Coops and gardens

[HopeSprings]

I have found that a fence to keep chickens out doesn't need to be as tall as a fence to keep them in. The first year I free ranged my hens I built a 6 foot tall fence all the way around my garden. The chickens never tried to get in, they walk up to it but see it as a barrier. The last two summers I have bought some new hens that are about 6 months old. I quarantine them in the garden and make a temp coop with a tarp and some skids. I have to clip their wings because the easily fly to the top of the fence and get out. Never have I seen one fly into the garden.

Mine will have plenty of range to free-range, so I'm hoping that they won't be tempted to fly over the garden fence.

 

[moniquem]

Oh they will tear your garden up. This spring I moved the coop to a more shady part of the garden, which I really can't grow anything in, and put up a 4' net fence. They hate that they can't free range the garden anymore and my EE does sometimes jump over the fence. She has ruined my strawberry patch twice this year. But i'm growing veggie again and the back yard looks nice again-no more stepping in chicken poop either!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I think you'll discover that chickens are very curious and they come up with the strangest things that excites them on a particular day. Yes they will tear up your garden. Mine are great excavators. They keep digging holes, big holes. I think they are planning on burying me so they can move back into my sun room. But seriously, chickens in vegetable gardens, not a good idea. Even if they save some veggies for you, they will poop all over them before you pick them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Building a new coop and am wondering if the hens will do damage to garden produce if allowed to free range in it.
Ken

Chickens and gardens don't mix well in the growing season. Chickens like to take dust baths in bare dirt, they can smother/crush anything growing. The love to scratch in mulch, looking for bugs. The mulch gets scattered everywhere and plants are often scratched up. They seem to love spouts, just one peck and the plant is gone at that stage. They will eat certain of the produce, often not eating it totally but just pecking it enough to ruin it. depends on what the produce is.

Some people turn their chickens into the garden after the growing season. The poop helps fertilize it for the next growing season, they may help clean it up, and they can eat certain pests that try to overwinter. How much benefit this is depends on your chicken density, how many chickens in how big an area.

So yes, I think you will need a fence. Chickens can fly a lot better than many people realize if they want to fly, even the larger breeds. There is a difference in keeping them in versus keeping them out. In both cases you want to make them not want to. Since you are keeping them out the further the coop is from your garden the better.

Chickens like to perch. If the top of your fence looks like a good place to perch they may fly up there just for fun. Who knows which side they may hop down on? Putting a solid rail on top of your fence or having post tops that look substantial is generally a bad idea as far as keeping them out. Most wire mesh fencing has enough stiffness that if you leave 6" or more sticking up above your posts or fence top if does not give them a good place to land. I use a 48" high electric netting that has nothing for them to perch on. That keeps them in, which is harder than keeping them out. There are some other tricks to keeping them in which you don't have to worry about.

You will need some type of mesh fencing, either wire, plastic, or cloth. The holes in the mesh need to be small enough they cannot squeeze through. Another point is that fencing often doesn't prevent holes under it, especially on uneven ground. Chickens can squeeze under a fence just as easily as a rabbit. If you use a wire mesh fence and put an apron around it on the outside you can maybe keep chickens and rabbits out. Watch your gates though, those are often weak points.

Many years ago I had three hens that learned they could get out of a relatively small 5' high run. One was trying to get away from an amorous rooster and went vertical to get away. She taught a couple of her buddies and they started flying out every day. That's a difference in keeping them in versus out. The point of this is that they can learn, so I'd get the fence up before they learned there was good stuff in the garden.

I don't know how big an area they have to roam in or other things unique to your situation, but I'd think a 5' high fence with nothing for them to perch on would work great. 4' high would probably work.

Good luck!

 

[Courtney Jane]

Oh they will destroy EVERYTHING! Before I got my chickens I had visions of them running freely in my backyard eating all the weeds and pests in my veggie patch but NOPE! They dig up all the roots and eat all the leaves, not to mention the trenches they dig! We have wood chips all around our native garden and they throw them all over the place. Cleaning up at the end of the day is a nightmare. Had to build them a large run but we let them out every couple days under strict supervision.

 

[Shadrach]

The chickens here free range.
I've found it almost impossible to fence chickens out of the vegetable garden. The bantams and the mixed breeds will easily fly twelve feet to reach a limb on a tree to roost so even a six foot fence isn't much of a challenge if they are determined to get in.
There are a number of problems that need to be considered.
If your climate is hot and dry in the summer months you will doubtless be watering the vegetable garden. All that fresh green foliage and cool looking places underneath are major attractions for chickens seeking shelter from the sun. Of course, once in the garden it's just too tempting not to see if a particular plant is as tasty as it looks. Like any intelligent creature, having discovered shade and a food source, the area becomes a regular attraction and here it seems, the vegetable garden is more attractive at particular times of day.
Bath time is when the worst damage gets done. You can just imagine if you had just got into a nice cool bath on a hot day only to find the just below the surface was a selection of your favorite ice creams. I'm sure the chickens here don't mean to make craters but those little bugs and tender shoots just under the damp soil are irresistible.
The keen gardener naturally looks at what was their lovely vegetable garden before the chickens visited and thinks the damage is just wanton destruction on the part of the chicken. Having taken the odd chicken to one side and discussed the issue in the past, I found it hard to defend my position when told that I dig holes in it too, not to mention being overheard waxing lyrical about the wonderful organic chicken poop that gets deposited on the soil. The final defeat of my protest was 'well you eat the stuff as well'.
It's a bit like the BYC veiw that chickens make wonderful pets; they make wonderful gardeners too, they've just got a different idea of what's attractive, when to pick and no understanding of anything belonging to someone else.
You can put up a very high fence and make the enclosure look like a prison. The chickens will sulk and you'll hate how it looks.
A partial answer is to plant what chickens don't eat. Anything they do like you stake and net the individual plants.
I can grow potatoes, onions, garlic, certain types of beans, courgettes, peppers, carrots, artichokes just to mention a few and mostly they survive well and produce.
Tomatoes, lettuce, soft fruits, melons (if they split) and a number of herbs are just too much of a temptation and need protection.

 

[LizzzyJo]

Mine take one single bite out of every tomato, pumpkin, etc. It's infuriating. They just want to 'taste' everything.

 

[Wolfie2]

You can google "chickens in the garden" to see people that have built wire tunnels to put between the rows. Keeps the walkways clean and fertilizes the garden a little, but you have to move the tunnels every once in a while. But beware on Youtube, there are all kinds of crazy ideas that I thought were pretty dumb.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Our chickens have several acres to free range. And for most of the gardening season (in years past), they left the garden alone, so we thought we were home free. But the day before the tomatoes were ripe enough for US to pick, those clever girls decided they were PERFECT for a chicken-peckin' party! And over the 4-foot fence they went! Sigh. So what we have now is a nice big chicken yard with lilies in it, which (knock on wood!) they don't bother, and a teeny, tiny fenced-in area with two tomato plants in buckets - and fingers crossed, lol!

 

[Viksceeks]

Mine recently made a dirt bath hole right in the middle of my potato patch. I had little half eaten potatoes everywhere