The key issue with cover crops is knowing when to move on. It’s great to plant cover crops that add nitrogen to the soil, but if you wait too long the plants start to take nitrogen from the soil. The secret is to know when to harvest them and plant something else, to take advantage of the nitrogen fixing. Ahh… moving to the next step at the most advantageous time…not easy to figure that out.

We’ve got the Austrian Winter Peas started in the Hilltop Garden, where Chicken Tractor One has been for the last few weeks. We started with two roosters in the tractor, and they did an okay job. Roosters are not as good “scratchers” as hens, though.

A few weeks ago we moved the roosters down to the Meat Bird Mini-Pen and put three Orpingtons in Tractor One. They have been cleaning out the Hilltop Garden as we move them around every three days. And we’re getting eggs as well. They aren’t as faithful about laying as the Reds in the Cricken Choop Egg Layer Pen, but we get a couple of eggs a day from the three of them.