Monte’s idea for using the chickens to fertilize our garden stems from principles of permaculture. The chickens eat our food scraps, which they scratch into the ground, along with green waste, including lawn clippings, and hay and silage leftover from what the cows don’t eat, which monte shovels into the chook pen.

Over time, the food waste and green waste composts down, along with the chicken manure. The chickens scratch it all up and mix it together to make a beautiful compost for the garden.

And here is a close up:

Yep, it is smelly stuff! Smelly means good for the garden though, and our veges thrived last year and they are doing well so far this year – except we need to plant more now that we have more beds prepared. The idea is that we will cover the beds with newspaper, followed by silage. To plant more seedlings, we will make holes in the paper and mulch for planting. I can’t wait to get into the garden this weekend to plant more good food!

The lettuces we have been growing are simply perfect!