@!*$&@! Chickens!!!

[skatcatla]

Grrrrr!!! I am *thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis* close to having roast chicken for dinner tonight.

I have four girls that have a WHOLE yard to roam in, with all sorts grass and plants and bugs, and what do they make a beeline for? My two little raised vegetable beds.

So I put some plastic fencing up all around the perimeter, and just got done with all my spring planting (which isn't much, but I only have two 4 x 4 boxes). The zucchini and cucumber seedlings were looking great, and the bush beans were JUST sprouting and coming up. I was so excited!

Then somehow last night, while I was making dinner and they were enjoying their usual evening free ranging, I look up in time to see all four of them tails up in my poor garden beds. I have NO idea how they managed to get over or around my fencing, but in just 20 minutes or so they DESTROYED my poor plants. Almost everything will have to be replaced.

GRRRRRR!! What will it take to keep them out? I'm going to end up having to build a giant wooden fence just for 16 sq feet of garden.

 

[thechickenchick]

Quote:
Maybe you could post a picture of Colenol Sanders (KFC) in your veggie patch!

HA HA!!

 

[MissPrissy]

I am sorry your garden is ruined. Now you know your chickens can fly. Most can fly over a 4 - 5 foot fence easily. Give them a closed run or completely fence your garden plots.

 

[Rte.66_chicks]

4 or 5 ft. welded wire fence and closely clipped wings is about all you can do. Your veggie garden is far more tasty than all the things they are esupposed to eat when free ranging.

 

[Portia]

My garden is 24' square and completely fenced. The girls only come in when I open the gate & allow them too. After I've planted my seeds I will also plant the extras outside the fence in the yard so they can have those when they find them. One other difference, my chickens are free range except at night & have a 1 acre fenced yard with plenty of grass, woods, trees, etc to play in. I also have numerous perennial and herb beds they they scritch around in and pick at here and there, but not to any detriment thus far. I have 15 chickens & 1 dog that will usually herd them out of areas she knows I don't want them in; or more accurately, areas SHE doesn't want them in. She buries her bones along the edges of my garden, so she makes sure the chickens don't spend too much time there!

 

[ebonykawai]

Just use a low garden fence but cover it with deer netting. You can use twist ties to keep the netting in place but still remove it for weeding, etc.

 

[wegotchickens]

I'm very grateful. My raised beds just aren't as interesting as the forest that runs along the edge of our lot. And when they have checked them out, they've not messed around much before moving on.