graibeard's The Chook's garden

Ah, the Chooks thought we’d given up on them, and we had, but we miss them too much. Come back girls, we’ll build you a new shelter.

They are willing workers that will busily chase down and eat the bugs, enthusiastically scratch the ground and turn it over while looking for seeds & seedlings, it’s up to us to make sure they are the weeds. They’ll kill off any wandering jew and other nuisance plants that are surface rooted and, admittedly, anything else that you don’t fence off.
They’ll happily turn over the compost heap, eat the scraps and mix it all in while breaking it into smaller, well aerated bits. They are one of the few ways that you can recycle meat and dairy products too, they package them up in pellets of powerful fertilizer and will even mix them into the compost heap or deep litter that you provide for them.

They’ll do all this while asking for nothing more than food, lodgings and a safe environment. Do this right and they’ll reward you with eggs that have rich yellow yolks and a taste to rival the best free range eggs.

If that’s not enough, they’ll entertain you for hours with their antics and social interactions. If you’ve never seen a happy chook, pay attention when they are luxuriating in their dust bath.