chickens and their accidental damage in garden

Hello there.

I have 11 chickens in my garden. They have their own run, around 400m2 large, but it's mostly pine trees and weeds, so I started feeling sorry for keeping them there, they seem to be bored. I'd love to have them running around the garden, BUT:

a) I don't nor want to have raised beds
b) I can fence the beds, but I have several of them and some just random pieces of land where something is growing, so it's a bit tricky plus wire fence doesn't look nice at all and wooden one will take time, money and effort, which is fine, just the time is crucial

How do you deal with damage that can make in the garden? I mulch a lot and they just scatter the mulch everywhere, so I keep mulching over and over again, not fun anymore...

I love them so I want the best for them, but oh the number of times they made me angry! Heh.

Peace and thank you for your answer. Hope it hasn't been discussed before, didn't find anything similar in threads...

Welcome to Premies as a new poster Aida.

We put in a raised garden yesterday and this morning the three Chooks (Chickens) have been in and scratched the plants out.  The bed is about 900 mm (3 ') high.  Our solution is to place a wire mesh over the garden until they stop getting into the area and find better things to do.  They continue to scratch around the trees and dig over the mulch.  In my opinion it is just a chook thing.  They will fly over a fence if they see the need to dig exactly where you do not want them to dig.

The other things that chooks like are treats such as meal worms, fresh greens, and cat kibble (yes, the stuff you feed to cats). They are omnivores so enjoy a variety of food and will naturally forage for insects, hence the scratching.
If they don't have a dust bath area, you can create one.  They will spend some time sitting in holes they create to get cool or warm, depending on the weather.

Paul Wheaton has a really good book which I really recommend 6 Ways to Keep Chickens https://permies.com/wiki/66378/Ways-Chickens-pdf-download?t=ioko

Hope this helps a bit.

Thank you Paul for answer and the link you provided.

As you mention, my chickens as well as yours would jump on a raised bed that height, they're crazy. That's another reason why I think raised beds wouldn't solve the problem.

They have dust bath area and use it, which I'm glad is happening and I also give them treats, but I just don't like seeing any animal not being able to roam around a nice grassy, flowery area. But still, I guess a wire fence around the beds or an apple orchard where they would have a run for now will have to do the work.

Take care and your Chooks too!

P.S. love this website!

Aida

Hi, Aida

Welcome to the forum!

Is it possible to plant things, especially for your chicken just outside their run?  That way they could nibble to their hearts' content while leaving part of the plant to regrow.

Here are some threads that might make some suggestions:

https://permies.com/t/162401/Plants-chicken-coop

https://permies.com/t/147426/Chicken-run-perennials

Hello Anne and thank you for answer and welcoming me.

And ooh, that's actually a great idea! Not only just outside, but also inside is possible (keeping it cover with mesh until the seedlings get bigger and then letting them nibble on them)! Why did I never thought of that. Superb. Will definitely do.  

The threads are also super helpful. I'll send you a postcard once they have their own garden!

Thank you and take care.

Aida

I have a flock of active, free-range chickens and three very bossy geese.

You have your choice of two options, unfortunately. You can fence your chickens in - keep them in the run and only let them out when you or someone else is there to watch them, to make sure they don't eat something you would very much prefer they left alone. Or you can fence them out of either your garden spaces or a larger space that would be your "chicken free zone".

My birds will happily hop over the 4 foot chain link fence we have to keep them safe from wandering predators, but are very polite about *not* hopping the 2 foot fencing I have around my garden spaces. It's a hassle for me to have to either step over the fence or make some sort of gate area so I can walk through, but it's worth it to not have Swamp Rabbit, one of my roos, showing off for his lady friends by offering her a ripe tomato. Or losing all of my potatoes to three very industrious, and apparently hungry, hens who promptly taught the teenage chicks where they found their snacks.

Raised beds were just a signal that it was a good place to dig. After a goose ate my mint out of it's pot, roots and all, I gave up and put all my herbs in the ground. I haven't looked back. I may lose some of the herbs to annual winter kill or just being annuals, but I've been able to get a decent portion from harvest before that happens. My peppermint is starting to challenge the lawn, and the mint-eating goose has taken to nibbling at it, but not the full-on assault she did earlier this year.

If you have a large enough run. you can plant an area for the chickens in something like rye or a scattering of wheat, then put some hardware cloth on top of it, maybe held off the ground with a bit of stone or concrete or wood, the chickens will be able to eat the sprouts that come through the hardware cloth, and the hardware cloth will keep them from completely digging the planting area up.

The little feathered rototillers are very useful for preparing garden/planting beds when you first start them and I have a few that are well-rewarded by the grubs and worms that always turn up when I'm digging, but they tend to lose interest rather quickly, especially since I tend to put up the short fence, then offer treats far away, in a chicken mind, from where I'm trying to grow things.

