After I posted my Chicken City tour, one question came up again and again: "What came first—the plants or the chickens?"
Everyone wanted to know about timing. Should you plant everything first and let it establish before getting chickens? Or can you do both at once?
I have an answer for you, and it's probably not what you'd expect.
What I Did (And Why It Was Wrong)
When I first set up Chicken City, I thought I was being smart. I planted all the fruit trees, herbs, and plants first. Then I waited. And waited. For about 9 months, actually.
My thinking was that if the plants had a head start, they'd be big and established enough to survive the chickens. The chickens would arrive to find strong, resilient plants that could handle a bit of pecking and scratching.
Spoiler alert: I was completely wrong.
When I finally got my chickens (only 6 at first!), they destroyed almost everything I'd planted over that 9 month period. All that waiting didn't save my plants. In fact, I think most of what I planted in that first year ended up being killed by the chickens.
Here's What Actually Matters
Timing doesn't matter. Plant protection does.
I could have planted everything and gotten the chickens on the same day if I'd known how to properly protect the plants. Things like:
- Using baskets over young plants to protect roots
- Placing bricks strategically around tree bases
- Roping off vulnerable areas with wire mesh
- Using the right protective structures from day one
Giving plants a 9 month head start without proper protection didn't save them. But proper protection from day one would have.
The Only Time Waiting Made Sense
The one thing that was worth doing before getting chickens was wheelbarrowing in all the soil for the garden beds. That took me a couple of months of hard work, and trying to do that with chickens underfoot would have been a nightmare. But once the soil was in? I should have planted and got the chickens immediately, with proper plant protection in place.
If you're dreaming of a lush, green chicken coop like Chicken City—a real food forest that produces for you while enriching your chickens' lives—the timing question isn't the important one. The protection methods are.
I explain exactly what I wish I'd done differently and share all my plant protection secrets in the full video.
Don't make the same mistakes I did—learn from my 9 month delay and get it right from the start!
Get more details on Chicken City, including rough plans
Find out more about my chickens and my edible garden ecosystem on Instagram - this is where I post the most regular updates on my Chicken City system!
