I know, I know, I keep telling you that chicken tractor season
is over and that I’m going to move these ladies to a coop…but they’re
just so handy to have in the garden. Recently, I’ve been letting
them scratch up weeds under our fruit trees before I lay down a kill
mulch, a bit of compost, and then some mulch to give the trees a
jumpstart for spring. Since there’s not much greenery under there
at this time of year, I’m also dropping off bits of this and that for
the ladies at least a few times a week. Here, they’re enjoying a
Brussels sprout plant, off of which we’ve eaten all the sprouts.
If the girls seemed to be
suffering in any way, I’d take them out of the tractor immediately, but
the truth is that the three hens in this tractor are giving us at least
one egg per day. That’s pretty good since one of the hens
definitely isn’t laying — she’s a two-year-old who’s currently molting.
We’re averaging fewer than four eggs a day at the moment from our main
flock (six australorps, one red star, and two leghorns), so I figure the
tractored hens are more than pulling their weight.
When will I decide these
girls need to move out of the tractor? I keep thinking I’ll have
nowhere non-muddy for them to live, but that hasn’t happened yet.
As long as I keep thinking of garden areas for them to scratch up, the
girls will get to keep their tractor vacation.
