13 May 2017

Chicken yard remediation update

Photo of a patch of mustard greens with several chickens around and in it
Chickens amongst the mustard greens
In the old chicken yard the mustard greens matured--nearly flowering--when I let the chickens on it;  I didn't want the plants to flower and cross with my kale (which I want to collect seed from).  I sowed them in Jan/Feb as green manure/cover crops, to help remediate the soil back there, which had been bare for several months thanks to too much chicken pressure.

The patch I grew only covered about a quarter of the old yard--a little bit of the yard is paved, and elsewhere holds some shrubs;  however, there are still some bare spots where my seed broadcasting skills obviously failed.  Actually, I take that statement back;  it's pretty much all bare again, as the chickens demolished that patch of mustard--they loved it!

I planned to let them on it for a week, but took them off after five days as they discovered a weak spot in the fence and escaped multiple times.  The mustard is nothing but a few short stems now;  I don't know if they will regrow, but I'll get out there and sow some more seeds (mustard or something else, not sure) and try to get the whole yard this time.

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