Organic Garden and Chickens...My Coop/Run layout

[RitaM]

I had the same idea of a bucolic vegetable garden with the hens pecking at weeds and ridding my garden of troublesome insects. Instead, they not only eat everything in sight (including beneficial insects and worms) but they scratch up the plants that they don't eat and fling dirt everywhere (my veggies are in raised boxes with gravel surrounding them so the dirt in the gravel is NOT welcome).

I still love letting them free range, but my yard is cordoned off so that they only have access to the lawn and a 100' x 5' strip of dirt that has roses and japanese maples - neither of which they seem to like to eat. They also have access to my orchard which has 18 fruit trees in raised boxes, but the dirt in the boxes is covered with netting so that they can sit on the dirt, but can't scratch at it.

Bottom line - hens and vegetables are not compatible!

 

[GoChick]

Interestingly, I have the opposite experience with chickens and vegetable gardens. We have 13 chickens, no rooster.
They free range all day long, on a 1 acre fenced in area. We have some lawn, some row crops and 10 raised beds. In the begining we were worried they'd need to be contained to another area, but after one year letting them roam around freely, we found out we can let them free range all day, with minimum damage to the garden.
We let them have their chosen bed, where they built several dust bath holes. we planted some collards, broccoli and kale for them, so they had a salad bar they could acess even while dust bathing. The can also have all the grass they can eat from the lawn and are actually helping a lot with weed control and bug control. so much so, that we opened the patch where we planted corn so they could roam free and eat the bugs.

thay also control bugs on my flower beds - the yonger ones jump to catch japanese beetles. We've come to accept some of the hassles they create - they love to spread the mulch we put on the beds so we have to gather it back around the plants. if they decide to make a new dust bath, around one of my flowering bushes, I just put a bunch of rocks on the hole and they go back to dusting on "their" bed.

so yes, there were some trade offs - one raised bed is their "beach/salad bar", some plants get pecked now and then, we have to bunch up the mulch again and again... but then, they're the best pest control we've found so far. and to watch those fluff butts running around in the garden... is priceless!

 

[Ro-Ro-2]

Quote:
I EASILY came up with PLAN B just a second ago thanks to each and every one of you....I'll keep them OUT of the garden...and just feed them veggie scraps....plus they have ample space in their coop/run....

I thank you all for saving me from MISERY!!!

Aloha!

Ro

 

[bobchristenson]

It actually sounds like you have the perfect setup for a "dual garden" coop I just read about. The idea is that every year one side is your garden and the other side is their run. Then the next year you swap. That means all year they're making Awesome composted soil without ruining any crops. The next year you're planting your veggies in a years worth of composted manure.

You may want to research this a little. I saw something about it in chicken raising for dummies I think. Good luck!

 

[DangerChickenHouse]

I read somewhere that if you put chicken wire down on your garden bed and let the plans grow through the wire, that the chickens can not destroy them if they are established plants. But, the book also said that it would be good to give them something else to do when they were free ranging. For example, spread their feed all over the grass so they spend hours looking for food. It's suppose to also make them happy.

 

[zookeeper15133]

You can build a long narrow cage to fit between your rows. Put 1 or 2 in each day. They can't get to your garden plants but they will weed and eat bugs for you. Then every day or every other day move it over a row. I think there are plans on Mother Earth News.

 

[Ro-Ro-2]

I'm really APPRECIATING all this input folks!!!

BYC is the BEST!!!

I am entertaining and considering all your comments...very helpful indeed as I try to find a system that will work
for my particular situation

Keep'em coming

 

[Ro-Ro-2]

Quote:
Thank you for sharing this and I will look into it further!!!

FANTASTIC!!!

Aloha!