Keeping chickens from eating vegetables and flowers in garden

[Ckerckho]

We have been free ranging our chickens and releasing the in our backyard out of their cage which has been fun. However, they have been nibbling at our vegetables growing in our raised garden bed. It’s not really raised; it’s just right above the ground. I’d like to grow more vegetables and/or flowers in a similar bed and am wondering what the best solution is for still allowing the chickens out of their cage but preventing them from eating the vegetables and flowers in the garden. I’ve thought of something like a netting, however, I feel like that would take away from the beauty of the garden, especially flowers. Please help!

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Nothing short of building a cage around your vegetables that I’m aware of. When we had gardens and chickens at the same time all the gardens were fenced and occasionally the chickens would still hop a fence but it was better than letting them run amok without the fence. On the plus side, once the harvest was done we could also lock the chickens in to til it up a bit and fertilize as well.

 

[CherishedFowlGuardian]

Chickens and gardens don’t mix too well, haha. The best bet is to put a cute little fence around your veggie bed; even a short one keeps them out. Raised beds help too. You can also cover young plants with baskets or wire domes and maybe give the chickens their own patch to dig in so they stay busy.
If you want to keep the chickens out but still have a nice-looking garden, a few good options are:
Greene's Fence CritterGuard Cedar Garden Fence (Home Depot, about $65)—cedar wood, looks natural, and surrounds your whole bed.
Gardener’s Supply Chicken Wire Garden Cloches (about $28 each)—cute little domes you can pop over individual plants.
Budget hack—flip wire wastebaskets from Dollar Tree ($2–3) over young plants for instant “chicken-proof” cages.
That way you can protect your veggies and flowers without ugly netting.

 

[Perris]

We have been free ranging our chickens and releasing the in our backyard out of their cage which has been fun. However, they have been nibbling at our vegetables growing in our raised garden bed. It’s not really raised; it’s just right above the ground. I’d like to grow more vegetables and/or flowers in a similar bed and am wondering what the best solution is for still allowing the chickens out of their cage but preventing them from eating the vegetables and flowers in the garden. I’ve thought of something like a netting, however, I feel like that would take away from the beauty of the garden, especially flowers. Please help!

In my (relatively long) experience, chickens are not interested in most veg except when it is very young and very tender, so if you provide protection for seedlings you're OK. That applies to flowers too; there are very few ornamental flowers that they consume here, and the flowers they do eat are typically just carefully nibbled for the petal or the pollen without otherwise harming the plant.

And don't forget the upside of letting your chickens in amongst your flowers and veg - they will eat a lot of invertebrates that otherwise will damage your veg, or require you to spray to keep things looking nice. This poster summarizes it nicely