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Make your chicken coop and garden work together

We live on six acres of beautiful property here on the river in north Idaho. Even with six acres, I don’t currently have a lot of space for my garden and chickens. I’ve had to come up with a way to make my chicken coop and garden work together to maximize the space.

Maximizing your space

My solution is having my chicken coop open up into a small run and have the run open up into my garden. There is a gate that I can close to keep the chickens in their run and coop area. I can open up the gate from the run into the garden providing them with more space.

Woman in a chicken run showing how the door to the chicken coop opens up into the chicken run making her chicken coop and garden work together to maximize the space.
My husband cut a hole in the fence matching the size of the chicken coop door.

I wanted to have a way for my chickens to be in the garden space in the off seasons. This way they help me “clean up” the garden at the end of the growing season. They scratch and leave their manure all winter long which is really good for the garden soil. And once growing season arrives I don’t have to do any weeding before planting because they have done the work for me!

Woman moving a black bin used as a shelter for chickens in a chicken run showing how to make your chicken coop and garden work together.
The run is not very large since space is limited. Since they can go out and free range in the yard on a daily basis it’s ok to have up to eight chickens in this space. If they weren’t able to go out into the yard and free range then I would only keep four chickens.
Woman closing the gate to the chicken run that leads into the garden showing one of the ways to make a chicken coop and garden work together.
With this gate I can close off the chicken coop and run from the rest of the garden during growing season.

Using the coop’s manure and used shavings for the garden

Another way I make my chicken coop and garden work together is by collecting the used shavings and manure from the chicken coop and putting them in the garden area. The chickens will scratch and move them around making the soil really nice for gardening.

Woman cleaning a chicken coop.
The coop has a really handy floor that slides out like a drawer making cleaning fairly easy.
Woman cleaning a chicken coop.
I use an old black tote for holding the used shavings and manure.
Woman cleaning a chicken coop.
Woman dumping a black plastic container that had used chicken shavings and manure from cleaning out a chicken coop showing how to make your chicken coop and garden work together.
The used shavings and manure go into the garden area for the chickens to scratch and spread around, supplementing the garden soil for later on.
Woman putting down fresh shavings for a cleaned chicken coop.
Woman putting fresh shavings into a clean chicken coop.
I make sure to pile the fresh shavings nice and high. The chickens will spread them out and move them around how they want them.
Black and white chicken checking out her clean chicken coop with fresh shavings.

The benefits of making your chicken coop and garden work together:

  • Makes having a garden and chickens in a small space possible.
  • Allows your chickens to have the extra space in the off season if they aren’t able to free range.
  • The chickens spread their manure in the garden area which is good for the soil.
  • The chickens help “clean up” the garden when the growing season is over.
  • The chickens do all the weeding for you so you don’t have to do any before you plant in the spring.
  • Putting the used shavings and manure from coop clean up to the garden area for the chickens to spread around is also good for the soil.

Having a small space doesn’t mean you can’t have chickens and a garden. It just means you need to get creative and figure out how to make your chicken coop and garden work together to maximize your available space.

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Check out my post on how to make affordable fall bouquets all season long: https://homespunannie.com/1695/affordable-fall-flower-bouquets/

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