Do chickens destroy gardens?

[debilorrah]

Does water ripple when a duck toots?

 

[waynesgarden]

Keep the plastic netting out of your soil. The least of your concerns is chickens having a hard time pulling root balls up. It will be keeping them from eating the plants from the top down. And speaking as a very serious gardener, (and I mean serious,) the last thing you want in your soil is a lot of plastic garbage that will cause you problems next season as you prepare your garden. The crap will be there for ever. ("Poop?" This website will not let me say "c r a p??" Who knew??)

Lots of people on lots of websites will tout the chicken as the ultimate insect scavenger for your garden. I suspect that they have read this somewhere and merely repeat it without benefit of actually having chickens ravage their garden and eat every green thing in sight.

Chickens love to scratch and any mulch on your raised beds will become mulch in the paths. Any cool, dry soil in the beds will become a recessed dust bathtub. Those sugar snap peas that you are letting dry on the vine for seed is the ultimate in chicken candy for these greedy beggers. Though you don't mind if they eat a few tomatoes, you will mind when they sample every one they can reach. Any seedling, if not eaten, will be scratched out, trampled by them or crushed by you as you scurry to chase the darn birds out of the garden. (Oh, I see it's "darn" birds as in "water over the darn." Too funny!)

So, after all these posts, it probably is pointless for me to say keep the chickens out of the garden until the crops are done. Been there, done that, got the bone-headed T shirt.

Wayne

 

[silkiechicken]

Mine do. What they don't eat they dig up. I fence the garden in.

 

[Jashdon]

It depends on what kind of garden you are talking about. In our beds with established plants and larger shrubs they actually scratch through and keep the beds nicely weeded. I think they either scratch up the tiny weed seedlings or eat them or both. In our vegetable garden they wreak havok. I've never seen my wife laugh as hard as she does when I run out the back door at the speed of light cursing and waving my hands in the air, chasing the darn chickens out of the veggie garden. I'm sure I look rediculous.

 

[Akane]

They'll just eat most of the plants through the netting.

 

[CottageChicken22]

Quote:
Thanks everyone! The garden area I'm talking about is my herb garden and vegetable garden. All the plants are established. I think I'll just try it and if they're being pests BAM they're only allowed to go on my big lawn and bushy garden. Thanks again!!

 

[vfem]

My mother finally gave up on veggi... the man she rents her land from has a farm and his chickens ate everything a human would have wanted to.

As for her flowers.... some survive and pop back up now and then

 

[mikeksfarmer]

Hey chickens and gardens can be a good thing. Let them in at the end of the summer to eat bugs and scratch and eat the weeds and anything left you dont want. Use thier manure (well composted) to inrich it in the spring and summer. Fence em out in the growing and harvesting season. Chickens love to eat what we wont old tomatoes and cucumbers and much more. Turn those old vegies into great eggs.

 

[ZooMummzy]

I don't have my garden plot ready yet so I grew some veggies in pots this year and the way the girls ripped apart the tomato plants I gave them after they were done with, I'd say yeah, lol. There was nothing left but the stems. They even ate the green tomatoes I missed. I'm looking forward to having them clean up my garden in the future years.

 

[stacym]

At the end of the season they can go in and eat whatever is left. They will surprise you on exactly how much they can eat. A garden that you want to be able to harvest from they can decimate in a very short time. Remember they love to dig and aren't too shabby at flying. If you have raised beds you probably won't have any soil left in them by the time they are done.
So, if you want to harvest stuff from your garden keep them out. Goes for flower beds too.