Coop built alongside the garden?

[looptloop]

I have searched on here, before anyone tells me to do a search.....

We are going to build a garden with raised beds, enclosed with fencing. I'd like to incorporate the coop and run into the fencing of the garden.

If you have done this, I'd love to see pictures. Also love to hear good/bad/ugly about doing this if you've done it.

Thanks!

 

[schellie69]

Chickens will eat anything they can get to, I keep my chickens away from my garden..

 

[HHandbasket]

Are you saying you want the raised beds incorporated into your run? We had to chicken-wire off our raised beds here, as chickens will ruin a garden in a matter of minutes. I'm trying to picture what you're trying to build & I think perhaps I am having a perception issue this morning (still early, first cup of coffee hasn't hit yet LOL). If you're trying to incorporate any type of garden into a chicken run, nothing will grow, so perhaps describe what you're trying to do a little more & we'll brainstorm to help you come up with some ideas.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean either. Chickens will destroy a garden. They not only eat practically anything when it is sprouting, they will eat many vegetable leaves from older plants. Even if they don't eat the leaves, they will usually eat the fruit. And to make it even worse, they will scratch and dig up about anything with fresh earth or mulch. Chickens and gardens really do not go together when you are trying to grow anything.

If you want to make the fencing around the garden part of the run fencing, you certainly can. if they can get their heads through the run fencing, they will gladly devour anything they can reach, so you need to either plant things far enough away from the fence that they can't reach it or use a type of fencing that they cannot get their heads through.

To try to avoid being totally negative, if you can set it up in a way they they can be let into the garden area after the crops are harvested, they will fertilize the area and keep any grass and weeds down. Many people do a version of that. I'm not sure how that would work with your raised beds.

As far as I am concerned, never be afraid to post a question on here no matter how many times it has been asked before. This forum would dry up and die if only new original questions were asked, you don't always find what you need from the search feature, someone else will learn something from your question, and questions that have been asked before are usually easier to answer than something totally original.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[Judy]

Good replies.

I'd build a gate into the fence between the chickens and the garden, and turn them loose in there to get bugs when harvest was complete, and before planting.

 

[spiritdance]

Someone on here - can't for the life of me remember her name - makes tractors that fit over her raised beds. Once she harvests a bed, she puts her chickies on it to "clean it up" of any remaining unwanted seeds, bugs, etc., and to fertilize it. The bed then rests a while so the manure can age, and she then turns the bed and replants. I'm seriously considering something similar with my breeding pens. As others on here have pointed out, though, once the veggies go in, you gotta keep the chickies out! They're better at eliminating vegetation than napalm!

 

[Moxiechick]

We have our coop and run built near our fenced in garden and plan to build a connecting "hallway" that we can open and close to allow the chickens in and out as we see fit. Late last summer, we brought the girls into the girls into the garden area while we were still working on the coop. They didn't bother too much, but maybe this was because they were still only a few months old. They mainly hung out in the asparagus bed, scratching around for bugs. They ate a little lettuce, but that is why we planted it in the first place.

As long as you can separate the areas, I think it is a good idea!

 

[looptloop]

My first cup of coffee hasn't kicked in for me either! LOL!

I'll try to be clearer.....

We are going to completely fence in the garden area, and will build raised beds. I was thinking that we could use one side of the fencing to create another fenced in area that could be a run for the coop. Two completely different areas, right next to each other. I have no doubt that my chickens would destroy the garden, they can't have access to the raised beds at all. My thinking was the ease of using their manure in the garden and that if I were to find bugs I'd have someone there ready to eat them.

If this is just a bad idea, I'm totally open to hearing that too. I guess that really is my question. Is it good or bad to have chickens right next to the garden?

Thanks again!!

 

[schellie69]

Quote:
If they can stick their heads through the holes they will eat what ever they can reach. If you use small enough fencing you might be okay I have my chickens on one side of the yard and my garden on the other I just take the poop/bedding to the compost pile and let it sit,, it needs to break down for a while before going into the garden I have a garden wagon that I use it works great then I just take the compost to the garden till and plant. Hope this helps. Plus having worms in the garden is a good thing I would worry that my girls would wipe the worms out.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Other than them possibly reaching through the fence or maybe flying over the fence, I do not know of any problem at all doing what you mentioned.