Chickens vs wife's flower garden.

[Kmac1]

I knew it would happen sooner or later. I prayed for later, much later. I have 15 assorted chickens. My wife HAD one very beautiful flower gard n. HAD!!! I don't want to have to make a choice here, but if I have to chose her or the chickens I think she will write to me eventually, don't you? how can I keep my chickens our of what's left of her flower bed. Do I pen up my chickens or fence off the flower bed. Thanks.

 

[Labradors]

I'm a keen gardener so I feel your wife's pain at suffering chicken destruction at the claws of chickens! I vote for fencing off the garden!

Linda

 

[lazy gardener]

One way or an other, you will have to erect a fence. IMO, you might want to do both: put up a run for those days when predators pay a visit, or you need to retrain someone to the nest. Then, put up some almost invisible deer netting around your wife's flower beds. It comes in a 7' tall roll that can be cut with scissors. Use thin fiberglass posts weaved through it, hold it up at top with clothes pins, and down at bottom with landscaping staples or something similar. It can be re used repeatedly if you buy the heavier duty material.

Yes, you can have your chickens, and your wife too!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Fence off whichever is easier to fence off - if the flower bed is huge (or possibly, if your wife hates how it looks with a fence) then fence in the chickens. Otherwise fence off the garden beds. All my garden beds are fenced off with chicken wire as soon as they get planted - and at the end of the season the fence comes down and the chickens get to destroy whatever is left. My winter vegetable bed was completely stripped and turned over in a few hours.

 

[Labradors]

Rosemarythyme wrote: "My winter vegetable bed was completely stripped and turned over in a few hours."

That sounds like a good idea, BUT do you worry about the chickens having too much of a good time in the veggie bed and eating ALL the worms (that are so good for the garden)? I realize that I probably shouldn't ask this question on a chicken forum {LOL}

Linda

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have had good luck keeping chickens out of my garden beds by using a 2 foot tall green wire fence. It's cheap and easy to install, and the birds don't hop over it. Otherwise a 3-4 food welded wire will work well too.

Everything not fenced around here is fair game for my large wandering flock. Raking the mulch back into beds is a weekly occurrence before lawn mowing.

The plus of it is that I don't have all the plagues of garden bugs and wood ticks that other people around here deal with. My mother has an ongoing Japanese beetle infestation, as well as a box elder bug problem. I have none.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Rosemarythyme wrote: "My winter vegetable bed was completely stripped and turned over in a few hours."

That sounds like a good idea, BUT do you worry about the chickens having too much of a good time in the veggie bed and eating ALL the worms (that are so good for the garden)? I realize that I probably shouldn't ask this question on a chicken forum {LOL}

Linda

I love worms (well I love almost everything...) so I actually did go through the garden bed with a rake first to loosen up the soil and pick out any worms that I could, and those went outside the run. After that if they crawled back into the run, well, at least I tried? We do have a ton of worms around here though, so I try to keep them motivated to hang around.

I did find a lot of grubs holing up for the winter. Now, no more grubs!

 

[Labradors]

I love worms (well I love almost everything...) so I actually did go through the garden bed with a rake first to loosen up the soil and pick out any worms that I could, and those went outside the run. After that if they crawled back into the run, well, at least I tried? We do have a ton of worms around here though, so I try to keep them motivated to hang around.

I did find a lot of grubs holing up for the winter. Now, no more grubs!

That's great that you salvaged some of your worms before letting the chickens loose on your veggie garden I guess you win some and you lose some. It would be great if the chickens would eat the cutworms and those wretched cuke beetles!

 

[lazy gardener]

Rosemarythyme wrote: "My winter vegetable bed was completely stripped and turned over in a few hours."

That sounds like a good idea, BUT do you worry about the chickens having too much of a good time in the veggie bed and eating ALL the worms (that are so good for the garden)? I realize that I probably shouldn't ask this question on a chicken forum {LOL}

Linda

No worries about the worms. Feed your soil well (the chickens will help with that) and the worms will be so prolific that it's impossible for the birds to remove them all. Remember, the birds are only scratching the first few inches, while those worms are traveling from the surface to the much deeper regions of the soil. I do hope that if you have a run, you hare doing a deep composting litter in there, both for the chicken's dining pleasure as well as the fantastic compost they will be building for your garden beds.

 

[Labradors]

Lazy, could you please elaborate on the "deep composting litter" idea? I'm brand new to chickens and I love the idea of more compost for the garden