Chicken-proof your garden?

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I wonder if it'll keep my goats out. Maa jumps over 4' straight up--from a standstill! I wonder if they will figure out how to break it. Maybe push on it til it gives? Is that tough stuff?
 
CluckyJay said:
How many feet of fencing did you use? Was it cheaper than the links I posted? I'm cheap and poor so am trying to find the cheapest, small-holed 7' deer fencing I can, LOL.
Click to expand...

We probably have a thousand feet of the deer fencing, as we garden professionally. 100' rolls, 7' high are available at Home Depot and many other places. IIRC, it was around $70 a roll.
 
I scold them every time they get into something, chase them out, walk away. Ten minutes later I'm scolding them again. Eventually it'll be 2 hours, or 4 maybe, but who really has the patience? If you don't now you will soon enough. Fencing works great, but there are benefits to having your chickens loose in the garden (Mass bug genocide!). Divide and conquer is my goal, but not just with fencing. What you really need is barriers, and lots of things work.

For starters, my chickens are out of their run most of the year, and in the winter time I like to let them really run amok. Most everything is free game, and it's a real treat to watch my chickens digging a hole to China in last year's tomato row. Anything I don't want them digging up I cover with plastic netting. just lay the netting over your bed and use some stakes or rocks to keep the mesh down around the edges. I have it over my flower beds, strawberry patch, around my berry bushes, over my current garlic row and two other rows I plan to use for early plantings. It works like a charm, and at about $20 per roll (4ft x 50ft), the mesh is the most economical method I've come up with so far. Plus, you can just roll it up and store it, and then use it somewhere else later.

When spring rolls around and it comes time to plant, I either protect my young plants or keep the chickens in for a few weeks. I've found that chickens like only certain plants. On my fences I grow peas/beans, they don't seem to like them. For the plants they do like I use row covers. They work great for keeping them out of lettuce and brassicas, and it'll give your young plants protection & a growth boost. You can let them in once you harvest, they'll do half the tilling work for you and clear out the bugs, too. My chickens especially love to tear up the broccoli after the heads are picked & it's gone to seed, keeps em busy for 2 weeks. Then you can slap the row cover back on and start your cover crop of buckwheat, pop it back open in 4-5 weeks and, well you get the idea. The row covers do take some planning, but the payoff is two fold.

In the summer there aren't many crops my chickens really like. If I give them options they do like that's where they hang out - which means they don't bother the tomatoes much. Since the chickens wont usually destroy most summer crops like melons, squash, corn etc. those are less of a worry for me. My chickens would rather dig up the 10'x10' buckwheat or rye field (which was pumpkins last year). It's in a sunny spot and they like to dust bathe there. They do get the low lying fruit, tomatoes and such, but as far as I'm concerned they can have it. I don't like bending down anyway. This brings me back to the mesh, if they dig in your summer beds, just cover them with mesh, and let them continue their routine weed/bug patrols.

You really can apply a few good strategies that not only keeps things growing, but also keeps those bug and weed eating machines trekking through your garden. Below is a list that can help you plan your garden planting. Yours might be different, but it's a good start.

Plants my chickens like:

Broccoli & Most all Brassicas (love)
Lettuce, Spinach & Leafy Greens (love)
Buckwheat (love)
Beets (love)
Chard
Rye
Berries (low lying fruit)
Strawberries (need protection)


Plants my chickens don't like:

Peas
Tomatoes (eat low lying fruit)
Peppers (eat low lying fruit)
Potatoes
Beans
Melons
Squash
Carrots
Onions
Cucumbers
Celery
Most herbs
Most flowers

A word of caution, a bored chicken can and will still destroy just about anything (whether they like to eat it or not), so give them a grassy plot (or a buckwheat plot) to munch and lounge in.
 
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I am gonna buy the fencing and then stick to my original goat plan. I am gonna chop their legs off. No jumping, kicking or hoof trimming!!
barnie.gif
 
UrbanGrower,

I think my animals are just evil. My chickens will jump as high as they can to get every last fruit on my mater vines. Maybe I need to get a different flock and goat herd, LOL.
 

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