Questions on Chickens and gardens...

[Bec]

Hello All!!

I have my 7 buff Orp. girls and latley they have been out and about on nice days. They found the garden a few days ago. We have smaller plants in there...Tomatoes, corn, peppers, onions. We just planted them about 2 weeks ago. They dont seem to go after the plants them selves, but they are scratching at the roots. My question is...will they eventually eat the plants and/or dig them up? Or are they just scratching around for the bugs and dirt? I am curious to see what their intentions are....

We have a sprinkler in the center of the garden and we have been surprising them with it when we see them in there. It seems to work so far. When someone says "Girls in the Garden!" we turn it on and they run...is this bad?

If it comes down to it, I have no problem putting maybe some wire up to keep them out, though I would rather not.

 

[Pakalana]

My experience last year was they liked to eat the squashes (pumpkin, zukes, etc), tomatoes and the sweet peppers. I didn't really mind that, they usually stuck to a couple, what I did have a problem with is that they dug around the tomatoe roots, tomatoes don't like this at all!

I do hilled/raised beds, so the dirt there always stayed nice and fluffy. The sides were perfect for dust baths. I've put a fence up (mine just waited on the sidelines for the water to stop and would get back in). I'm putting up a fence this year and will let them in for a short time if I see my bug population going up.