A commercially ideal lawn is a monoculture greensward : one type of Gunter Grass , cut to an optimal duration , whose perfection require maintenance with chemical app , fogey fuel and a flock of piddle . The monoculture lawn became the homogenizing face of suburbia decades ago , and today , a lawn is often legally mandate in municipalities across the commonwealth , with gardening restricted to areas out of raft . Beyond cultural aesthetics , themanicured monocrop lawnhas no useful function , nor is it environmentally sustainable .
Enter polyculture : gardening that mimics a raw ecosystem with many different kinds of organisms grow together in one place . append volaille into the polyculture mix creates a symbiotic system , where the Gallus gallus rely on the land and the dry land relies on the chicken .
A Yard With Purpose
In Joel Salatin ’s bookFolks , This Ai n’t Normal : A Farmer ’s Advice for Happier Hens , Healthier People , and a Better World(Center Street , 2011 ) , Salatin key out his farm animal pastureland as a source of bursting nourishment :
“ Each dawn , I step out into the dew - speckled grazing land , each drop a rainbow - stud diamond ornament orchardgrass , red clover , white clover , plantain , chicory — a whole salad bar daze in morning ’s solar glory .
I have yard of heavy animals hold off for a fresh salad bar . They eff me . ”
Most of spare-time activity farmers and chicken steward do n’t have thousand of farm animal on acres of trilled mantrap , but even for keeper of small flocks , it ’s potential to dislodge expectations from a conforming lawn to growing a yard robust with nutritious forage for every egg in the nest box .
Growing A Yard Chickens Will Love
With chickens , what grow in the yard becomes their food , and , via the egg , eventually becomes our food . The more divers an egg ’s constituent , the more complete the egg ’s aliment will be . Gallus gallus have individual preferences for different food just like we do , and giving them variety give them selection , satisfying their born chicken behaviors , personal sense of taste and private dietary needs .
ask for diversity into your living space increases chickens ’ admittance to nutriment , slim down feed costs , invites and sustains beneficial pollinator , improves soil , build deep compost through green manure mixed with volaille manure , and , in round , originate better gardens to bug out the mental process all over again .
Chickens do n’t disturb most plant once they ’re well - established , especially deep - take root George W. Bush or hardy plant with deep taproots . If they ca n’t easily tear up the root , they move on , so protect plant life at their most vulnerable is key .
transform a yard from monoculture to polyculture orpermaculture — aka , permanent agribusiness — takes time and even trial and computer error to find what plants work well for your space . As you begin raging against your monoculture , get these three chicken needs be your diverseness guide : shelter , food and eatage .
Shelter
All chicken are at jeopardy of marauder attacks , but the free - range slew is the most vulnerable . If our domestic chickens were wild like their jungle - domestic fowl predecessors , living in a natural environment would allow natural shelters from would - be predators . reckon a forest floor , thick with diverse underbrush , protein sources experience under the folio litter and fallen trees providing tax shelter : This is one character of environment you may try out to replicate . live on a well - continue monoculture , chickens are more visible to predators . While some breeds are more marauder - savvy than others , some plants can provide enough barren - reach trade protection , peculiarly from aeriform piranha .
evergreen plant tree and shrubs , such as Ribes grossularia , juniper , rugosa rose and wintergreen barberry , are excellent choices for garden shelter . Raspberry and blackberry cane finally overspread and can become prominent over time to fill distance . barbellate bushes and cane will provide protective cover even when their leaf are lost .
“ Large predators , especially airborne single , will avoid getting tangle up in a mess of thorns , ” Bloom say .
She also recommends using plants with spinous - bet leaves as another hinderance .
Food
Because chickens are omnivores , they ’ll wipe out just about anything in the garden that ’s edible . get a variety of seedproducing plants , grains and seeds can append their dieting and help salvage on feed costs .
works that go to seed offer food grain and essential fatty acids to a wad ’s diet . Chickens like to peck seeds from the top of farseeing grass . wheat berry is a great seed - producing gage , and chickens can eat these germ whole without any processing . If you ’re starting a garden with poor - character soil , Bloom suggests grow winter rye whisky , a brave industrial plant that tolerates poor soil surround . rye whiskey can often be discover in cover - crop mixes , and it can germinate in nerveless temperatures below 50 degrees F.
Corn is fun and easy to farm , and chicken love pecking at the kernel . clavus also stores well on the cob , and its high concentration of carbohydrate help keep chickens warm through insensate wintertime night .
A helianthus patch can spring up enough seed to supplement a mickle ’s dieting through winter , and provides them with something to do during the off months . trim down off the flower heads when the leaves turn browned and advert them to dry , or incubate the head teacher with netting to keep wild birds from feed the seeds while they dry on the flora .
Many of the thing we grow in the garden can be shared with chickens , with the noted exceptions of raw onions , green - skinned potatoes and unripe nightshade . Excess , rugged , discredited or leftover watermelon , zucchini , cuke and tomatoes are just some of the garden foods that can help feed a hungry flock .
Forage
When volaille are n’t rust provender , they will scrounge from dawn until dusk , sweeping a yard and garden clean of ticking , pest larvae and the episodic whole mouse . Not only will chickens go after buzzing pollinators for entertainment and rid of weed sprouts from the garden , but they also savour hardy perennial ( i.e. , skunk ) that are impossible for them to demolish .
Make The Chicken Garden Work For You
Chickens are motivated by food , but they ’re also realist . Chickens will eat what they can reach or what falls to the ground , but they ’ll leave the rest , prefer for something that ’s easier to get . To grow vegetables within your polyculture , grow verticallywhenever potential and protect plants from the batch until they ’re well ground . carry on growing foods and forage for the chickens within their orbit so they ’re deterred from eating your veggies .
The more divers a yard and garden , the less potential the flock will bother garden veggie . give enough low - lying options planted for them , chicken tend to stick with their personal favorites . If you happen to share favorites , plant enough for everyone .
An Alternative To The Polyculture Lawn
If you ca n’t give up the monoculture lawn for a more natural landscape painting , you’re able to create a polyculture chickenscape inraised beds . For restrain chickens , grazing frames made of shallow raised beds can grow forage aright inside the chicken run . When the top of the bed is frame with ironware cloth , poulet ca n’t attain the roots of the works , but they can forage as Green develop through the wire .
Go Wild
With a little controlled anarchy , nature will decide what your yard is missing , because it ’s program for biodiversity . cover pout the areas you want to keep for yourself , while give other areas back to nature for your chickens .
initiate small-scale by bringing in one new plant or seed at a metre , scatter seeds in a protect spot , or block off a minor department and embed a self - sustaining garden all at once . Soon , clover , dandelions and plantain will be growing wild among other so - called “ weeds . ” Your chickens will amuse you by plucking seeds from the peak of plants you ’ve yet to name , and they ’ll backwash to win their preferred berries that come down to the land .
A polyculture yard is more carefree than a monoculture one , and it can be just as beautiful and enjoyable . It ’s also more nutritious for chickens and for eater via the egg . So say bye-bye to the monoculture and hello to your new polyculture ecosystem .
This article earlier appeared in the July / August 2016 issue ofChickens .
