Snails Are Gross and Yucky! They're for our Chickens!

Gardeners everywhere hate snails, even the French I hear. They are slimy, eat rotting wood, and obviously all your plants. Especially your tomatoes. My back yard is where snails go to hang out apparently. They love it, and after years of neglect I don't blame them. But my garden is in now, and while they aren't on my menu (yet (and probably never will be to be honest)) they are on the menu for my beautiful egg laying hens. They LOVE escargot! I don't even have to sauté them with garlic. My chickens are on the other side of the spectrum from snails. I love them. They are cool to watch, add to my compost, lay eggs, eat my weeds, eat kitchen scraps, and obviously SNAILS!

Snail Hunting for the Chickens

Every morning when the dew is heavy on the grass, the kids and I go out looking for snails. This may sound gross and maybe tedious, as they like to hide along the garden boxes in the wet grass. However the exact opposite is true. I mean really! Did you watch the video? In fact I invite you to come join in on the snail slaughtering fun. Never was there a more fitting death for these sluggish gastropods. The chickens seam elated to be presented this treat, its like candy. They fight over them.

Sustainable Placement of the Chicken Coop 

There is an odd Provo City ordinance that states that a chicken coop must be 15 feet away from the property line. While this makes sense when noise and smell is considered, but no one knows about it and it is never enforced. While I am not the most law abiding citizen, I do follow residential speed limits, and I decided to put the chicken coop in the middle of my property and build around it. (more of a design element/aesthetics then to comply with code to be honest) This has been one of the best decisions in my naive experiment of gardening that I have embarked on. They are great to have right in the middle of things for getting rid of snails and other organic waste, but its also nice to have them be a more central part of the garden. Did I mention one lays blue eggs? Or that Emma named one Dark Snow? It was either that or Alfredo, Cordon Bleu, or Fried Steak. Emma wasn't amused.

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