That's why I want to put in a vegetable garden, so the chickens have some place to forage.
You gotta fence 'em out of the vegetable garden! They'll strip every plant to bare stems. They don't just eat bugs y'know! It's like letting your foxes in the henhouse to forage.
It is good to have them in the garden
before you plant it. If you've mulched the area they will scratch it all in and eat all the bugs living in the mulch.
It takes a lot of area to keep them fed without additional feed. We have a pretty large lot with about 1/4 acre in non-built condition. They (6 hens) have it clean as a whistle after about six months. Even the rather large compost heap they worked through in short order. Now, whenever we are in the yard they are underfoot hoping we'll turn over a rock or something. And they talk, talk, talk all the time. Pretty enjoyable, if you're inclined that way.