I hope you have fun! Gardening with and for chickens is a very interesting side-hobby that easily works into a fun time for everyone involved!

Currently I have over two dozen free-ranging chickens and to have a productive garden at the same time, I follow these principles:

1. No bare soil. Chickens will create dirt bath out of it no matter how many they already have.

2. Living mulch over dead mulch. They mostly leave vegetation alone except occasionally pecking to eat the tender tips. They love scratching mulch to look for bugs.

3. Coarse bulky mulch over finer mulch. If an area has to be mulched, for example shady spot where nothing can grow, I would lay down twigs or vines to discourage chickens from scratching.

4. Protect seedlings and young fruits. I put temporary fence around newly planted area and cover young squashes with fabric or cardboard to keep them out of sight and reach.

5. Plant a mixed meadow for the chickens with things they like: clover, sorrel, radish etc besides grass.

6. Make a dedicated garden area chicken proof with barriers. My flocks aren't that flighty and a circle of two feet tall chicken wire is enough.

7. Share with them. Chickens are welcome underneath fruit trees and berry bushes. They eat the dropped fruits and reduce pests.

It takes some work but makes both chickens and me happy.

Aida Zajda wrote:I have 11 chickens in my garden. They have their own run, around 400m2 large, but it's mostly pine trees and weeds, so I started feeling sorry for keeping them there, they seem to be bored.

You haven't said what shape, but that's a big run. If you can afford the cost, I'd break that up into 6 runs of approximately the same square meters. You might need a central "hallway" that you fill with mulch and then pop doors into whichever run they allowed into for that day.  

There are lots of links here about plants that chickens love to eat, but as you've found, they'll eat the stuff you like and you're left with "weeds". By making multiple smaller runs, you have time to get serious plants started and large enough that they won't just be one tiny snack. I've tried the "hardware cloth" trick and found that if the chickens are in the area while I was trying to get the plants to germinate, they kick so much dirt/mulch/bedding over the hardware cloth that they just bury it.

I sort of use the reverse approach - most of my shelters are portable so I move them to new grass every 1 to 3 days. I'd love to move all of them every day, but Hubby's big shelters for his industrial layers are too heavy for me. My "mini-hoops" (a bit bigger than 1m by 2.4m) are wonderfully light and easy to move and that's where I put my baby ducks until they're big enough to be able to out with their moms and not be Raven-bait.

That said, I keep threatening to paddock an area we call "the little field". One advantage of permanent paddocks is with some protection at their bases, you can plant useful trees and shrubs. One of my non-portable shelters has a old plastic barrel beside it that grew lettuce this spring, and had a baby Mulberry that's now at least a meter tall - Mulberries seem to like dirty duck water! It was great being able to pick a few lettuce leaves and toss them into the ducks. I'd need a whole row of them to make a meaningful dent in their appetite for greens. I certainly need at least 2 more just for Purple Kale.

A book I recommend is: Free-range chicken gardens : how to create a beautiful, chicken-friendly yard by Jessi Bloom

Well, my spoiled brats get free run of the yard, and I have to fence in any garden area that I want for myself...or that I do not want ruined.

If I can figure out what they will not eat, I plant that in the yard, outside of the fence.  One example:  eggplant.

However, it's more of a challenge to find things that the chickens AND the ducks do not like, because they like different things.  (sigh)

One option for things like trees or larger plants that they don't like to eat is to put stones, bricks, or large branches around the base.  Small stones they will just kick aside.  They want to scratch under the mulch and eat the bugs.

For larger pots, I sometimes stick multiple tall sticks around the perimeter, kind of like a fence, so they cannot stick their heads in and eat.

In one area, they have discovered they can hop the short (3 feet high) fence.  So I have had to cover those seedlings and plants with old shelving from freezers (the kind made from metal bars in a grid) or upturned metal baskets (picked up from curbside stuff thrown away).

Because unless I replace the fence with a taller one (I'm not doing that!), they still fly in, but at least this way, they scratch between the covered areas.  They still cause damage, but less than total decimation.

If you can provide compost bins where they can scratch, that is a useful diversion for them and helpful for you, to turn the compost for you and eat the weeds and bugs in the process...saving you feed, too.  But unless the sides are a lot higher than the top of the pile, they'll fling stuff everywhere.

Ideally, we'd not have a soft heart, so we would cull any problematic animals, and/or put them into coops or runs, ignoring their squawking as if you were strangling them.  But yes, especially if, like me, you are in a small suburban property with spoiled brats, you must find other options.  (rolling my eyes)  

So I have some chicken at the minute:  This thread asks, OP, I have a free range chicken area AND want to grow this inside there too.

Do I have that?  In a 400M area of pines and such, where 11 chicken live....   (the problem arises)  OP wishes to plant things the chicken are NOT welcome to consume.

