Chickens in Vegtable garden??

[MsBentleyboy]

When they mentioned tomatoes I think they were talking about the green plant part of the tomato.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

My chickens have been free-ranging in my backyard for WEEKS. I've been feeling rather smug, watching them eat grass & weeds but not touch the veggies. We had a wet & cold spring in the Pacific Northwest, so my garden is only just now getting a decent start. I had to replant quite a bit because of it.

Well, so much for that.

Today the little boogers - led by the resident twisted beak banty - figured out that all those succulent little plants are t-a-s-t-y.

Beans I just replanted & only recently sprouted? mowed down
Jalapenos I'd been nursing in special terra cota pots? totally leafless
Basil untouched by slugs or snails? trimmed neatly
Replanted cucumbers? nibbled to lace

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Strangely, they didn't touch the lettuce, tomatoes, peas, kohlrabi, or sweet peppers. I think they were saving those for dessert for tomorrow. Sigh...

Now I have to get their run completed so that I can use the leftover chicken wire to fence off the veggies. You know, the veggies I planted for people, not chickens.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Household animals consist of: DBF, 2 cats, 1 each: RIR, BR, Black Star, Bantam cochin
Online

OMG!!!! LOL!!! Sorry!!! It is funny and it isn't funny!! Gotta love 'em to tolerate some of the things they do!!!

 

[DuckLady]

We finally clipped the hen's wings and locked the ducks out.

How cute it was to see the ducks lounging under the tomato plants and the zucchini bushes to keep cool on the damp earth. How heartmelting the hens greeted me at the gate. How sweet the ducks peeked out at me and quacked.

How maddening to find all the baby zucchini gummed and the blueberries beaked. And the pumpkin leaves shredded.

 

[pattycake]

My chicken wreak havoc in my rock garden, where there isn't even anything to eat! It's not the eating that worries me, it's the digging. My chickens dig huge holes whenever they find some nice soft soil, uprooting all the nearby plants. I even had to put a fence around my garlic.

 

[sundance]

I tried fencing my garden, but somehow my ladies stretched their necks enough to totally wipeout anything anywhere near the fence. I'm still crying over my tomatoes and squash.Last year this time we had plenty of veggies and baby chicks, this year, we have plenty of hens and no veggies.BUT WE DO HAVE EGGS AND EGGS AND EGGS.

marrie

 

[JennsPeeps]

Quote:
At least yours are laying! Ours are only 6 weeks old.

And re: tomatoes - the girls ATE all the tomato leaves. At first I thought it was bugs doing the munching then I saw that the nibbles stopped at about a foot high.

They also have trimmed all the foxglove leaves. My neighbors' chickens ate all their rhubarb leaves.

If all these things are poisonous to chickens, nobody has informed THEM of the danger.

 

[MsBentleyboy]

Quote:
At least yours are laying! Ours are only 6 weeks old.

And re: tomatoes - the girls ATE all the tomato leaves. At first I thought it was bugs doing the munching then I saw that the nibbles stopped at about a foot high.

They also have trimmed all the foxglove leaves. My neighbors' chickens ate all their rhubarb leaves.

If all these things are poisonous to chickens, nobody has informed THEM of the danger.

Well, that's good news! Now I won't worry so much if my H decides to throw them scraps out of the garden.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

Quote:
OMG!!! LOL & sorry to you too!!!! Kinda like when the other kids put peanut butter and jelly hands on your wall or spill soda all over your beige carpet or..... kids will be kids...even the ones that quack and peep and crow and cluck and bark and meow....lol!!!! "baby zucchini gummed"!!!! That really is funny!!!

 

[DuckLady]

Well, ducks don't have teeth. LOL

 

[PearlD]

OMG!!!! My chickens haven't touched a thing in my garden!!! I am so shocked that you all are having problems!!! Mine skim over the garden for bugs 2 times a day, and occasionally gobble up a frog......but they have NEVER eaten or harmed one plant!!!!!

SEE!!!