Chickens in the Garden

[so lucky]

I went to my book club meeting tonight, and when I got home DH tells me that he looked out and saw the chickens in the garden. Did I let them in there? Ack! No! How did the gate get open? I don't know, he doesn't know. The chickens don't know, they just walked in. I have to wait till morning to see the damage. They probably went for the tomatoes. Oh, I sure hope they didn't get the kale, and the baby kale I have been ...well...babying.
They would love to be allowed in there all winter, but they make such a mess of my mulching system (cardboard or newspaper with straw on top) that I have opted to keep them out.
Rats.

 

[thistlebloom]

Oh that is so frustrating! Hopefully they weren't in there long and just ate bugs.

I had my little banty escaping everyday with her one chick, they were so little that they could squeeze out under the fence in the dust bath holes the big girls made close to the fence. They damaged some of the plantings in the kids garden until I caught them and put them in chicken jail for awhile.

 

[so lucky]

At least they are not as hard as dogs are to keep out of areas. I checked out the garden this morning and it doesn't look like there was much damage. A few low hanging tomatoes were ravaged (actually low lying, as the plants were sprawling on the ground already) and some of the mulch scratched up. The kale was unharmed. My guess is that not all of them were in there, and not for very long. I left for my meeting at 6:30, and it gets dark by 8 here, so they wouldn't have spent too long there, as much as they might have wanted to. So I dodged the bullet this time Whew!