by Sophia Franchi, on April 7, 2025
Just after 6:00am, a rooster’s crow breaks through the whirring drone of morning traffic. While roosters are not permitted in most urban areas, many cities have backyard chicken ordinances allowing residents to keep hens, as long as they are a certain distance from other structures and dwellings. Sometimes residents will sneak a rooster into the mix, and sometimes the chickens will be found roaming the front yards and sidewalks looking for a tasty treat.
One resident — who we will call James, as he wishes to remain anonymous — does not have any roosters, and he keeps his chickens in the backyard of his double plot in a quaint neighborhood in Akron, Ohio.
James has been raising his chickens for just over two years. He has learned that there are factors to consider when it comes to your landscaping, gardens, and lawns. The first thing to keep in mind is that the area where chickens are kept will be completely stripped of any signs of life.
“We have them in a little run, and there is nothing left living there,” says James. “They have scratched all the weeds out; everything's gone.”
Chickens that are allowed to roam around outside their space into a larger fenced-in area will tear up anything they can access.
“If you have a garden, your garden has to be established first, because they'll go through and just start picking stuff apart,” says James. “If you have sprouts coming up, they'll eat them, they'll scratch them out of the ground, whatever.”
What about hardier plants, such as berries and things like that? James says that yes, absolutely, if the chickens can get to them, they will eat them.
“They'll eat mice,” he says. “They'll eat large bugs. They'll occasionally eat their own eggs. They'll eat just about anything that they can either break apart or fit in their mouth.”
The benefits can be maximized and the problems minimized by utilizing a “chicken tractor” method, where the structure and containment area are mobile, allowing the keeper to move the chickens around the yard to clear designated areas.
“They will clear all the grass, all the weeds, all the seeds out of that area, and they'll put their manure there,” James explains. “That manure gets mixed into that dirt and you've got fresh dirt to start with if you want to start a new garden. You've got plenty of fertility in that area and no weeds to have to worry about for a while.”
Once they clear one area, they can be moved to the next area that needs to be cleared.
James says that if you leave chickens in one place long enough, they will destroy absolutely everything in the soil, even the seeds. This is particularly helpful if you live in an area like northeast Ohio, where there are lots of deciduous trees, even in many urban neighborhoods. These trees drop lots of nuts and seeds into the soil, which quickly grow into saplings and are difficult to remove.
Chickens eat all types of insects and garden pests, including Japanese Beetles, cabbage worms, cucumber beetles, mosquitoes, ticks, termites and even small rodents like mice, rats and moles. While this might cause the need for re-introduction or re-attraction of beneficial garden insects, it could be well worth the effort if it means reducing the lawn and garden damage that can be fraught by a bad June beetle grub infestation.
What does all this scratching and destruction mean for the chickens? If they consume vegetation and critters that have been treated with chemical fertilizers and exposed to pesticides, those toxic substances can have detrimental health effects on the chickens’ vital organs, such as their liver and digestive system. Organic Lawn Care, such as the Natural Foundation Program offered by Good Nature, are safer for animals and can prevent these exposures for chickens that roam the yard to graze on garden pests.
Raising chickens is a rewarding practice. James’ chickens produce beautiful, large, nutrient-dense, plentiful eggs, which can also provide insight on his hens’ health. One of James’ chickens is particularly loud when she is laying eggs, and he recently noticed that some of the eggs in the coop are covered in little calcium deposits. He says this is a clue that Noisy might have some health issues with calcium absorption.
James’ chickens are all friendly – except for Bitey, who got her name exactly how one would imagine. They like to be held and pet, and they like to be around the family.
“One of my fun things that I like to do is feed them grapes,” he says. “I'll roll them across the ground and they'll chase them. So, it's almost like paying fetch with your chickens.”
