Chickens, ducks and self-seeding flowers?

[eve789]

I generally keep my chickens out of my vegetable and flower garden most of the year, but let them in after the first frost to turn over the beds, eat larvae, etc.

I've expanded my flower garden this year and have lots of cosmos, zinnias, chamomile, sunflowers and other annuals I hope will go to seed and pop up again next year. My question is, if the chickens scratch up the flower beds, will they help move around the dormant seeds in a useful way or will they bury them too deep to germinate the following spring? (Obviously if we're talking sunflower seeds, they'll eat them up straight away!)

Would it be better to fence off the flower beds?

Thanks!

 

[lazy gardener]

The chickens will love to help you with your flower beds. They will help themselves to all of those seeds. I used to have calendula and nasturtium freely seeding in my garden. After one fall, winter and spring in 1/2 of the garden, my pests are much depleted. And not a single calendula or nasturtium came up. BUT, it's not a bother to pop those seed heads into your pocket when you're tending the gardens. This time of the year, I put as much effort into harvesting seeds for next year's crops as I do harvesting food for the table. One or two over ripe cucumbers, zucchini, save those Fortex bean seeds, lettuce, dill, squash, parsley. A lot of seeds can easily be saved. My pockets need to be emptied of seeds every night. I also pop seed heads when I'm out in the community. Pretty pot of petunias? Just begging to be dead headed, and a few seed pods popped into a napkin... and on the list goes!