Chickens vs Veggie Garden

[EmeraldSkye]

Greetings!!

My chickens are in my 900 square feet raised bed vegetable garden area:




It's the only option, so they can't be relocated out of there. It's time to get the garden going and having the chickens in there is all new to me. I'm planning to give them two 16'x3' beds all of their own for scratching, dust bathing, etc plus they will have the pathways as well. I'm going to put in some chicken forage seeds in one of these beds too. I will also allow them parts of other beds in between plantings if possible. I'm planning to put in tomatoes, peppers, okra, green beans, carrots, and squash this year. I'll develop barriers as needed.

*Of these plants, can anyone tell me which ones (if any) the chickens will have no interest in eating (okra, tomatoes, green [pole] beans, peppers?)
*Also which ones that, once they reach a certain size, would have limited damage from the chickens (okra? tomatoes?)
*Finally I know that they will love the squash and the carrot tops so I'll make sure these get good barriers for sure.

 

[Hooligans7]

EmeraldSkye, my chickens like to eat most of the things you mentioned — tops, fruits, or both — but they will also dig up plants for amusement, roots and all. In addition, their manure is too 'hot' to use directly on plants and adjacent soil without burning them with excessively nitrogenous compounds. So you'll need erect barriers for several reasons in order to preserve your garden plants. Only allow access during the off season to allow the manure to age before replanting.

 

[flagirl]

I have cherry tomatoes(volunteers) that came up next to their run. chickens are not suposed to like tomato leaves, but they are reaching thru and eating all they can reach. they love tomatoes

 

[Cluckysnap123]

mine did too! They all got killed by a hawk, sadly, and I'm a guy and still cry every time I see the cherry tomato plant, with nobody to eat the tomatoes but me

 

[hildar]

I grow more then we can eat and can, just so the hens can have what they want. However I wont keep the hens out of my garden because they help to keep nasty pests away.

 

[TheEggCollecter]

Your garden is beautiful!

 

[Irishhenman]

chickens will eat all of those plants ( I am not familiar with okra so they might be safe). You will need to put up barriers around the raised beds to stop the hens getting at the plants. The chicken manure will also burn the roots of the plants while it is fresh and it needs to be rotted down for 6 months before it is put in vegetable beds.

 

[Whoops]

Mine joyfully ripped all of the seedlings out of the ground. So, I definitely recommend barriers. Maybe PVC and Chicken wire removable toppers for the raised beds you want to actually grow stuff in?

 

[3chickchicks]

You'll need to put up some type of fence or barrier around the boxes so you can control when they have access to it. They will kill a young garden in just one romp through there.
I've got a 3' fence around my garden. They have enough area outside of the garden that to them, it's not worth trying to hop that fence to get in. They could if they wanted to though so if they don't have enough to do, you'll need something taller.
I keep mine out until the plants are bigger and it's not so damaging to them if a chicken takes a leaf. But I like to let them in to get rid of the pests when the plants can handle them. Until then, I made a grow cloth out of tulle because squash bugs are horrible here. Then I have cloth/plastic weed guard to keep the birds from digging up the plants.

 

[EmeraldSkye]

OK, I am mulling over some ideas. I do have some PVC/bird netting barriers that I can use for some of the areas (it's what I made a smaller run for them with). They are 7' long, 3' tall. Lucille is very adventurous and will easily fly on top of them and probably in them so a "lid" will be necessary. I also have some bamboo here and I can pick up some more poultry netting to block off some areas. I think if the top edge is flimsy (like netting) and not rigid (like PVC) then Lucille not perch on top and then hop in. I put one of the PVC/netting barriers around some blueberry plants and she hopped right up onto the PVC top edges and I could tell she was mulling over going on in. I had to fully enclose them, over the top.

I want to make some nice areas with nasturtium planted in such a way that they can't destroy the plants themselves but can eat leaves/flowers that make their way out of the barrier. I think they would like that.

Also I have a LOT of fencing similar to this: Wire fencing. It was previously used to keep a dog out of planting areas. The openings are too wide on their own but I can attach poultry netting over the sides and also something for the top as well.

I think I have a way to do this. I will for sure leave them with some dust bathing areas and plant some forage area for them. They will get two beds for those things and I'll get the rest of the beds, plus a couple of planting areas outside of the garden.

Oh, and for sure, when the plants are grown I'll experiment with letting them help keep bugs off but I'll watch them carefully. Also they will get plenty of things tossed in to them. There will even be a couple of the tomato plants in there for them (with 2' barriers at the bottom) and I'm sure they will get a tomato here and there.