Chickens & Gardens~ making them work!

[Woodland Woman]

Chickens will destroy all vegetable plants given enough time. I let mine have free run in the yard and surround my vegetable garden with 4 ft. chicken wire. This has worked well for the past few years. So far none have flown over the chicken wire but they will sneak in and help themselves if I leave the gate open! I have a fig tree in a pot that I keep covered with netting.

 

[Farmfresh]

I have a solution that has been working for me for sometime now.

My City Biddy Hen House is mobile but I only really move it twice a year. During the summer I keep it on the north side of my garage in the shade. This spot is also near my Reliance grape vine that is trellised over an arbor with a porch swing on it. The hens are penned WITH a top all day long. This is as much to keep them safe from my dogs as anything. Every evening when I get home from work the dogs come in ... they want to be with their people after all ... and the hens go out to range in the backyard until dusk when they are shut in for the night. The garden is also fenced to keep the hennies out.

In the winter the coop is moved to the edge of the garden as soon as the garden is done and the hens are fenced in the garden spot all of the time. The garden spot is larger than their day pen. I never bother to pull out the old dead plants either. The hennies go to work. They dig and peck, scratch and destroy as only they can do. After they have all the garden debris removed, I add a bale of straw. They work it all winter. Sometimes I even add a second bale of straw. By planting time in the spring, when the coop is ready to be moved and the garden is ready to go in, it looks like fine compost has been tilled in! Fewer weed seeds, fewer bug larva, and enriched with poo.

Works for me.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey dace!

check it out:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=209821


this was over on byc and its a GREAT idea! i think it was what WZ was suggesting.

for us we can only try and contain the chicken madness - we fence which works most of the time. and during the summer the dogs and are outside most of the time - so we can corral the wandering hens.

i think that someone covered this, but nope. no plant is safe from the hens.. they will kill anything if not from their pecking from all that scratching. i used a LOT of deer netting ($7 for like 50 feet of it!)... after those darn hens got my prized oxheart 'maters..well it was war. i also made a compost pile over near them so they get the 'thrill' of sneaking out of the hen yard... but i make it for them on purpose.. shhhh.... dont tell them!

 

[Beekissed]

I am building a good fence around the garden this year....after trying several solutions that came up ending badly.

My conclusion? A fenced in garden.....keeps the dogs, sheep, and chickens out. I may get a few ducks and let them roam the garden after my plants mature, but am pretty sure they would probably decimate my lettuces?

How about it duck people? Will the ducks eat my lettuce crops?

 

[lorihadams]

We have a 4 ft fence around all our raised beds. Gate stays open when we want them to come in and fertilize in the winter. They are great at tilling in the rabbit poo and compost!

 

[Dace]

Ok, sounds like fencing the girls out of the garden is the way to go. I love your idea FF, but I can garden pretty much year round, so all my beds won't be empty.

I gave a lot of thought to the chicken moat but I really don't have the room and DH is a bit more concerned about aesthetics than I am so not sure that would fly.

We have been talking about relegating the hens over to the eventual orchard in a few years.