chicken moat, anyone else have one?

[Gwen]

Thanks!

Btw, I perused your blog earlier but only saw the more recent posts, but did bookmark it to go back and read more when I have time. Very entertaining! I enjoy your writing style.

 

[faykokoWV]

Gwen, just passing along what I've read about chicken moats, make sure there is a way for the chickens to make a complete circle or have housing, food and water available at each end. I know it sound crazy but apparently chickens are very visual and not spatial. What I mean by that is... they can't figure out how to get back to the coop sometimes. The first time we let them into the garden, they couldn't figure out how to get back in the moat and back to the coop. I went out at dusk and they were all sitting in the corner of the garden closest to the coop Now maybe I just have "special" chickens, but everything I read said to make sure it made a complete loop. you can alway try the three sided moat and if it doesn't work add on.

 

[Gwen]

LaSombra, My moat is only 2 feet wide in the part that goes around the garden. The part where it's more of a 'run,' varies from maybe 5 feet to 9 feet. The paths in the garden are all 3 feet.

NCricky, I have no experience, since my chickies are all still in the brooder inside, but I have done extensive reading on what chickens, ducks, and geese will and will not eat. From what I can tell, it really depends on your poultry, as some people say a chicken will decimate a garden and others have better luck. No one appears to have good luck when things are just starting to come up. It appears chickens eat some things and not others.

Same with ducks and geese. One person said ducks ate all her hostas and another said her ducks leave her hostas alone.

So I think it's a trial and error sort of thing. I know I wouldn't put a chicken into my garden without being there to see what goes on!

I know lots of people will put the chickens into the garden only during the winter and nongardening months and use the chickens to till everything up and it's nice and ready-to-go come spring planting. That doesn't work for me because I have about killed myself laying out those mounded beds and don't want them mucking that up for me.

 

[Gwen]

faykokoWV, Oh dear. Then how do you have a gate into the garden?!?!? The one person I know irl who has a moat does not have hers go all the way around and the chickens looked to have no problems turning around and going back. Hers is only about 1 foot wide too. However it was only about half as large of an area as I have.

All I can say is that if the moat doesn't work out, I'll take the fencing down on that and use that 2 feet to plant more stuff in, which was the original plan anyway. And then just use the chickens in the run and in a moveable tractor or run along the paths.

I guess I'll try it all out and see what happens. It'll be a learning experience, that's for sure!

And actually, my plan is to rotate the chickens out in the garden. I'll have a large coop at the back of the property and it'll open into almost an acre of grass and woodland for them to free range. (Hopefully. Will depend on flying predators and the hope that the cat will leave full grown chickens alone.) So at night I'd take the front garden chickens back to their big house. Which depends on whether or not the chickens will follow me back because I certainly am not going not going to make multiple trips back and forth. (Do you think they'd ride in a wagon?

)

 

[faykokoWV]

I'll have to take another picture with the gates open. If you look at the picture I did post there is one gate into the run and then across from it a gate into the garden. The gate both open towards the run, one opens to the right and one opens to the left. When they are both open they block off the run so we can get in and out of the garden without any escapees. I'll see if I can get a good picture of these open.

Our run is wider than yours at 5 feet, so maybe that's why they get lost

again, mayben mine are just a little slow.

 

[Gwen]

faykokoWV, Okay, I get it. I went back and looked at that first pic and it makes sense. One problem is that our gates are already installed, have been there for years in fact. The gate both open out. And one gate is really wide to allow tractors and such to get in.

I'll try it as set up now and see what happens. I'll report back but it won't be for a while until the chickies are old enough and everything is finished.

 

[saddina]

Quote:
3 x 9, It's on some re-purposed wagon wheels, my garden was meant to be a dog run, 28X8 that's the north side wall of the house, the chickens get the shade from the house, and the plants get the sunny side by the fence. So the hens get shuffled up and down one side and the plants get relief from the grasshoppers and crickets, and box elm beatles. Since it moves in a straight line, I don't fuss with corners.

 

[faykokoWV]

Here's a better picture of the gates, plenty wide enough to get our tiller through to to garden.

 

[guesswhatchickenbutt]

Quote:
Gwen - please, please, please, please do NOT think I'm trying to push my dorky little family blog on here.... but when you wrote that I LOL'd because there is someone dorky enough to do that: me.

http://gardeningwithoutskills.blogspot.com/2009/06/insanity-of-chicken-transportation-unit.html

Yeah, I really do it. I feel like such a goober when i do it. I honestly shake my head and think to myself 'WHO DOES THIS?'

I don't want them to fly over the fence to any of our neighbor's house because the neighbors on 2 sides have dogs... plus I fear that my chickens would just go AWOL in the yard and I'd spend the night chasing them around.

And thanks to this thread, I'm actually considering a chicken moat around our garden now as a temporary measure - just somewhere to put them on occasion.

 

[saddina]

I have a no-till garden (sqft method of raised beds), here being such a dry climate, I don't shovel, the poo is scratched into the dirt and dries out within minutes. (mind you I'm capped at 5 hens by the city).

Fay that gate is genious! I'[ll be stealing that idea later!