Chickens vs Squash Bugs -the war starts this week so I need advice!!!

[3chickchicks]

I'd really like to know what you do to use chickens as pest control in the garden.
I've been gardening a few years. Last summer is when I got my birds and I gave them free rein but the plants were already large. So this season will be the first where I'm growing the garden with chickens around. I've already got a fence around the garden to keep the dogs out.
Over the years I had given up growing any squash because the squash bugs were so bad. I also love cantaloupe but the aphids are bad too. I've tried beneficial insects but aphids and squash bugs are an epidemic here and seem to do better over the summer than the beneficial insects.
Since the chickens are here, I want to let them have a stab at controlling the insects in my garden.

What do others do to use chickens as pest control? I'm sure if I give them free rein, they'll eat the young plants. I've heard some give them half an hour in the garden in the evening. Is that long enough to get the bugs? My garden is just 6'x12'. Besides the fence, I've also got ground cover I'll put down so they can't dig.

 

[my sunwolf]

I don't let them into the garden for even 1 minute because they will eat a little bit of EVERYTHING in that minute. I create temporary fences and will let them into resilient plants (potatoes and squash are the only ones I can think of right now) for a few minutes at a time. Don't let them get a taste for squash leaves or they'll strip them bare. The other thing I've done is create mobile pens that are long and skinny and have run teenagers in the rows. This way they get any marauding bugs that venture away from the plants. But I haven't found a way to actually let chickens (or ducks) and plants co-exist without them ruining some part of my garden

 

[3chickchicks]

So, I've made a decision...

Last time I grew squash, the bugs took hold before the plants got big enough to flower. This means I wouldn't be able to let the chickens in because the plants will be too young and small.
So, I went to Home Depot for some PVC, then to Walmart for some tulle and made grow covers. Once the plants are big enough to tolerate chickens eating a little bit of it. I'll let them in.

Anyone else every fight the nasty fight with squash bugs? They are a menace!!

I have a garden because of the same reason I have chickens. I want to know exactly what went into my food. However, my last fight with squash bugs made me turn to traditional pesticides and even that didn't get rid of them. I wanted to torch the plants and then laughed when I came across youtube videos of people doing just that.

 

[centrarchid]

Try bait cultivars around perimeter of garden. Allow chickens access only to those plants.

 

[lazy gardener]

I couldn't entice my girls to eat squash bugs, even when I pulled a leaf covered with them and dropped it into their run. And they were vicious last year. (the bugs) I've heard that guinea hens adore squash bugs, and aren't bad on the foliage at all. However, they are too noisy for the average home owner. Too bad, otherwise, I'd have a coop full of guineas. As far as letting chickens into the garden... my plan is to fence off everything that they will decimate. I'm also building a second tractor/brooder and hope to be able to use that between beds, or over certain areas. Last year, they pretty much left the garden alone with supervised free range time. I had the big stuff planted around the periphery, and they never discovered the tender greens hidden in the middle. It seems that they prefer to patrol the edges of my lawn and a bit into the woods. I'm sure they will be bolder this year, so my strategy is a work in progress.

 

[3chickchicks]

I couldn't entice my girls to eat squash bugs, even when I pulled a leaf covered with them and dropped it into their run. And they were vicious last year. (the bugs) I've heard that guinea hens adore squash bugs, and aren't bad on the foliage at all. However, they are too noisy for the average home owner. Too bad, otherwise, I'd have a coop full of guineas. As far as letting chickens into the garden... my plan is to fence off everything that they will decimate. I'm also building a second tractor/brooder and hope to be able to use that between beds, or over certain areas. Last year, they pretty much left the garden alone with supervised free range time. I had the big stuff planted around the periphery, and they never discovered the tender greens hidden in the middle. It seems that they prefer to patrol the edges of my lawn and a bit into the woods. I'm sure they will be bolder this year, so my strategy is a work in progress.

I would love a few guinea hens but yes, they are too loud for where I live. One day though, I'll live out in the country and will keep some for pest control and as "guard guineas". They seem like they're quite entertaining.

 

[centrarchid]

Last summer I did a very short term experiment using a brooder reared commingled group of American Dominique and American Game chicks about 3 weeks post-hatch. Insects included those known to impact plants of the squash family which included the following lab cultured species; squash bugs (actual species I do not know), spotted cucumber beetle and striped cucumber beetle. Relative to species not known to be noxious such as meal worms and grasshoppers, the squash eating insects did require more handling time but chicks did seem to develop a taste for them. They would not eat pest species if fed to satiation on other food types while mealworms would be consumed even when crop was relatively full.

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks for the info Centrarchid. I will persist with trying to culture my chooks palates in the direction I would like them to take. Other folks have said their birds won't eat slugs or snails. My girls love them... and there are a lot of them... But they won't eat the huge 3" long ones, and I can't blame them. Hopefully, they'll eat them this year before they get that big. also hoping that by turning the girls loose in the garden before I plant it, they'll unearth a lot of insect eggs and pupae before they get a chance to become pests.

 

[3chickchicks]

Thanks for the info Centrarchid. I will persist with trying to culture my chooks palates in the direction I would like them to take. Other folks have said their birds won't eat slugs or snails. My girls love them... and there are a lot of them... But they won't eat the huge 3" long ones, and I can't blame them. Hopefully, they'll eat them this year before they get that big. also hoping that by turning the girls loose in the garden before I plant it, they'll unearth a lot of insect eggs and pupae before they get a chance to become pests.

I'll let you know how my pest problem is this year. I left the garden open all winter (after I had cleaned it up) for them to scratch around in and find bugs and seeds. I hope it'll help. Hopefully the cold winter killed off a lot too.