What The Cluck????

We had our first batch of chickens at our rental house in Coggon IA. That was over 8 years ago! We even hatched out some eggs in my husbands homemade incubator (more about that later). We let them free range all over the property...they are great bug eaters and will scratch and dig for worms and crickets! They do however also like to scratch and dig up my garden. So far there has not been any considerable damage to the squash or cukes, but they loved the swiss chard and beet tops. To protect them I erected some chicken wire...just some low stuff and they havent invaded yet. Next spring our project will be to fence in the garden area. By erecting the fence it will keep the chickens (and any escapee goats out) and we can also use as a trellis for peas, beans and cukes. For feed we are using a poultry grower (unmedicated so it can be used on the ducks) mixed with cracked corn. They dont eat much during the day since they are out and can eat as many bugs, bits of grass or greens that they want, as well as scraps from the kitchen. We mixed up the feed in June and are still working on the same batch...we have 2 ducks and almost 40 chickens. They do go through more feed in the winter time, but I save kitchen scraps for them and we have even gotten "feed" bread at the discount Hostess bakery 25lbs for $5. Chickens are great to have in the backyard and are fairly easy keepers. We are anxious to have our first eggs and meat from this new batch of chickens.