run area inside veggie garden

[Wifezilla]

Beak, someone posted a link to a site last week that had chicken wire hoops between the rows that the chickens could run through. They kept the weed out from between the rows and ate the bugs but couldn't get to the plants. I can't find the link now though.

 

[al6517]

Quote:
You are right, chicken droppings are very hot and can burn seeds and seedlings very easy. I have a compost pile and when I apply it I do in moderation, just a sprinkle here and there just twice a yr.

 

[sundance]

mine won't eat rosemary, but everything else is gone in a flash marrie

 

[ssteiner]

I've yet to turn my girls loose in my vegetable garden, but their run is adjacent to it and they constantly nip at a pepper plant that grew just a little too close to it. And bok choy, wow! I throw them the occasional leaf and they go nuts! I can't imagine what they'd do if they had access. In the summer, most of my vegetable garden is corn, and I figure once it reaches 10 feet, I can turn the girls loose and they can't do too much damage.

-Scott

 

[Katzinthehat]

After reviewing all of the replies, most of them warning of disaster, it sounds like some glimmer of hope in the more recent replies.. we stumbled on an excelent solution to our housing issue this morning while seaching for a new site.instead of buying a pre-biult coop,were going , to convert an old wooden kid's play house into the coop. It already is raised on stilts, we just want to shorten them a bit, above an old sand box (the perfect floor for an out-door fenced-in area

! The (formerly) plastic covered roof will be replaced by shingles. and the 5' by 6' basic shape will have 4-5 nesting boxes added on to the 5' sides.

As for the garden,my family came up with this idea; instead of allowing full-time access, we will biuld and keep the coop away from the garden and let them in/around the garden when my mom is tending her vegies.


have a picture but couldn't figure out how to attach it

 

[Clay In Iowa]

Quote:
I LOVE it. Solves several problems at once. Deer , coons, possums in my garden. Gives the chickens a place to roam safely and keeps a lot of bugs at bay.

 

[BeccaOH]

Quote:
I LOVE it. Solves several problems at once. Deer , coons, possums in my garden. Gives the chickens a place to roam safely and keeps a lot of bugs at bay.

I've been considering the chicken moat around the garden even since before getting my chickens. I would really like to do it. I think it could help reduce my issue with moles and baby rabbits getting in through my fence. The main draw back would be the cost of the extra fencing.

 

[Poohbear]

You can build a small coop (small enough to carry) a hen with her biddies in. Have one end with slats the biddies can get in and out of and the hen is contained. Carry the box (coop) out to the garden and place it in the middle of the rows and the babies will run out and grab bugs that eat your garden. When they get full, tired or scared, they will run back to mother hen and hide in the coop with her. When I raised a large garden I had 10 of these coops I placed in the garden every morning bright and early. It was funny watching the babies chase grasshoppers and catching large tomatoe worms too big for them. Raised some good chemical free garden items too. Tomatoe, greens, corn squash, okra amoung many other things. No bugs, no problems!!!!!!

 

[swampwander]

I square foot veggie garden and the veggie garden is fenced by four foot fencing which is loose at the top so nothing likes to land on it because it is wobbly. Last night I came home to a veggie garden massacre. Don't know how the BO's got in,they can't even fly to the top of their roost and need steps but they were freaking out when I got home because it was time to roost and they couldn't get out. I opened the gate and they ran to bed. I then surveyed my damages. Lost an entire box of beets and celery, 1/2 a box of spinach and carrots, 1/2 of my kale, the cauliflower looks like skeletons, all my 'nearly' ripe tomatoes are gone and so on. From my perspective, with my big girls, I'd make every effort to seal them away from that which you are growing for yourself.

However, the little OEG's I have aren't a problem in the garden, in general. They don't move as much dirt as the six BO's and don't eat as much. If I have a box that is newly seeded and I don't want the OEG's to spoil it, I cover it with chicken wire until the plants are up enough to make it. My BO's can rototill a 10 inch deep box in a very short amount of time. Even with the OEG's patroling, I still get some bugs. Primarily beetles that are distasteful to the birds like stink bugs.