Gardening with poultry thread!!!

[elesandchickens]

Here are my ladies, caught in the act, eating my strawberry plants. Had to put chicken wire over em to prevent future berry stealing

 

[Craftymama]

They ate chives? That seems odd to me. It has such a strong oniony odour. My chooks don't go near it. Course the strawberries are right beside. Lol. This morning Ive taken the same little cedar waxwing fledgling out from under the strawberry bird netting THREE times! Happily chomping away under the netting until he sees me then its all "help me help me I'm stuck you have to let me out of here!" And I do and he's right back in ten minutes later! What cheek.

I was really surprised they ate my chives too. They were planted right next it my basil so the chives could have just been dug up while they were eating the basil.

 

[Cherterr]

Don't worry, Crafty~! We've ALL been there.

It's kind of like teachin' the dog to ride in the back of the truck.... it usually only takes ONCE to jump out! (or in your case free range the chickens in a growing garden"!)

I used mine here at my new place all last winter to till, and dig etc. Then I put up chicken wired cattle panels on the actual veggie part this spring. They can still go around the fruit trees etc. on days I don't want them loose in the big yard.

NOW.. I'm raising 3 week old Indian Runner ducks to actually live out there during growing season for bug control, because as ?? someone said (sorry forgot name!) they don't scratch like the chickens.

Yeah... I remember way back in the day I had the prettiest little herb plot planted, and even decorated for the kids w/plastic dinosaurs.. THEN... duh duh duh duh.. (music).... here came the 5 chickens we had and made mince meat out of it in no time.

Live and Learn!

 

[lazy gardener]

If i had the perfect yard, and the perfect garden, I'd have the garden set up with a chicken moat around it during the gardening season: A 20' wide run going around the entire perimeter of the garden. Any bugs would have to survive the chickens before they even reached the garden. Then, between garden harvest and spring planting, I'd let the chickens into the garden. Either that, or i'd have the coop with 4 runs so the chickens and garden could be rotated through the runs.

 

[Maidenmet]

We have gorgeous esrablished gardens, and we keep them protected and the chicks out, but we sacrificed one large bed this year for the coop (still have more than enough room). In the area around the coop next year I'd love to plant some chicken plants so the girls can have fun scratching and eating their own little chicken garden. What kindd of plants/veg/flowers do chikens love?

 

[spotter]

This is my first experience with chickens and I am thrilled that my three 6-wk old chicks are saving my asparagus patch Last summer, asparagus beetles nearly destroyed my plants, but this year, the chicks come running to stand under the plants (which are now tall ferns) and wait for me to shake them... all the beetles fall off and the chicks gobble them up!

Susan (chicken newbie)

 

[spotter]

Hmmm... how does one delete a post? I did something wrong and my post appeared twice :/

 

[spotter]

We have gorgeous esrablished gardens, and we keep them protected and the chicks out, but we sacrificed one large bed this year for the coop (still have more than enough room). In the area around the coop next year I'd love to plant some chicken plants so the girls can have fun scratching and eating their own little chicken garden. What kindd of plants/veg/flowers do chikens love?

Mine love to eat my sugar snap peas

 

[Craftymama]

How is everyone's gardens coming? I just got my first zucchini a few days ago.

Some kind of volunteer squash that showed up in one of my beds.

The hollyhocks I started from seed. I'm hoping they reseed on their own.

 

[Craftymama]

We have gorgeous esrablished gardens, and we keep them protected and the chicks out, but we sacrificed one large bed this year for the coop (still have more than enough room). In the area around the coop next year I'd love to plant some chicken plants so the girls can have fun scratching and eating their own little chicken garden. What kindd of plants/veg/flowers do chikens love?

Mine love my dill, sage and basil.