How do you keep chickens out of your garden?

[montbwcc]

My 10 wk. old fryers found the garden yesterday and are 'crazy' for my new cukes. Any ideas to keep them out? Area is too big to cover. I have an electric fence with two low wires, but they just slide right under. I've had layers for a long time and they seem to find plenty of bugs to eat elsewhere, but these 25 growing chicks have found a feast that must stop!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some type of fencing, either to keep them out of the gaden or to keep them confined to a run. Maybe put something under your lower electric wire so they cannot slide under it, but since they know where the feast is, they may just fly over your fence.

Good luck!

 

[ranchhand]

This is where chicken wire is very handy! If they are meat birds, they won't fly over. It depends upon what you mean by "fryers".

 

[cobrien]

Somehow I got away with using some leftover 2' plastic netting/fencing, something like the orange plastic cyclone fencing when my chickens were <4 months. Some of the success is due to the rest of the yard being as interesting as the garden area. Once they got older I had to resort to a full height fence. It is 5' tall in most places, 4' in some. With mine I think the 4' tall fence would work as they are a large breed, BA's, but it would not work for smaller chickens. It is a welded wire fence with 2" x 4" openings. Once a chicken knows there's something good in there, you will need a fence.

 

[gvntofly05]

We put 6' high welded wire fencing around ours. It is not small either, 50' x 50'. It wasn't cheap to do but well worth it.

It also keeps the neighbors kids out too!

 

[Leia's Chickens]

Fence is the only way to protect your garden. Pictures from the "old days" often show fence to protect gardens from roaming chickens.

ETA - I just saw that my compute is logged in with my DD's registration. I need to get her a computer.

 

[gryeyes]

There are only two answers to your question:

1. You can't, unless you

2. Fence it.

Chicken wire is inexpensive, as is that plastic poultry fencing. Get the plastic garden fence post stuff. This may look funky when you're done, but it will save your garden.

 

[gumpsgirl]

We finally fenced our entire garden area in. There wasn't anything else we could do to keep any of the animals, including the chickens out. Once we fenced it in we haven't had anymore issues.

 

[Chicks&Chihuahuas]

We had to net as much of ours as we could. We are still going to have to figure out a way to effectively fence off the beds with the herb gardens in them. It wasn't a problem until the strawberries tucked in there began to ripen. We have yet to beat those girls to a single berry.

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

My problem was my Sicilian Buttercup breeders. DH knew when he put the 4 foot fence around the garden, it wasn't high enough. So he pu up 8 foot fence poles. Sure enough they go over that 4 foot and we are adding another 4 feet to the height. That garden is just to irrisistable to them.

Depending on the breeds, chicken wire or that green plastic wire at Home Depoe that we used might work. Outside of your electric fence, I guess.