And-  to make certain, I am not in the majority, most replies indicate similar concerns.


Please everyone skip this part -

Free Range Chicken are that:  Free.  to consume where they live.  They don't care about "your stuff" even if it is intended for them later!

Chicken are curious and eat everything-  If you sell the eggs, that is what you represent:  Free Range, if no sales, well, okay.  Talk to your "boss" and explain things.

Consider even for 11 birds, you can bring in potted "cover crops" for them to feast on and MAYBE not completely destroy.  You can rotate these in containers.  Find ones that work.


Compost-  IF you use shredded paper and your preferred poop (caca?) possibly with your native ground soil-  Lots and lots of grubs come to feast.  Exactly the grubs that your girls will be excited about.   Pull in some compost bins (or your way) and let the girls at the grubs.  It is really amazing how many and how fast grubs will reproduce- certainly enough for a tiny flock to "dine out" a couple times a week.

LOL-  I know I must sound rude.  Maybe I am:  Yet, no one seems to say "hey, this is a problem I created"-  but it is right?  You made an area for the chicken?  Then you want reserve part of it for yourself?

Am I bad???  jajajaja

from Jay Angler   One of my non-portable shelters has a old plastic barrel beside it that grew lettuce this spring, and had a baby Mulberry that's now at least a meter tall -

I am so very jealous!!  you mean it was a volunteer?  That is good living!!!

you have a pond right?  for the ducks?  Do you get enough rain to keep the level up?

I am just putting in a pond now.  We had the hurricane (Hilary) but I lost all the water to a very deep gopher "trench"-  more like an underground system which flooded my neighbor!!  haha.  But I am trying again.

I am so fortunate this year with many volunteers especially varieties of tomatoes & chillies from years past.

Best wishes with your mulberry.  I hope it works out for you!!  I will think of you in the space where mine should be growing right now!!

I am currently raising my first dozen chicks and I have pondered the balancing between growing space and chicken 'enrichment' space.

I have a fully enclosed 8'x24' run that is attached to their coop for their primary stomping grounds. I have two man doors on either side of the run which can lead either to a hillside (intent is to use this side for people access) and the other has a door to a space between the coop, the garden fence, and the back lawn.

I'm not planning on letting my chickens in my garden all the time, but I am planning on using them to comb over the beds before and after the growing season. I do plan on using living cover crops, which might end up being a chicken delicacy, but have not figured that part of my master plan out yet. I'm hoping all the dropped fruit and bugs hidden in the mulch will be a treat for the girls.

The permanent run is currently growing a mixture of Kentucky 31 and a variety of clovers (White, Red, Crimson) so I can say there was something growing in the run for a time before they are released into it. I'm liking the idea of incorporating chickens into composting operations so perhaps that might be something you can look into? A lot of things are chicken safe that are composted readily. Creating a composting system that the chickens have access to allows them to scratch/process household/garden waste into future garden material!

We want to give our animals and ourselves the best possible life we can manage, its just coming up with the good ideas!

Timothy Norton wrote: I do plan on using living cover crops, which might end up being a chicken delicacy, but have not figured that part of my master plan out yet.

I know there are people who grow a patch of something green the chickens like, and cover it with something like an upside-down wire basket.  Then they uncover it to let the chickens do what they want with it.

Of course, on a larger scale, this becomes fields with a moveable chicken tractor.

By successively planning and doing something like that, I think you could get both chicken feed and their tilling services in one.

I'm hoping all the dropped fruit and bugs hidden in the mulch will be a treat for the girls.

Oh yes, they will eat every speck (even invisible to us) of anything they find.  Be aware their eyes are so sharp, they can notice that newly planted and mulched area, even if you cover it well, so it looks undisturbed.  And then, if you don't put something heavy on top, they may find a way to get in and scratch up the mulch, uproot, and kill you plant, if you don't catch it in time.

Just happened to me again this morning.  I think I caught my roselle (Flor de Jamaica, red zinger tea-type hibiscus) seedling in time.

My yard looks like a junk heap, with reused bed frames, shelving, nursery trays, toilet tanks, --and whatever else I can find--to protect, enclose, and grow stuff.

But it works!!  (Plus I can't beat the price and 2 out of the 3 Rs (reduce and reuse), too.)

I have some 2" x 4" welded wire fencing that I fashioned into large (4' x 8') "caps" for my raised beds.  They work really well for keeping out the hens while the garden is full of seedlings.  The hitch is figuring out when to uncover the beds.  Often, the "caps" end up staying for the season, which makes weeding a little difficult but doesn't really interfere much with harvesting.  I can easily get my hand through and pull out produce.  I've also used them on areas without a raised bed.

Irrelevant aside:  They don't. protect against voles, though!  I had zero potatoes without bites taken out of them!