Gardening with feathered friends

When you think of a garden you might imagine idyllic scenes of rows of leafy greens and red strawberries peeking from beneath foliage, with plump chickens scratching in the dirt of the path and ducks waddling down the lanes. 

Reality with feathered friends is quite different — shredded, trampled plants and veggies with holes pecked in them, dug-up beds and dirt scattered hither and yon as if a miniature tornado tore a path through your precious beds.

It occurred to me, after losing $300 worth of plants in a flower bed for the second time in one spring, that perhaps these miniature velociraptors were better suited to staying in the run — the chickens at least.  

Some gardeners get by with constructing a fence around their veggie patch.  Make it four feet high (six is better) and don’t frame the top as you’ll just advertise where the fence ends and your chickens will use it as a perch for their nefarious raids.

Ducks (assuming they are not flying varieties) are not nearly as hard on a garden and can be restricted with a two-foot fence.  Any bed (flower or veggie) not protected this way will be bulldozed unless it contains large, mature plants and bushes.  Ducks have big feet and big bodies and will trample small plants and sometimes knock over larger ones in their quest for delicious bugs.

So why keep them?  

Besides feeling smug when we have an egg shortage, chickens and ducks are great contributors to the garden.  

First off is fertilizer.  Both manures are wonderful sources of nutrients.  Chicken manure needs to be composted, while duck manure can be used fresh and your garden will grow lush and green.  Both birds are great at “recycling” household food scraps and garden materials such as weeds and vegetable matter.  Some people also have great success keeping chickens in a chicken tractor, a mobile coupe that can be taken around the yard so the chickens can graze. Make sure to protect the tractor from bears. 

Ducks are a good alternative to chickens. They produce lots of eggs and, contrary to popular belief, they do not need a pond (although they do need a bucket of water so they can keep their eyes clean). They are absolutely brilliant at getting rid of slugs and can be herded on a regular basis through a vegetable patch without doing any damage because they prefer the creepy crawlers over what you are growing.  

If you’re looking to get either (or both) of these wonderful feathered friends, I would recommend Rhode Island reds or Orpington chickens. Both are great long-term layers that produce large eggs and will often lay through winter with supplemental lighting. 

Wyandottes are good, too, but produce smaller eggs. The production birds, such as red stars, lay really well but only for the first year and a half or so and will need to be replaced if large numbers of eggs are desired.  

As for ducks, my favorite layers are blue Swedish. They seem pretty consistent at laying, don’t eat a huge amount for a duck and are pretty friendly.  

Khaki Campbells are great if you’re really wanting egg production but they are very nervous birds. 

Personally, I find the best part about owning chickens and ducks are their antics.  Both are funny creatures with quirky personalities and I often spend a lot of time just watching them enjoying themselves. 

Blythe Carter