Stupid chicken is destroying my pepper plants

[HunkieDorie23]

OMG, my stupid chicken is destroying my pepper plants. I planted them about a month ago and everything was fine. I had deer walk through the garden and step on one so I had to replace that. Then last week I notice some leaves missing on a couple of plants. No problem, we were going to fence anyway. BTW I was blaming rabbits for the missing leaves.

Today my husband took the day off and bought some fence and post etc. He and my son dug holes put in the post. OK good day of work finish the fence tomorrow. My brother stopped by ...went out to show him the fence and garden and my favorite chicken is in the garden and several plants are missing most of their leaves. So 8:15pm we are outside putting up the fence. It isn't finished but one side is in to deter chickens.


I have never had problems with her in my garden. She is my good garden chicken . She likes to come into the garden when I am weed and make sure none of the bugs get away. She will go to the gate and wait for me to let her in if I am in there. I can not believe it. I didn't actually see her do in but it doesn't look good for her.

 

[headred]

I just realized my ducks are doing the same thing. I have barricaded and fenced just about everything now. I have a great pic from today where they sit on one side of the fence looking in......

 

[Hattie the Hen]

I find my chickens are only really interested in my raised beds when I am working on them! So when I am working on them I make a temporary wall of floating fleece pegged to bamboo canes. I have had each raised bed walled with this while the beans & peas were small but I took these off yesterday as they were flowering & I wanted good pollination ; the chickens ignored them. I'm interested to see how this works when I have a highly coloured crop of say tomatoes! Still I can always put the fleece walls up again!

Last year I had my best crop of raspberries ever but as I was rather ill at the time I hadn't tied them up to supports so a lot were virtually at chicken level but the chickens were very good, they only stole a few -- mostly the squashy ones. This year they are all tied in to a large support that I built very fast because of a weather warning of very high winds. Just as well as they went on for weeks.

Floating Fleece gets my vote every time; I use it for so many jobs & it comes in sensibly wide widths, lasts a very long time & MOST IMPORTANTLY is CHEAP ( especially if you can look out for deals on large rolls).

headred:
I love the picture of your ducks

HunkieDorie: I hope your new fence does the job. :happy_flower

Have a great weekend!

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[vfem]

I just realized my ducks are doing the same thing. I have barricaded and fenced just about everything now. I have a great pic from today where they sit on one side of the fence looking in......

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6255_ducks_wanting_in_the_garden_1.jpg

Yep, I have the same exact fence put up in my garden by the pond... I watch my ducks sit and stare at my watermelon, coneflower and iceplants with this longing for a bite! They already destroyed my previous plants and this is my second round of planting.

While I'm battling the ducks I have 1 chicken who has figured out she can squeeze between the bars of the fence to my veggie garden. However, I haven't caught her eating a thing?! I think she is just waiting for my tomatoes to be ready... I have caught ALL my chickens on the deck eating tomatoes last year!!!

 

[sparkles2307]

good pic! We dont have bell pepper plants in yet, but I have chili peppers in and the goats must have decided to visit because one has the leaves gone...and they havent been touched since so someone must have had a little fire in their mouth

 

[chills]

headred - thats good stuff! love love love the photo, 'maybe if we stare at the fence long enough it will move?' .. or 'patience my friends she will forget one day and leave it open' ...

HunkieDorie23 - bummer the chicken got to your plants .. i struggle with out any interruption from animals!!

 

[ranchhand]

I have had 2 whole gardens destroyed by chickens. Never again will I let a chicken in the garden! They moved through like overgrown locusts!

 

[ChickenPotPie]

I've never been able to let my chickens roam in the garden. They eat all the plants. I have to keep them separated. I'll let them roam under the fruit trees and rose trees to scratch out bugs and eat weeds but that's it. They're cooped unless they're being supervised and even then, they're not allowed near my low lying fruit and veggie plants at all.

Their poop is good for the garden after it's composted but I wouldn't actually garden WITH them in the garden.

 

[CityChook]

We just finished a new fence for the vegetable garden to keep the chickens (and deer) out. Last year I got 4 tomatoes from 10 plants because those naughty hens kept poking holes in them just as they'd start to turn pink. Naughty. They can clear a garden in no time flat. Unfortunately, they like the food I grow....

 

[momofdrew]

So far so good my chickens have not done any damage when I weed they come a running to see what I might have stirred up but they dont bother with the growing plants... I have strawberries in bloom and am watching them with those but last year they left lots for us to eat...course I only have 4 birds so that may be a factor... If I had ten times that I may have a problem...