Chickens & my Garden

[7L Farm]

I bought an electric fence to put around the garden to not only keep the chicks out but also the wildlife. What do you use to keep everything out of your garden? O yea Good Morning all .

 

[7L Farm]

Anybody have any suggestions. I'm gonna work on this today. I would like to use the electric fence but concerned it might hurt the chickens. Thanks.

 

[2DogsFarm]

I read somewhere (probably here

) that chickens won't perch on a picket fence.

Next year my veggie garden will be picket-fenced so I will still have tomatoes left for ME!

 

[TheMainException]

Well, if you put it on a low enough power, it will stop the chickens but not much larger animals (such as deer).

I suggest you check out this thread on the topic:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2171922

 

[7L Farm]

Well I bought a patriot small animal electric fence charger & I'm fixin to install . So I guess I'll find out.

 

[TheMainException]

If it's made for small animals, you should be fine. Only question is...will they fly over it? And deer could leap over most fences without much trouble anyway, although they may not like the small shock and tell their buddies to stay away from the "creepy garden." Lol.

 

[greenSearcher]

I have tried to garden w/out much success since moving to TX. When we had the house build, I had a 6 ft chainlink fence surrounding a 25' x 40' garden, nearly 800 sq ft of beds. On that fence I firmly wired standard chicken wire on the lower 4 feet to keep little bunnies and what all out, making an overlap around the gate. Right now my garden has sweet potatoes, 10 plants have covered almost a third of it and 1 watermelon much to my surprise. The grass hopper plague ate everything else. Not only veges but herbs and flowers were consumed. Only Calla Lilly and Licorice root that are intact. My huge mint plant is dead sticks, but a few leaves are trying to come back.

I have the electric fence that is 42" high, and it reminds the chickens to stay by their coop. They don't think they can fly over the fence, I keep their wings clipped but if they are startled they can practically jump over it. Was watering half the chicken yard, and the sprinkler got them, before I turned it down, and the silly rooster was frantic trying to get back into the yard. Couldn't figure out how he wound up outside while the girls were in.

I don't power the fence, haven't had predators that make it necessary. Hopefully I don't jinx myself, but to date I have had very little problems with critters. I know they are around, I've seen them on the porch.

 

[cobrien]

I use welded wire fence, something like this
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1999094&CAWELAID=109397699

Mine is 5' tall but think 4' would have worked. I have heavy breed chickens who can't fly that well or perhaps aren't motivated enough to get over the fence. My bantam (RIP) would have flown right over. I would think mine would go right over or under an electric fence unless I'm misunderstanding your plan.

You could also use much less expensive plastic netting with similar stakes as used for the welded wire fence.