people than ever are interested in rearing chickens, from the cute chicken coops that keep showing up on Pinterest to the enjoyable and constantly engaging YouTube videos and Instagram Reels.
Not only do those with a few acres of land participate in the excitement, though. A growing number of towns and local governments now let residents to keep small flocks of hens inside their cities.
How Chickens Help Vegetable Gardens
For most families, raising chickens is one of the easiest “farm animals” to do. You will be in the correct spot as long as you give them clean, fresh water, a dry, draft-free shelter, and a safe area to run around in.
In most regions and climates, hens thrive. Some breeds do better in colder climates than others. Additionally, some breeds are able to withstand the southern heat and humidity. When selecting the breeds of chickens to order, consider your living conditions and do some study.
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Using Chickens in Vegetable Gardens for Pest Management
Having free-range hens on your property means you always have access to an in-built pest management solution. Insects of various sizes and forms are a favorite meal and chase for hens. These insects are all fair game, from small aphids to ticks, grasshoppers, and cabbage worms.
Chickens eat adult insects and their lifecycles. Chickens also like insect larvae and moths. Do Japanese beetles invade your yard often? The pests kill plants in a day or two. Chickens scratching the earth and digging up larvae help devour them. This prevents summer bugs from reaching your crops. Once your plants are growing, you don’t want hens to roam your garden.
We recommend letting them wander your garden in early spring before planting. Repeat after late fall harvesting. That will assist attract soil-overwintering insects. You can always fence crops to keep fowl away. Your chickens will love the delectable nibbles and your garden will be pest-free!
Egg Shells For Calcium
Eggs can be fresh, tasty, and rich. Eggshells can also power and protect garden plants! Calcium and other trace minerals are abundant in eggshells. If your soil lacks nutrients, calcium can help many garden plants. Egg shell calcium may improve your soil if blossom end rot is common.
Broken egg shells can be added to your compost pile instead of plant soil. Or, add a handful to your potting soil while filling hanging baskets. Egg shells protect garden plants too. If you have slugs, cover sensitive plants and veggies with eggshells. Slugs can’t crawl over shells’ sharp edges without cutting their skin.
Manure Side Dressing
Chicken dung is one of the best natural and easy-to-get fertilizers for gardeners. Nitrogen, nutrients, and organic materials abound. Your poultry dung and litter might be a “hot” side dressing for mature vegetables and other garden plants. Let manure dry and develop before utilizing.
After aging, add manure six inches from each plant’s stem or base. Avoid touching the stems with manure since the excessive nitrogen levels can burn the delicate leaves.
Great Compost Ingredients
These compostable materials are “green”. Manure and litter will swiftly decompose “brown” materials. Dried leaves, grass, and paper are brown. This produces the exact black gold that gardeners need for productive gardens. Natural “hot” chicken dung kills pathogens and weed seeds better in compost piles.
Weed Control
Chickens are great at eating and controlling garden weeds as well as insects and pests. In early April, hens will scratch the soil to find bugs. In addition, they will scratch up any winter weed seeds in your garden soil. Cover crops can help reduce weed seeds, but occasionally they don’t germinate well.
Your chickens may eliminate seeds at the source. If you recently planted your garden or have seedlings, the hens won’t be able to identify a vegetable crop from a weed! Raising hens while gardening has many more benefits, but these five are enough to get you thinking about getting some for the garden season!
