Can I have a garden and free range???

[yellowchickensmomma]

So it's spring time again and I am making way for a garden. I currently let the girls out when I get home from work. They have eaten all the grass from the run and what they could get from the outside. I like to look outside and see my girls running a muck in my yard. That being said....My questions are:

If I plant a garden is there a way to keep the girls from eating all my seeds?
Will they eat everything that grows?
How do I keep them out if so? Any help would be great. My DH is fit to be tied with the chickens in the garden spot.

I don't want to keep the locked in the run.

Oh and also has anyone ever tilled up the run? Does it help or cause harm?

 

[3goodeggs]

I have a fence to keep the dogs out.
I have ground cloth on the fence and stapled into the ground to keep the bunnies out, and if I did free range, I would trim their wings so they could not fly up and over.
So, yes, they will eat everything and anything ,because they can.

 

[Uzuri]

Only if you fence the garden.

I don't freerange, but I know someone who does, and her solution is to build little wire tents for the young plants. Hers seem to leave things alone once the plants get a decent root system on them.

I wouldn't trust them that much myself. Here it's either fence the garden or fence the chickens, and since fencing the chickens has additional benefits, they're the ones who get the wire

 

[ky chicks]

When my hens discovered the garden last year, I built a quick and easy fence. I went to the farm store and got some narrow metal poles (about 3 ft. tall--I think they're for electric fences) and a couple of rolls of 3 ft. bird netting. I put the poles several ft. apart and wrapped the netting around the whole garden, with the poles sort of woven through the holes in the netting. My chickens never flew over it. It doesn't sound pretty, but it really was fairly unobtrusive. It required no actual construction, it's cheap, and I did it myself in a couple of hours. Best of all, it was easy to take down, and I can just put it back up and make it bigger with a few more poles and another roll or two of netting for my bigger garden this year. It's good that you're thinking ahead--I had to throw mine together fast! Good luck!

 

[RedfogsFlock]

I have a garden and free range chickens! Here's what I did....

1. Got some dirty dog hair from a local groomer (me!) and put it in stockings, then I outlined my garden with them.

2. put up a fence made of 18 inch tall chicken wire so I can step over it to get into my garden

3. whenever we planted a new plant we would plant it in a toilet paper roll. Put the plant into the roll and bury the whole thing.

Then what you have is a fence for the chickens, the dog hair keeps out rabbits, & ground squirrels, and finally protection from the birds! By the time your plants are taller than the t.p. roll they are strong enough and big enough to withstand weather & birds.

Hope this helps! Oh yeah we have chickens, ducks, and turkeys and I haven't lost a plant one to any of our flock, or our dogs!

 

[yellowchickensmomma]

Quote:
I'm gonna try these things. Whats in the hair that keeps the rabbits out. Just the smell of it????

Thanks for all your help.

Happy gardening here I come. Yah!!!!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

You can fence the garden in or the birds out.

I've never found a repellant that works with chickens except for a garden hose.

For as long as you're willing to stand there with it to spray them when they trespass.

.....Alan.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

Quote:
I'm gonna try these things. Whats in the hair that keeps the rabbits out. Just the smell of it????

Thanks for all your help.

Happy gardening here I come. Yah!!!!

Yes I guess it's the smell of dirty dog. When I lived in Indiana this farmer would come and get our hair everyday for like a month. So one time I asked him what he did with it, and he said he mixed it in his dirt of his garden to keep rabbits out. So I tried the stocking thing since I didn't want hair blowing around my yard, and it worked like a charm! I've done it every year now for 6 years, and I have no rabbits or ground squirrels! I think it may even help keep our girls out too cuz they follow me, and watch me work in the garden, BUT not one of them has any interest in entering it. We currently have 30 chickens, 10 ducks, and 2 turkeys. My chicken wire is clearly low enough they could jump right in if they truely wanted to.

OH and did I mention the t.p. rolls make execellent mulch fertilizer for your plants!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I find that they will eat practicaly any seedling. Some larger plants they love (cabbage) and some they more or less leave alone. They do things like leave the tomato plants alone once they get to a certain size but eat the tomatoes when they start to ripen.

Another problem I had was that the chickens love to scratch iin the mulch. It's a great place for insects! They would destroy any mulch I put out, whether they ate the plant or not. I do believe in fences.

 

[rino081]

I too am now using my old garden area as my new chicken run, so I hung a few tops turvy's over my run just to grow a few things

no seriously....

It's kind of limited to a few different plants but what the heck. Better than nothing and it keeps your plants off the ground!