How do chickens help speed up soil replenishment?
The accepted “conventional” way to build new soil today is to rotary-till or plow the topsoil and subsoil and mix it all together to create a deeper topsoil. That doesn’t work. What happens instead is that your plowing and tilling create an inferior soil lacking organic matter and tilth. You cannot “deepen” soil with mechanical manipulation. All you do is destroy soil tilth and structure. You also kill off the soil life that has –up until now- turned organic matter into humus for the enrichment of the soil and to feed the crops that grow there. When the plants die back, instead of plowing the ground, let the ground-dwelling insects and worms eat the organic matter and convert it into humus. That humus in turn provides nutrition for next year’s plants and builds up the organic matter in the soil. In this way soil “uppens”. Also, use a “chicken tractor” to help you “uppen” your soil. By rotating the tractor daily the accumulation of manure can add superb richness to the soil. Does animal
