The chickens eat every blade of grass that grows in the yard, so I was losing hope for a vegetable garden this year. The solution we came up with was to move the coop to behind the shed and fence off a run for them beside the deck. In this area they'll have the compost piles, raspberry bushes, and a dust bathing area. With any luck they'll eat the dandelions and raspberry shoots that were going wild back there. The top of the coop still backs onto the deck so that we can collect eggs and refill the food and water drippers from up top.
Urban chickens are getting a lot of local press these days since Vancouver passed a bylaw allowing chickens. There's controversy around a city proposal to build a wing of the animal shelter (at $20,000) for abandoned chickens.
