Hello from Utah

[chawkins]

I am just looking to start raising chickens. Iam also looking to find some type of birds that can roam my garden eating bugs BUT stay away from eating plants

 

[Kevin565]

. Chickens can be very destructive. I would not advise them in a garden unsupervised.

 

[rungirl]

Yeah, that won't happen. I put up a fence because chickens love to eat veggies and scratch out flowers fresh from the garden!

 

[liz9910]

from California! Chickens will eat your garden if you don't fence them out.

 

[sumi]

Hello and welcome to BYC

I went from having a veg garden to having no garden in exactly one week after letting 2 moms and 11 chicks lose in there. Won't do that again.

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us. The only reason I have a garden anymore is that it's well away from where the birds free range

Good luck

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, chawkins, and

! Great to have you here. I concur with the previous posts about being careful when putting them in the garden. Particularly when your garden is young - their incessant digging and scratching can be a disaster. However, the other day I was having a squash bug problem and selected a couple of my hens and carried them into the garden. In about 10 minutes they looked like they had just devoured a big Thanksgiving meal, they were so stuffed with squash bugs. Good luck to you!

 

[Red Barn Farms]

I was very proud of my 'huge' heirloom tomato plants this year! They we're so pretty and loaded with large red fruit. My chickens liked them too!

I ended up adding chicken wire around the plants, problem solved! I actually planted swiss chard in front of the garden as a means to distract my chickens from the main areas. It seems to have worked. The chickens will now eat the swiss chard and leave the rest of my garden alone. It might have to do with the many bright colors of the chard.

 

[Garden Tamer]

Welcome from Illinois!!

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Hi and from Ohio. So glad to have you aboard.