"Killing two birds with one stone" would apply in this situation, only one of the purposes of a chicken tractor is to keep the bird alive. The other purposes are pest control, lawn care, fertilizing the soil, and frustrating predators.
The chickens eat all of the bugs and pests that destroy the crops, fertilize the space that the chicken tractor occupies, and are kept safe from natural predators like foxes, raccoons, and possums. Due to the large amount of waste that the chickens produce, many different garden beds can be fertilized using only one chicken tractor. Most people use a system of garden beds and rotate the location of the chicken tractor amongst these beds. This makes sure that each bed gets the proper amount of fertilization, and also that they do not stay for too long in one area and cause damage to the garden by scratching and picking.
A chicken tractor is a movable, floorless chicken coop. While many value free-range chicken, one must remember that weasels, foxes and other predators are also free-rangers. That is to say, the more you leave a chicken in the open, the more likely the chicken may fall prey to carnivores. But why give up on the obvious benefits of free range? A chicken tractor still allows chicken to forage for grass, weeds and bugs.
As you can probably guess, while this device is valuable to the life of a chicken, its true value comes in the by-product of a chicken: excrement. Chickens produce a lot of it. For every two pounds a chicken eats, it produces one pound manure. 40% of it is organic matter. A chicken tractor is a boon for soil since it allows one to fertilize soil while pinpointing which soil needs it most.
So all told, while the chicken tractor seems like a simple device — and it is — it also simplifies a complicated task. Sustainable farming is an important project for the 21st century in general. As our population grows, we're going to have to find more creative ways to produce food. There is no reason why livestock should work against vegetation. Indeed, as the chicken tractor shows, there is good reason to believe the two can complement each other.
To put it more simply, chicken tractors makes farming a more efficient enterprise.
2 comments:
I heard that since the chicken excrement is acidic (or alkaline...), you have to be carefull not to use it straight away on a garden, otherwise it will burn the leaves/roots of the plants etc.... has this issue been remedied in this version of the coop?
I believe the trick is to simply make sure the chickens are not on one patch of soil for too long. Otherwise, you are right, it will call the plants.
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