Sami Grover
DCL
I've written before about how my backyard chickens turn my compost for me, and even provide an excellent form of bug control. (Chickens love Japanese beetles!) But aside from these joys (and fresh eggs of course!), one of my favorite things about keeping chickens is the sheer lack of waste in our household.
I knew chickens would eat some kitchen scraps, but the amount they can eat is amazing! We almost never scrape waste food into the trash anymore - it either goes into the compost, or straight off the back porch. As a bonus, we then get to watch the chickens battle it out over our leftover spaghetti, tomatoes (they love anything red!), spuds, bread, etc. As chickens are naturally omnivorous, we also include the occasional bits of meat or fish - though we pretty much draw the line at chicken.
You shouldn't feed chickens visibly moldy or off foods, as this can cause illness, but other than that I have yet to find much they won't eat. We've even seen them gobbling up small frogs, lizards and snakes in the backyard!
The result is free chicken food from a waste resource, which will ultimately become eggs and/or poop for the garden, and in the process we get to reduce the amount of trash going to landfill. Because we live out in the country and don't have regular trash collections, this is an added bonus for us. The less organic waste you have in your trash, the less it stinks, and the longer you can leave it between trips to the dump.
It's a win-win situation all round. And I'm sure the chickens would agree. If you're interested in introducing chickens to your garden, check out Jasmin's primer on resources for backyard chicken keeping.
Salivating over sustainable eats? Learn how to make your own with help from Emeril Lagasse in Planet Green TV's organic cooking show, Emeril Green.
