One of the ways you can put chickens to use is by having them scratch up and turn over garden beds in the spring. Of course, that's assuming they don't decide to simply wallow in the dirt:
Definitely. During fall and the latter end of winter we'll let our chickens out to have at it with the remains of the garden. Gross as it is to say, their poop makes for great fertilizer.
But the holes they make... very hazardous to the ankles :/
Our yard is solid clay (by which I mean, come summer and a lack of regular rain, trying to dig in it is like trying to dig through brick) so they can't do a whole lot of damage there. But they sure do have fun in the beds!
I did this the last year I had chickens! Digging up the garden was a snap that spring; they dug out all the old roots of corn plants and other troublesome things that normally make cleanup tedious. The only problem was that I have raised beds and they flung dirt all over the place. But yeah, definitely an excellent idea!
Well, when we're ready to start planting in those beds, we'll have to go around with a shovel and refill them, I'm afraid, but the ladies doing a great job of removing this one type of runner weed that had taken over a couple of the beds during the winter.
But the holes they make... very hazardous to the ankles :/
Not to mention, they're a hoot to watch. :D