Coop built alongside the garden?

[melloladies]

sounds good to me

I have my girls fenced away from my raised beds. When they roam the yard, there is a 3.5" tall HWcloth fence that keeps them out. MOST of the time...three of them decided to be rebels the other day and hop the fence

Good luck with yours!

 

[SadieSue]

Quote:
Not exactly like your idea, but similar is where I've seen a coop in the middle of two "runs". One side is the garden for one season while the other side is used as a run. The following season, they operate the other way, meaning, the garden becomes the chicken run and vice versa. I thought that was a pretty cool way of using space. I'm not sure where I saw that though, so am unable to link the photo.

 

[cottage19]

Our coop/run is right next to our fenced in raised bed garden. The girls love being loose in the garden AFTER harvest time but once the weather gets nice they get locked out. Last week I planted peas and potatoes and the girls watched with envy as I uncovered a few fat worms. As many others have said - the hens will totally destroy a garden if given half a chance. If you're serious about growing vegtables, fence them out!

 

[looptloop]

Thank you for the replies. I will post pic of what ever it is we decide to do. I've enjoyed looking at everyone elses pictures!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
As long as your fencing is good (better than if it were just garden fence) and you probably wanna have a top on that run, then sure, that is a good plan. It makes it very convenient to throw nontoxic weedings and tomato hornworms and spoiled/damaged produce to the chickens

And although you will not be wanting to use much if any coop cleanings directly on the garden, chacnes are your *garden* compost pile will be right there and so it is handy to have the *chicken* compost there too. (You may or may not want to combine the two - or you may want to put some of one into the other but only up to the point of optimum composting). Less to truck around the yard

Good luck, ahve fun,

Pat

 

[vanalpaca]

I like the sounds of the 4x8 chicken tractor being used to clear/start-up the raised beds. Sounds like you can get some double duty out of those hens if you also build a chicken tractor.

I raise compost worms FOR the chickens, and I REALLY like the idea of being able to do something close with all those handpicked bugs, just toss em in the pie pan for the chickens 'next door'.

The other good idea here is the 2 fenced areas alternating chickens and garden for different years. It's all about making the chickens and the garden part of the ecosystem anyway.

Earthworms live in the soil, compost worms live in the loose leaves, edges of the manure/compost piles. So as long as there is lots of good organic humus in the garden, it should be thriving with worms and that just reduces the feed bill for the chickens!:

 

[calista]

This is what we built:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3533217

Hope that helps!

 

[jenesis536]

I think it sounds fine! The only thing I can think of is if your pen/coop creates too much shade for the garden area, but personally I like having all my "stuff" (chickens and garden) in the same area next to each other.

 

[packmomma]

I used the same method as Calista suggested in the link. I have two openings for my girls on the side of the coop. One goes to the chick area and then that has a gate to the main garden. The other opening goes to their year round pen and then I have a gate to the corn/beans garden. I let the girls in my garden in the spring before I plant and after most is harvested. They love roaming around in there after planting season is over. They have to stay in their run while the garden is growing though but I grow stuff just for them in there too.

My coop is on the north side of the garden so it doesnt affect the garden sun at all!

 

[owler]

You are talking about a chicken moat. I built my coop in the fall and put in 1 1/2 legs of the moat. I will finish this spring. I have some pics on my page here in the forum. You can search on chicken moat here also. Mother Earth news has an article too .