Chook Dome vs Free Range

[ahernfam]

Hi,

I'm desperate for advice! Our 4 week old chicks are getting too big for their indoor cage! We keep them inside at night now, and let them outside during the day in a wire enclosure on the grass (it's temporary) and we urgently need to build a bigger house/yard for them! I'm in two minds, between setting up a chook dome system where they stay in that, and it gets moved around to dig/weed harvested, empty circular beds (same size as the dome). The downside of this system for us, I think, is that we can't have the beds in a mandala shape that Linda Woodrow idealises in her book "The Bakcyard Permaculture Garden". But the biggest downside is that, because the chooks mostly stay in the dome to work the garden, the kids wouldn't be able to interact with them as much. I guess we could still let them out of the dome sometimes but herein lies the problem: how do we then protect the other circular beds that would be full of vegies? The idea of keeping them in the dome is that the chooks are happy, the vegie gardens are happy because the chooks fertilise & dig it all up & eat the grubs etc once the vegies are harvested. So yeah, everyone's happy and it works, but the kids, I think, would really enjoy having the chooks running around the yard sometimes?

The second idea is to build them a deep little hen house with an attached yard for them to fossick in, and then let them out into the backyard when the kids are out there playing. We would have no-dig vegie beds near the chook house/yard, so how would we keep the chickens from scratching/digging/eating the vegies? We could fence off the vegie patch, I guess, with a gate for access. But then how would we let the chickens into only part of the vegie patch when we're wanting them to dig up a harvested empty bed?

As you can see, I really don't have much of a clue! We're complete novices and would really love some practical information and help!!

Thanks so much
Karen

 

[chookchick]

Okay, I have to admit I'm having a bit of a problem following your post, could be that two gin and tonics during the game are affecting me....but I can make this really simple! ---build yourself a coop, a nice solid coop, that stays in one place. Then build a nice solid run, at least 10 sq. ft. per chook, totally predator proof, mostly covered, that stays in one place. You are going to want/need this sooner or later no matter what. That makes all your decisions afterwards much easier. Then if you want to free-range them, go ahead. When you NEED to keep them safe/leave town etc...they have a good place to be. If you then want to build portable runs over the beds, go ahead--you can transport them as needed/when needed. Keep it simple and sturdy to start with.

Oh and

!!

 

[patandchickens]

When the permaculturists got all "into" this whole mandala-shaped bed thing, back in the 1970s and 1980s, they were not envisioning tractoring chickens on the beds

Although if your tractor pen was circular it is not clear to me why you couldn't use it on mandala-shaped beds of the same diameter if you really wanted to. (Or, if I'm misunderstanding and your point is that you can't build circular garden beds on your plot, that is totally fine, just build an appropriately-sized rectangular pen for the chickens, that will fit your actual beds)

Unless you have a LOT of garden and an extremely long growing season (and also few chickens) you are likely to find that the chickens can't spend all their time parked on disused beds ANYhow, so would need a plan B for where they would spend their days during those times when no open garden beds are available.

As far as the idea of letting them run round the yard when people are there to supervise, and wanting flexible control over what parts of garden they can access:

The simplest thing is to get some flimsy plastic garden netting, 4' high or so, and some step-in posts or pieces of rebar or bamboo or whatever. Attach the posts to the netting at intervals (zip ties, twine, whatever - in some cases you can even just weave the post through the netting) and presto it is an easily moveable fence. It should not be depended on when you are not there to supervise, but it will mostly discourage the chickens from crossing the fence. Thus you can cordon off either the entire veg plot, or part of it, as desired.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[kcsunshine]

PatandChickens nailed it. Portable plastic fencing to keep them in or out of spaces.

 

[Bossroo]

Chicken POO + patter of little feet = YUCKY POO in house.

 

[CityChook]

If your veggie gardens are not already fenced and you are planning to let the chickies free range a bit, you're either going to have to REALLY babysit them or put some sort of barrier around that garden. Everyone loves tomatoes and lettuce.... I couldn't believe the damage they could to in my garden when unattended for even a short while. That includes flower gardens too, unfortunately.

 

[95yj]

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't read your entire post cause i just got back from school and I'm done thinking. But i did see the words "chickens" "garden" and "eating." Given enough time [two days...] chickens will eat your entire garden, however when first introduced they are much more interested in the bugs instead of the produce, so by giving them only 2 days at a time, ounce or twice a month to peck in your garden you can clear out the the bugs, some weeds and fertalize your garden. Also chicken manure is very acidic and high in nitrogen, after 2-3 days in a confined space the ground has absorbed as much nitrogen as possible and the acidity will start to dangerously rise. I hope that had something to do with your question

 

[yankiwi]

I'm planning a mandala garden too but it is half scale, partly by accident and partly because we don't want a gigantic garden in front of our house. (We live in the country.) Realizing our garden beds of 2 meter diameter and chicken dome slightly smaller wouldn't be adequate for permanent living for three chickens we have decided to make a small hen house with run totally away from the garden, about 20 meters away. When we want them in the garden beds (which will be raised) we'll put them in a small dome during the day and return them to their house at night. We have rats and stoats and think they woud be too vulnerable in a dome. So far my husband and I have planted our fruit trees and will fence in the garden in the next few days to keep the wekas (native hen-like birds, very destructive but they can't fly at all) out.
Since I don't really know what I'm doing, I've only read a lot about raising chickens, does that plan sound feasible?

 

[elmo]

I have to admit the practical side of me started groaning when I thought about building a dome shaped chicken tractor. That's not going to be anywhere near as easy as building a traditional rectangular shape, nor (I suspect) as efficient a use of wire as building a triangular pyramid.

I've coveted one of those domes you can build with Starplates, but the thought of cutting wire to fit all those triangles always stops me, cold. After building several models of tractors, the main thing I think about these days is how to build something making the fewest cuts of wire possible.