Planting a garden in chicken land.

[1stepcloser]

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[flgardengirl]

I have vegetable gardens and extensive flower beds and gobs of tropical/subtropical potted plants, flowers, fruit trees, vines etc. Here in FL there are lots of poisonous plants like sago palms (the seeds are poisonous), philodendron etc. etc. Plus, alot of the flowers I grow are supposed to be poisonous to chickens. My chickens have never been interested in eating the poisonous stuff. They do like to scratch and uproot everything though. The veggie garden is a different matter they will eat the fruits off of the plants as well as scratch around uprooting everything. I have them fenced in not free range. I let them free range a little from time to time but only under close supervision because we have tons of hawks and eagles that would get them during the day. Every afternoon I see several eagles circling around. I think they try to eat other birds and squirrels. I had an eagle try to get my pomeranian once too, so I know they would love chicken dinner.

 

[riftnreef]

Works out well for me...I will be getting some post hole diggers and putting in 4x4 post with some chicken wire. I had a wonderful garden last year until the dogs got in it...they used my corn for a maze to chase each other around in...then they figured out they could chew down the stalks and play tug-a-war with it. My smallest wonder mutt learned to pull the gourds off and he used them for play balls...not to mention my lab LOVES green tomatoes! My coop is very close to the garden, so with some luck they can catch the bugs comming and going...and it will be ease to clean out the run in the fall and just toss it on the garden bed...

 

[easttxchick]

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Boys howdy ain't that the truth! We just finally let them have the Swiss Chard. Mine also ate the bottoms out of my squash and zuchini(we'd think we had a beautiful squash, pick it up and lo and behold...beak marks!) they also developed a taste for my beautiful yellow tomatoes.

Can't let them get near anything you aren't willing to sacrifice!

 

[stephhassler]

Chickens are gardens don't mix. That being said, it is a great idea to have the garden near the chickens - so long is the garden or the chickens are fenced. In the fall, you can either open the garden and let the chickens in, or throw all the stuff left in your garden outside the fence for the chickens to pick through. Also, having the garden close to the chickens makes it easier to apply chicken poo as fertilizer.

 

[Imprfctme]

Hiya, I'm looking at the same thing for this spring. It'll be my first year with a garden and chickens. I've already watched them demolish the rhubarb down to the nub, which I thought was supposed to be poisonous? They also ate all the raspberry leaves they could get their beaks on. We have deer fencing around the vegetable garden that we were planning on "roofing" to keep out the dang squirrels but right now nothing around the herb area and the pumpkin mounds. I guess my question is are there any flowers/veg I should really try to avoid as they could cause harm? Any nice looking flowers they won't bother to munch on? I don't let them out too much since we have hawks, GH owls, etc but they do free range for a bit every day. Thanks, Heather

 

[AZ_HenHouse]

I have a 25 foot by 25 foot garden that has a 4 foot by 25 foot run attached to one end. The girls are allowed to free range for several hours every day. (basically daytime hours as long as we are home) Although they did eat a few zuchini and sun flowers among other things, I made sure that I planted enough that it was ok for them to "share". We planted honeydew (and watermelon and cantaloupe and other things) seeds from the honeydew we ate. We definitly overplanted. The chickens helped with the thinning of the seedlings but left enough plants to grow and produce goodies.

 

[Mattemma]

I use plastic fencing with bamboo poles and zip ties. I fence in the areas I want hen free until fall when I let them clean up the garden.Zip ties are cheap,so I just cut them off and take down the fence when I am ready for the chicken invasion.Lol,if my chickens see a shovel in my hand they come running,because they know there will be plenty of worms for them as I till the soil!

 

[abbylane35]

I used to let my old flock free range it all of the time...my old garden was not safe! Although the chickens did do a great job keeping the weeds (and some of my perennials) at bay in my flower garden. Unfortunately, something killed my old flock, so I started new this spring.

These chickens have a pen to be in. My garden was lovely this year without the "helpers" expecting to be out all of the time. I started letting them out of their pen in the fall, and they enjoyed perusing the leftovers in the garden and in the orchard... This year I will let them out of their pen in the spring, keep them in their pen for the summer months, and them let them roam free again in the fall... I also have some ducks now (newly acquired)...but they will have their own area once winter is over...I have always had a terrible time with ducks "wandering" too far!

Good luck!

 

[urban escapee]

I am planning on doing this, as things progress, thought it was a great idea and will move my garden from the backyard (DH doesnt like it there)

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/silveira44a.html