Chickens and our garden

[Joken]

I think I know the answer but I'll ask anyway. Our birds are 9 weeks old and have been in their coop/run for a while now. I'd like to let them out to free-range but I suspect they would raise havoc in the garden. Is my assumption correct?

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

Yeah, probably. How big are your plants?

 

[LizzzyJo]

Mine dust bathe if they see a good patch of dirt and they take one single bite out of every ripe tomato. Other than that they leave it alone. We keep cover crop of lettuce over bald patches and cage the tomatoes. Everything else is fine.

 

[Joken]

Yeah, probably. How big are your plants?

Most are large. We are canning beets and everything except carrots is good sized. I've been giving them swiss chard every day and they love it. I'm also wondering how much trouble if any it will be to get them back to their run. I assume they will come in when it starts to get dark.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

How big is your garden? Can you fence off the plants you don’t want them to eat?

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

If the plants are big they probably won’t be able to kill them. They will weed and eat bugs on your plants, so letting them in would help your garden. Not even mentioning all that fresh fertilizer.

 

[Mrs. K]

I raised up a batch of chicks in the garden once, that worked well, chicks don't scratch that hard. Once I was on the phone long enough to tell my mother that the chickens were out near my garden and I had to go... to a demolished garden. Less time than it takes to tell about it, but it had only been planted a week or so.

Thing is do not leave them out there if they are getting to be bigger chickens. It might work in limited amounts. As for the manure - it is pretty hot, and you want to limit that too. I do mulch with old bedding and that has worked well for me. But it is a lot of old bedding with a little manure.

Mrs K

 

[Whigru]

I let mine in the garden at the end of the season to eat up the stuff that rotted or was overripe, but not during prime growing season. I haven’t seen them eat the plants themselves (for the most part) but have seem them peck at produce that’s growing, like tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and then before I know it, things are either knocked off the vine or have a bunch of holes in them. I prefer to leave them out because I don’t want to babysit them the entire time.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'm also wondering how much trouble if any it will be to get them back to their run. I assume they will come in when it starts to get dark.

Are they trained to come to you (aka come for the tasty snacks)? Might be something you want to work on first.

My 8 week old chicks are still too terrified to do anything but head back into the run at the first sign of a slight breeze, so no free range time for them quite yet.

 

[Joken]

How big is your garden? Can you fence off the plants you don’t want them to eat?
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