We’ve already looked at chicken tractors, what they are and how they can be very useful where there is not enough space for a large chicken coop.
Why Use Chicken Tractors in The First Place?
But chicken tractors have another really important use in your productive garden. Are you a chicken keeper who also likes to grow some vegetables to feed your family? If you are then a chicken tractor can be a great addition to your vegetable growing activities.
Chickens are very good at eating all sorts of plant material including the remains of your vegetable growing. After you have picked your lettuce or spinach there is always some leaves left over that you don’t use. If you have a few chickens in a chicken tractor then you can place the tractor and chickens on the area of the garden that you have just harvested.
The chickens will really enjoy eating these left over plants, and it will add lots of variety to their diet. Chickens are very good at cleaning up areas where there are unwanted plants or vegetation. This could also be an area where there are lots of weeds. The chickens will get busy eating all the leaves and stems and then scratch out the roots and seeds and turn the soil over. Chickens are expert cultivators in their search for small insects and grubs in the soil. Thus they reduce the population of insects that may become a nuisance to your next crop of vegetables. Insect or insect larvae are a very high protein addition to their diet.
But besides clearing the area ready for a new crop of vegetables they also fertilize it for you. They are very good at turning waste vegetable matter into rich manure for the next crop of vegetables. Of course you can also use your tractor in your flower garden as well, just imagine what the flowers will be like with all that manure.
The portability of the chicken tractor gives your chickens another use besides laying eggs.
Another advantage of having chickens in a tractor is the rich variety of food that they will have access to. The quality of their eggs will improve tremendously, which in turn means that the eggs that you harvest will be a lot more nutritious for you and your family.
A further advantage of having a chicken tractor is that the chickens will never get bored. As you will be moving the tractor every day or two there will always be a new area for them to peck and scratch, this is like chicken heaven.
If you are raising chickens and they are still small, then a chicken tractor is ideal for them. They will be protected from predators in the tractor but have the advantage of adding fresh greenery to their diet.
Finally, by using a chicken tractor you can greatly reduce the amount of bought in feed that you need to buy, thus saving you lots of money in your food production system. Chicken Tractors really are a win/win system all round. Enjoy your chickens as they work non-stop to bring you an amazing food, the egg.