letting chickens in the garden

[Cacciatore]

I put netting around my raised beds so the chickens can't get into them. I can let them into beds that aren't planted and keep them out of those that are. I don't mind them getting at the tomatoes after the plants get fully grown because I plant way too many every year and they can only get to the tomatoes near the bottom of the plants. They will eat anything and everything that isn't poisonous to them. They even eat the flowers off my wife's roses.

 

[Ahab]

If you're using hoops on standard 4-foot beds, chickens can be profitably integrated into the garden--depending on how many hoops you're willing to bend. A few months before planting, hoop a bed, cover the hoops with netting, put the chickens inside, and let them plow it, fertilize it, and deweed it for a week or two.

Assuming you have other means of predator control--as in fencing the whole garden--you can run things this way all year: hooping in chickens on beds to be later planted; hooping out chickens from beds that are planted, and giving them the run of the garden out_side_ the hoops. You'll have to cover the hoops with netting, of course, but this goes on quickly with zipties, and the netting works nicely to support, say, spun fabric or plastic if you're over-wintering crops.

So the hoops work to either include or exclude the chickens, depending on your goal of the moment.

In the autumn, you could let the chickens have the run of the whole garden, excluding them only from your hoop-protected winter beds (parsnips, spinach, etc).

 

[greenSearcher]

The vege garden has a 6 ft fence w/ latching gate. The chickens check it out for any possible point of access. Herb garden has 4 ft floppy chicken wire fence, same inspection. Nothing is as yummy as garden plants- they did not eat Licorice root, Calla Lily or passion flower vine last year, all being toxic. Ate the Major Wheeler honeysuckle vine and root in less than one day when I planted it. Yummmm.
Oh they also don't eat mesquite, darn it.