Using what we have (goats, sheep, chickens)

[Beekissed]

Beekissed - do you chickens damage your garden or eat berries? We worry about losing our harvest to the chickens.

I don't let them in there when crops are growing, just let them work the soil, wood chips, and leaves prior to planting in the spring, to remove pest bug larvae, and then again at the end of the garden season, to eat all the bugs and any rotten veggies they want.

They also get to work the area outside the garden fence all year, which most likely nets them many bugs that were headed to my garden. I also trap Jap beetles for them to eat.

When the soil warms up I'll turn over the compost around the apple tree saplings so they can grab up any grubs they can find there.

 

[lcertuche]

We had a lot of blackberries and our chickens got some of the low ones but it was a black bear that got most of them.

 

[tortoise]

Updating to share that my worries about my goat yelling when tethered were unfounded.

My goat comes to the gate, sticks his neck out and stands still for his collar, and walks away from his herd without protest. At the end of the day, he doesn't want to go back in the goat pasture!

Winning!