Gardening with poultry thread!!!

[chicken farmer]

This is the thread where we will discuss ways to use all kinds of poultry in are gardens as helpers. You can use chickens to till it and eat bugs but only before you plant cause chickens rake up the soil with there feet looking for food. Ducks can be in the garden when the plants have grown up so they don't eat them and they don't scratch up the soil with there feet like chickens,they will eat bugs,weeds,snails,slugs and keep it all cleaned up. Any other ways you can use poultry let's discuss it here!!! I know there's other poultry garden threads but here's another to get started!

 

[Craftymama]

I'm excited to see this thread! I am an avid gardener and this is my first year having chickens. My goal is to have a large enough garden so we can all share. A 'plenty to go around' attitude. So far the birds have done great. No major damage to anything. Honestly they love my dill and my compost pile. I'm currently building up my yards perimeter with flowers and bushes for them to find shade and shelter (they of course have shade and shelter in their coop and pen but prefer to free range the yard). I'm interested in other peoples gardens and experiences with chickens and gardening.

 

[lazy gardener]

Craftymama: is your yard fenced? It sounds lovely. I have deer netting around my garden. Some of the more flighty chicks (10-11 weeks old) are able to fly over the fence and have done some damage... time for the scissors! They are learning to free range my unfenced rural yard. Last year's girls free range every day that i am home. I'm also excited to see what kind of benefit the girls impart to my garden soil and yard. But keeping ahead of their desire to do damage is a challenge. It's about like having a yard full of 2 year olds!

 

[Shanty]

Here's how we do it in Texas. These Buff Orpington pullets keep the herb beds "honest"--weed free and fertilized.

 

[chicken farmer]

Here's how we do it in Texas. These Buff Orpington pullets keep the herb beds "honest"--weed free and fertilized.

Beautiful bunch if buffs!!! They look like there having a good time and great helpers

 

[lazy gardener]

Love the buff in the back ground in the second picture. What's the saying about a chicken in every pot???

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Wondering what you folks do with young plants coming up. This year I covered the veg garden with bird netting after I planted seed rows, to discourage the chickens scratching. Now the new plants are coming up through the bird netting and I'm considering just leaving it in place for the whole summer. It'll make weeding unpleasant but it might keep chickens out completely. 14 x 14 feet and only $8. I bought 4 sheets.

 

[Shanty]

Bird netting will keep chickens at bay most of the time. I use it on some of the raised beds, but old, retired tomato cages and plastic commercial bread trays work well for me. I've seen milk crates and plastic storage cubes used, too, but prefer the lower profile of the bread trays.


Basil isn't bothered by the chickens UNLESS they don't have other greens to attack. That "bird house" gourd, coupled with the tomato cages laid on their sides, with the prongs stuck into the bed, work well together.


Cilantro has gone to seed in this 105, 107, 109 heat, but the tomato cages keep the chickens from doing too much damage. They also keep the Chihuahuas from digging in the beds.


Swap meet bread trays placed over the spearmint and the peppermint works well, although I haven't seen the chickens eat much of those two herbs. Another "bird house" gourd struggles in this shaded raised bed. It only gets the hot afternoon sun.

Mint and Cilantro underneath one of the trays.

This bed has one tomato cage on its side to protect the mint. The Marigolds do well with that gourd shading it in the hot late morning and afternoon sun. The chickens duck under all of this to go after worms we keep in every bed--red wrigglers and night crawlers. I add new worms monthly from my stock tanks that the chickens don't get into--those are for bamboo.

 

[heartsizedfarm]

That's a brilliant idea to use tomato cages like that. Consider it stolen.

 

[lazy gardener]

beautiful leaves.