Chickens are wonderful.  Not only do they produce the most delicious eggs, but they also help with the gardening!  Around the beginning of December, we moved our chickens onto our vegetable garden.  We managed to find them a patch far enough away from the sprouting broccoli, kale and cabbages (which they would have devoured in a couple of days), but which did contain the remnants of our swiss chard.

We’ve put them on our veg plot because:

• They like eating green things, and we have plenty of those (ie. weeds) on our patch at the moment.  They don’t eat thistles and nettles but will have a go at pretty much everything else.
• They’re providing the soil with lots of lovely nitrogen rich manure (and I mean, lots).
• They are getting rid of all the hibernating grubs and caterpillars (which could become pests later on), as they scratch about in the soil.

All this means that the veg plot will be in much better shape come the spring.  Thanks girls!