free range and the ornamental garden

[dpuleo]

I always judge peoples' chicken knowledge by what they say about chickens and gardens. Over the weekend, I saw an article by P. Allen Smith that said something like "chickens and gardens go great together. The chickens on my farm eat the weeds and bugs and leave great organic fertilizer." Bwa ha ha ha ha! This is a man who might own chickens, but clearly has other people to take care of them--like Martha Stewart. And there's NO WAY that his chickens roam that perfect garden.

As others have said, chickens are the garden destroyers. Nothing is safe. My favorite thing is going to pick a tomato, and finding out that they've been pecking it from the bottom and have hollowed it out like a ball, just leaving the skin, so it squishes all over your hand when you grab it. And irises! They will dig those right out of the ground, and peck holes in the rhizomes.

My Dad has a dairy farm. There are literally hundreds of acres of alfalfa and corn and soybeans. There are mows of hay and straw. There are puddles and places to dust bathe. There is a commodity shed filled with open bins of corn and soybeans and other tasty treats. the chicken house is overhung by a grapevine that drops grapes in summer. Add to that, there are very few predators because humans are moving on the property 24/7. The chickens took full advantage of all that. Now, you'd think chickens living in this slice of poultry Heaven would be content, yes? NO. The chickens dug every single plant out of the bed under the tree. They ATE the basil and the thyme. They trampled and destroyed the young tomato plants. All Dad's chickens now live at my house behind a fence. 

I think you need a good fence. A pretty fence. A fence that touches the ground so that chickens can't slide under it (and they will sure try). 

I agree!

 

[dpuleo]

Just a few examples of what chickens can do in a short time.