Question about hens, insects and vegetable gardens.

[hoovert]

I've read a lot about how good chickens are at keeping the bug-level down - how safe is it to allow hens to access to your vegetable garden? What if I'm only growing pumpkin, cucumber and tomato? Has anyone had success in keeping an open garden?

 

[7L Farm]

No, You will need a fence around your garden. I have three gardens & a 4 ft tall wire fence around them. The only thing my chickens won't destroy are onions.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

To a chicken, the world is its salad bowl, and everything beneath that is its dust bathtub. Any plants in your garden the chickens wouldn't destroy by pecking would soon be uprooted when they scratch out craters with their big dinosaur feet.

 

[Pinky]

Quote:

Well said, and sort of poetic.

 

[annep]

Mine will go crazy, and have scratched up half my garden..Had to replant...Now, if they get in there, they get the hose, and they dont like it!

 

[aggie9296]

Keep the garden fenced. And they are not always the glorious bug eaters they claim to be. I pulled some garden bug off a tomato plant and gave it to them. They just looked at it like it needed ketchup or something.

 

[Orchid]

Quote:

 

[Rennie]

I planted some peas today and within 20 seconds of planting the first shoot it was uprooted ... it took a bit of effort to get 12 plants in and cover it with a chicken in the mix

I too am planting pumpkins and other veg this year and was hoping that they would control the bugs, Guess this idea is not going to happen

 

[7L Farm]

My coop & run is close to my garden. I was thinking about extending my run all the way around my garden to keep the bugs away.