If you want to keep free-range chickens but at the same time would like to maintain a reasonably tidy garden, there are several tricks you can employ:
*  Choose bantams with feathered legs such as Cochins, as these don’t, or can’t, scratch up your lawn quite as much as other breeds. (Pictured, a Cochin rooster and hen.)
* Lay chicken wire flat on your perennial or annual beds in the winter. The plants will grow through the wire but the hens won’t be able to scratch them up. Read the rest of this entry »