Does anyone know how to keep my chickens out of my garden till it is alot bigger with out fencing it in?
Without fencing the garden? Build a coop. You will not keep them out of it. They will eat it all in a matter of days.
They'll destroy it when it's bigger, too You don't need predator proof fencing, some of that plastic netting would probably do it.
Quote:I am with crazy - I thought that once the garden was bigger you WANT them in it to get the bugs. Mine ate all of my squash seeds yesterday!
They'll eat anything that they perceive to be edible. Keep them out of the garden. We just penned 1/2 of our yard to create a NCZ (no chicken zone). No chickens where humans eat, grow food, park, "roost", or use tools. It's soooooo much nicer. Last night I was able to eat my dinner without winding up with a chicken on my plate. Of course, they don't LIKE this new NCZ but we do.
I guess we were different. When I was growin gup we alrays let the chickens in the garden, after it got big. They never ate anything but bugs. Maybe a few strawbarries. We always had a thinck layer of mulch, mayeb that helped keep them from scratching and hurting the roots. But I dont want anyones garden ruined because I said that....
Quote: I was afraid of this, so we made sure the run was ready ahead of time. We love our chicks already, but we aren't giving them the whole garden. Will be happy to SHARE the food with them, just not one bite of each thing!
I came up with a pretty nifty solution to keep my chickens from destroying my newly planted herb bed. The bed is a long rectangle about 2 feet wide and the length of most of my house. I cut off lengths if 4in x 2in welded wire from a leftover roll and poked the ends into the ground parallel to the bed. The wire was already pre-disposed to curving due to it coming from a roll. I overlapped the ends of each section just a little to create a long tunnel over the bed. Now I have a long upside-down 'U' shape tunnel of wire over the bed. The chickens can't get in, but I can stick my hands through to harvest herbs and the plants can grow up through the wire. So far it is working perfectly so I think I will use this method on some of my other garden beds. Another option is to go to TSC and get the garden electric fence kit. It has a charger, stakes, and wire to put up an electric barrier around your garden to keep out rabbits, dogs, and maybe even chickens?
