Are Bantams good with gardens?

[angi]

I am ordering 10-15 Silkies and Mille Fleurs that will be here in a month or so. I am turning my old garden shed back in to a chicken coup, but my garden will be just outside of the coup. So I was wondering if Bantams are good for eating bugs in the garden. I am also concerned about them eating the vegetables and herbs I grow in my garden.

I am completely organic so I am not worried about them consuming any herbicides or pesticides.

 

[Silkie Sue]

I have Silkies and they are in my garden all day in the summer and I have no bugs on anything!!!
they have not damaged one leaf....
I can hardly wait til you get them

 

[MVchickens]

I would not recommend it if they are living in there. I would only leave them in there every couple of days. My bantams are just as bad as large breeds when given time.

 

[angi]

Quote:
The garden is in the area where the coup fence used to be, but I tore the fence down so the chickens will be free range on our 3 acre farm that is surrounded entirely by field and the property line is marked with a deep ditch. So they will have plenty of other area to roam. I am just concerned that they will scratch up and/or munch on my plants as they grow out of the dirt.

If it helps I typically grow:
Green Onions
Radishes
Spinach
Peppers (transplanted)
Tomatoes (transplanted)

 

[clintwilson59]

i think it will be fine as long as you wait until the plants are big enough that they wont get hurrt by the chickens walking and scratching around.

Except for the tomatoes, Those will be a problam when they are ripe. Maybe you could plant those somewhere else.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
+1- It would be better to let them in for a couple of hours at a time or so.

Chickens will eat every green living thing off the earth if given enough time.

 

[San]

Well I only got grass but I'll bet that if there where plants they won't survive

 

[HHandbasket]

Your bantams will do a good job at eating the bugs from your garden. They'll also do quite a number on anything you might be trying to grow. I would fence off anything you don't want them to eat. I put up four posts and chicken wire to keep the girls out of my garden & it has been very effective.

One of the things I did last year was open up the garden "gate" once every few days and let the girls go after bugs while I'd be out there with them. They always go for proteins first... but when they would start nibbling at leaves, it was time to come out of the garden and back out into the yard.

I do have to say, I have not had a single bug in my garden since the day I started letting the chickens be in charge of bug control.

 

[cininohio]

I thought it was great until my tomatoes got red and my bantam roo pecked a hole in every red tomato in the garden! He now has fencing over his pen (he's a flyer) and only allowed to free range until the tomatoes start to ripen!!

 

[angi]

Well, this is not what I wanted to hear. Tomatoes are my main crop. I liked having my garden there because of all the chicken manure that has been put it that ground over the years. I don't know of anywhere more convenient for my garden and I definitely do not want to put fencing back up after tearing it ALLLLLL down.