Chickens in the garden

[doubled]

yeah, i wouldn't put the chickens in the garden, however, a friend of mine built his run AROUND the garden. both the run and garden are covered with netting to keep the chickens in and predators out. but the bugs pretty much have to make it past all of the chickens to get to the vegies, a near impossible feat for a grasshopper.

this same friend also uses an old broken down van as his coop...clever guy.

 

[Mrs. Green Thumbs]

I started with that idea as well, to build a tractor would be simple but I want to give my girls as much space to roam as possible and I am planning on enclosing my beds and yard with horse wire if we have enough left over and letting the girls loose on the grass. Should be fun to watch them roam my garden and NOT eat my plants!

 

[roguechick]

Quote:
That was my main thinking behind the garden idea. They could eat the bugs and grubs.

I'm breaking rules by trying to bring in chickens (hence my screen name

) so I wouldn't be able to free range them over the whole yard. (Plus I don't have enough fencing AND I have to watch out for the roaming cats, which are not mine).

 

[92Pony]

Check out this webpage. Awesome idea! - I'd love to do something like this. But my coop is a ways from the garden.

http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/2007/12/my-veggie-garden-weed-eater.html

A couple of extra pics in the following link;

http://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/2009/05/veggie-garden-weedeater.html



Wade

 

[roguechick]

That is cool! Thanks for sharing!

Gives me an idea for how I could do a portable chicken run!

 

[KKatknap]

What I have done is divide my veggie garden in half (full garden plot is @ 50x100)...one year, the chickens will get one side and my garden will be on the other. The following year, we'll switch. That way, they spend a year eating the old plants; scratching up the soil, eating old weeds, fertilizing it; and eating all the bugs. We will make the switch in the fall after harvesting, so by spring, the old chicken half is ready to go for planting.

It's an awesome idea in theory (not mine...got it from a homesteading book)...can't wait to see how it works out!

 

[roguechick]

That sounds like a good idea, too. I just have small plot though. Not even half your size.

 

[Ceilismom]

Quote:
Thank you for posting this! I had been pondering whether or not that would be a good idea, and was just about to start a thread asking about this very thing. It seemed brilliant because my coop would be protected inside the electrified garden fence (to keep the coons out of the corn) but I wasn't sure if it would work in practice. I won't be getting chickens until next spring because I have to build the coop first, but I feel more confident that it could work.