How Do You Keep Your Freerange Chickens out of Raised Bed Gardens?

[coopdeville15]

We have several 4 ft x 8 ft planter boxes around our courtyard, each about 30 in. tall. We grow our vegetables and herbs in them and they are a decorative border to our courtyard, in which we spend a fair amount of time in during nice weather. Of course our free-ranging chickens delight in consuming our budding produce before it can mature and be harvested. I hate to restrict them to their coop and although there is plenty of room to build an extended run, the girls like to wander off into the wooded periphery of our property and scratch and peck in the undergrowth, get out of the sun, etc. on our several acres. Ideally I would not like to restrict their movement to a fixed size run, and I don't want to fence off my court yard for aesthetic reasons. I also don't want to deal with a chicken tractor that I have to move around the property. So I'm looking for a creative way to keep the chickens out of/off of my raised beds, perhaps some sort of cover that sits on top of the planter boxes, but that is not unsightly for our courtyard. Any suggestions?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Chickens will go where they can - so yo have to either fence them into an area or fence them out of areas you don't want them. It's a matter of what you might consider "unsightly" as any barrier you can construct around the beds that does not offend your eye will do.

 

[Jackschicks]

Let me know if you figure something out. I have the same problem - between 4 dogs and 20 chickens I have to fence off all my gardens and flower beds or there would be nothing left of them. The vegetable gardens have 4 ft fencing around them which is good for growing beans and peas but the flower beds & herbs we mostly just put 12" to 18" inch fence around. The dogs & chickens could go over the top if they wanted to but mostly they don't bother since they have other areas to run and scratch in. Good luck!!

 

[Beekissed]

We have several 4 ft x 8 ft planter boxes around our courtyard, each about 30 in. tall. We grow our vegetables and herbs in them and they are a decorative border to our courtyard, in which we spend a fair amount of time in during nice weather. Of course our free-ranging chickens delight in consuming our budding produce before it can mature and be harvested. I hate to restrict them to their coop and although there is plenty of room to build an extended run, the girls like to wander off into the wooded periphery of our property and scratch and peck in the undergrowth, get out of the sun, etc. on our several acres. Ideally I would not like to restrict their movement to a fixed size run, and I don't want to fence off my court yard for aesthetic reasons. I also don't want to deal with a chicken tractor that I have to move around the property. So I'm looking for a creative way to keep the chickens out of/off of my raised beds, perhaps some sort of cover that sits on top of the planter boxes, but that is not unsightly for our courtyard. Any suggestions?

Deer netting. Four stakes on your corners, a tight little fence of deer netting. It's nearly invisible from a distance and they cannot hop to the top of it and go over. It's cheap, it's easy to work with and isn't unsightly at all, especially from a short distance. I've got my whole garden fenced in it and not one chicken has went over the fence. In open flower beds you can place the deer netting right on top of your mulch at the base of your flowers...the chickens will not attempt to scratch in these areas if the netting is pinned down tightly.

Here's our garden with the deer netting....

 

[coopdeville15]

Thanks for your various replies. I'll have to do a bit more research and experimentation with different barriers

 

[junebuggena]

I have to cover mine with bird netting.

 

[NCaliChick]

We happened to have cyclone fence panels from a dog kennel, and used them to separate our yard almost in half. It was a long narrow backyard, and it happened to work, without being an eyesore.
I had wrapped each planter box with chicken wire before that. The birds could only eat what hung out or over the wire.