I would never know as the hens keep the crop "cropped" at the level of the hardware cloth. But the plants don't die from being pecked/dug up, they just keep producing.
I'm not new to raising hens. We live in the Seattle area and started our first flock in 2005.
We currently have 9 hens: 1 Americauna, 1 Gold Sex Link, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Lavender Orpingtons and 2 Wellsumers. Over the years we've had as many as 12 and as few as 3.
We love raising hens for the...
We live in a urban area in the PNW. Several years ago we moved from free ranging our hens to giving them a large space (~20'x30') that was just theirs . I noticed that the quality of yolk deminished with the lack of free ranging, so I built them 2 2x4 foot slightly raised beds with hardware...
