Chickens in gardens? Not always a good idea.

[sumi]

We used to have a nice little herb garden in our backyard. Until we decided to let the chickens free range that is. Foolishly thinking with about an acre of lawn, green grass, clover and all enough moles heaps to start a small mountain they'd find enough to amuse themselves with, right? Wrong.

This is our (former) little herb garden, with the parsley that thinks it's still summer here in the Southern hemisphere and the little avocado tree on the island between dustbath bowls, the only survivors:

You'd think after all these years of keeping and free ranging these wonderful creatures I've have learned something about them and gardens... Like it's not going to happen! Not with yummy edibles such as rocket on the menu anyway.

If any of you found a way to let your gardens and chickens happily co-exist, I'd love to hear (see) about it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Fences

 

[unclejoe]

Fences

Yep. I have everything fenced in. I open the gate in late fall so they can get in and clean things up a bit as well as fertilize. When planting starts in the spring, the gate gets closed.

A couple years ago I was doing some harvesting and forgot to close the gate when I went in the house. That evening when I went out to close the coop I noticed the garden gate was open. Walked in and found the chickens had pecked at EVERY tomato they could reach. Would have been OK if they just picked at 2-3 and ate the whole thing but Nooooo... they had to ruin about 30 tomatoes.

 

[catjac1975]

We let our chickens into the veggie garden in the fall and they spend the winter foraging there. Last fall I noticed a large parsley plant when I first let them into the grade. I thought to myself, I should protect that from the chickens. About 10 minutes later it was shredded. Oh well. They had a lovely meal of it.

 

[sumi]

Mine would not touch the parsley plant. They ate all the leaves within reach off the avo tree though...

 

[so lucky]

It doesn't take much of a fence to keep chickens out. I only let mine in the garden in the off season, too. I had that same thing happen with my tomatoes years ago, unclejoe.

 

[seedcorn]

I have corn fenced in. Once it gets over knee high, I'll let them in. Good luck bugs! If they get out, with 5 acres, they go for the cabbage first, then tomatoes. So penned up they are.

 

[journey11]

I have mine fenced directly on one quarter of the garden using PoultryNet fencing and a movable coop/tractor. It's parked on a slab of concrete right now that was the site of an old dog pen before we bought the place. I'm after DH to get that concrete out of there for me...I need more growing space! But it's serving a purpose for now. I will move the tractor to another quarter in the fall and park it on boards then so the tires don't sink down in the dirt. The other three quarters are planted. I put all of my compostables, coop cleanings and grass clippings, etc. in there. I rake it back into a pile every so often, but it doesn't take them long to spread it back out. It is breaking down the compost much quicker than the let-it-sit-and-rot method I've used prior. And no bugs or weeds stand a chance in their little square! About 625 sq. ft. of area they are occupying. They are happy and entertained and not pooing all over my yard.

 

[Nyboy]

Self seasoning for when they are dinner.

 

[sumi]

I have mine fenced directly on one quarter of the garden using PoultryNet fencing and a movable coop/tractor. It's parked on a slab of concrete right now that was the site of an old dog pen before we bought the place. I'm after DH to get that concrete out of there for me...I need more growing space! But it's serving a purpose for now. I will move the tractor to another quarter in the fall and park it on boards then so the tires don't sink down in the dirt. The other three quarters are planted. I put all of my compostables, coop cleanings and grass clippings, etc. in there. I rake it back into a pile every so often, but it doesn't take them long to spread it back out. It is breaking down the compost much quicker than the let-it-sit-and-rot method I've used prior. And no bugs or weeds stand a chance in their little square! About 625 sq. ft. of area they are occupying. They are happy and entertained and not pooing all over my yard.

View attachment 3132 View attachment 3133

Chickens are great with turning compost heaps. I never thought of using them for that purpose, in fact I tried my best to keep them OFF the heaps, until I saw this article someone published on BYC about chickens and compost:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/composting-with-chickens

Now I'm quite happy to let them help!