fencing off a vegetable plot - what do you do / what will they eat?

[kkcamiller]

This year was my first experience with chickens and gardening. I found the chickens enjoyed eating the leaves off of my climbing peas and they would find seed I planted. I was told by a friend that chickens can destroy almost any plant until it is well established. Square Foot Gardening has a good portable cage. I will try next year. Good luck.

 

[Oscgrr]

My chickens will leap the four-foot chain link fence to get at my garden. They don't seem as interested in the vegetables as much at the bugs but they put beak-sized holes in just about everything that had a bug crawling on it. They'll eat seedlings and small plants until they're gone. My solution has been to just keep them confined to their run until mid September. I'm most concerned about what they'll do to my neighbors garden. I put a lot of work and time into my garden and I've lost a lot to rabbits

and it's a terrible feeling. I'd hate to lose anything my birds when it's totally preventable and I don't think all the free eggs in the world would make an angry neighbor happy.

Sure, they love free-ranging but I take extra care to make sure their run is comfy enough and they occasionally get out an hour before sunset. I figure they can't do too much damage in just an hour

 

[C&C Chickens]

I read a post from someone who's chickens DECIMATED 50 tomato plants in one sitting, and discovered the next day that my chickens had suddenly developed a liking for my tomatoes, and were eating them off the vine.... Someone else posted that they had spent countless hours developing their chicken coop and run, and realized they should have spent more time protecting their garden from the chickens. We frantically put up a very makeshift chicken wire fence, which is ugly but keeps the chickens (and our cats) out for now. Next year we'll have to reconfigure the garden and find a way to protect it better, but this winter/spring we'll let them in to eat bugs, especially snails....

 

[saltdean norm]

cheers all, i think i'll spend the winter on freecycle rounding up peoples spare chicken wire and improvise when it comes to spring.

i'll plant the hardier crops together but keep the ones tastier to chickens together so i can fence them off.

i'll probably just support the chicken wire on bamboo canes and see how i get on.

will resurrect this thread in spring to see if anyone else chimes in.

thanks

norm

 

[cdawson41]

Quote:
Sort of off topic here, but if you want to keep those rabbits out of your garden, plus many other forms of wildlife, plants marigolds in and around your garden. I do square foot gardening and every box has a marigold in it except for tomatoes, plant basil with those, works wonders.

 

[Wifezilla]

I let my ducks in the garden beds AFTER I harvest, throughout winter and BEFORE I plant. Once the crops go in, they have to stay in their run. Otherwise every plant will be nibble and trampled to death. Letting them in the garden when I do does still help with bug control. They are especially good at finding hidden slugs and pill bugs along with any insect eggs. I only have a few of these crop up later in the summer, but I no longer get full infestations.

 

[Olive Hill]

If you don't want to lose crops to the chickens, fence it all. What they do not eat they will still scratch up and kill.

 

[jomercer]

Quote:
They will eat, peck, shred, scratch and trample everything in their path--including marigold and tomato plants!

 

[Nostalchic]

My neighbor, the gardening guru, used wire fence (2"x4", 4 foot medium weight fencing) hoop/cages around her tomato plants for supports this year, rather than stakes or the commercial tomato cages which are pretty flimsy, and that worked out beautifully - especially here where we get some pretty high winds that will take a staked or otherwise supported plant right down. The additional advantage to this is that it was pretty good protection from chickens - though they could get their heads thru and access a little of it, they couldn't reach most of the tomatoes and couldn't do much damage. I'm going to try that next year. I have trees and shrubs in the chicken run protected just by little 3' chicken wire hoops flimsily supported with stakes, and that has served very well to prevent chicken damage while the plants are young, so that would also work if you didn't have too many plants. But I generally don't let the chickens into the garden until everything is pretty well harvested.