Topic of the Week - Gardening with Chickens

[Bogtown Chick]

I personally like holding each one.

 

[guinealeghorn]

My chickens won't touch carrot peels when I have tried to put them in. They probably would, however, eat the tops. We haven't planted our garden since letting the chickens free-range. I have guinea hens and leghorns. My guineas love anything green, so I am probably going to have problems. The white leghorns will probably eat the seeds.

 

[rosemarythyme]

My set up has the chicken coop inside one run, and garden beds in a second run There's a door between the two so I can let the chickens in and out of the garden area as I please.




- How do you chicken proof your garden?

I wrapped chicken wire around the off-limit garden beds. The nice thing about it is it's easy to remove when needed.

- What plants do chickens not eat?

They seem interested in almost everything. Mine eat the grass in the run, whatever willow leaves they can reach, and of course any kale, broccoli, chard greens within reach!

- Composting with chickens?

I don't actively compost but I toss some grass clippings and thinned out vegetable starts or leaves into my unused garden beds. The chickens happily jump in there and mix it all around for me.

I'm also leaving any willow leaves that fall into the run now that it's fall and rainy. The leaves seem to help with drainage, so I don't get mud puddles in the run, and they'll eventually compost down.

 

[Trish1974]

This is such a nice idea. I've been want to do it with my 7 chicks. But my challenge is: how do I get the chicks inside the
cage without grabbing each one of them? Do you have to grab them one by one each time when you move it or do you have a trick? Thanks!

It was about a two week training process. My plan was to butt one end of the tractor/pen right up to their run, cutting corresponding holes for them to walk in and out.

I knew they would be afraid of the pen at first, so after I built it I slid it up to their run and let it sit there for a few days, then I would slide it around a little bit in front of them for a few more days, then after a week I cut a section of their run fence out and butted the end of the tractor up against it (tractor door open). I kept it opened and let them go in and out on their own free will for a couple more days. When I thought we were ready to go for our first ride I lured them into the far end of the tractor with sunflower seeds or mealworms, then closed the tractor gate at the run, and slowly started to drag them away. It only took about 3 times of luring them into the far end with treats while I closed the gate. After that they knew they were headed to good eats so they run in and wait for me as soon as they see me headed in that direction. Its quite humorous!

 

[flyin-lowe]

This was my first year with chickens and with a garden. Fortunately for me my chickens didn't pay any attention to my garden as it is 75 yards or so from their coop, on the other side of my driveway. They didn't venture over that way too often.

I also did a deep litter method this year in my coop. I started it this spring with a few inches of pine shavings. Then after that I would put in dried leave, grass clippings, and some straw from time to time when it needed added to. I let it build up all summer and then in October I tilled my garden real good and then spread the litter from my coop over the garden. I know have fresh litter going into the winter and plan to clean again next spring and again add it to the garden. Then come planting time I will till it real good and start planting. I'm new to all this but so far the "compost" from the coop looked like good stuff.

 

[hommie]

Those mealworms are good trainer. I used them to train my RIRs. I free range but at night put them in. I started training early. Now 2 years later all I have to do is call and they come a running! I give them what I call their Sunday Salad. Yogurt spinach shedder carrots girt and scraps from veggie were having for Sunday dinner. You should seem when I carry out the bowl! Piranha chickens!

 

[tarahharlin]

- How do you chicken proof your garden (I.e. minimise damage done to plants etc by free rangers)?
- What plants do chickens not eat?
I think the main thing is the size of your property and how many chickens you plan to free range. We are on 1/4 acre in the city and we have 7 hens, which I feel the 7-8 is a good amount for us to have without total destruction, or without having to totally keep them confined to their own area. We do have the back corner of our yard fenced off for them though. This is their area and we only keep them back here if we need to keep them separated from the main yard for whatever reason. In their area, I have planted a butterfly bush, bamboo (which they do nibble on), catnip, mint and lemon balm around their coop. So far they have left most of these alone, but I sometimes I find that it varies from year to year. One year, they devoured all of the lemon balm and this year they left it alone. During the spring when all of our perennials are first coming in, we will still let them free range in the yard, but they will also spend a little more time in their own area, just to help the plants get established. Most of our perennial plants that we have planted are pretty tough and can withstand a beating from their mini dino feet though. I never really have any issue with them eating any of the plants, but as we all know, they do love to scratch around the roots, so I do put a lot of rocks around the bases of plants. We have grapevines planted and they do love to eat off of those and we do plant sunflowers for them and the birds. They love jumping up to eat the seeds! In the fall, I notice them nibbling some of the seed heads from the the grasses that we have planted too.



For our veggie garden, we have raised garden beds and if not fenced off, they will devour any greens growing in here. So, my husband cut cattle panel fencing to fit around the raised beds. It works great because it can so easily be lifted up and removed if necessary and it's not hard to reach over. It also keeps the ladies out. I will find them nibbling on leaves that hang out the side of the fencing, but that's fine by me.



This was before we had the raised beds fenced off. Here we have Nana who found herself a tasty treat!



Henny Penny enjoying the sunflowers. Sunflowers seem to really keep them entertained!



The Hennie's enjoying their grass time.



- Composting with chickens?
I don't do the deep litter method because our coop is too small, so it doesn't work properly. However, we do have compost bins that we use for composting their manure and pine shavings along with other yard and kitchen waste.

 

[6littlegirls]

I have two compost set up. One I have for my garden and one I setup for the girls. They love digging through it. They also have 3/4 of an acrea of raw forest land which is fenced in. They love to dig around the roots of trees. Thry have saved me from having to cut the tall grass and showed me the wild blueberries that where growing on my property which they love to eat. So I would pick and they would follow and help themselves. They also love ants and their eggs which they found and destroyed a plus for me.
I have planted some winter wheat and rye grass on the property so in the spring they will have some grass to feast on. My place also becomes loaded in dandelions which they love to eat.

They love to follow me and my shovel when I am working the ground. They know there are great treats under the soil for them. I had to fence the main garden area off as they had a tendency to throw the soil out of the raised bed.
They are great little helpers.

 

[harmesonfarm]

- How do you chicken proof your garden (I.e. minimise damage done to plants etc by free rangers)?
- What plants do chickens not eat?
I think the main thing is the size of your property and how many chickens you plan to free range. We are on 1/4 acre in the city and we have 7 hens, which I feel the 7-8 is a good amount for us to have without total destruction, or without having to totally keep them confined to their own area. We do have the back corner of our yard fenced off for them though. This is their area and we only keep them back here if we need to keep them separated from the main yard for whatever reason. In their area, I have planted a butterfly bush, bamboo (which they do nibble on), catnip, mint and lemon balm around their coop. So far they have left most of these alone, but I sometimes I find that it varies from year to year. One year, they devoured all of the lemon balm and this year they left it alone. During the spring when all of our perennials are first coming in, we will still let them free range in the yard, but they will also spend a little more time in their own area, just to help the plants get established. Most of our perennial plants that we have planted are pretty tough and can withstand a beating from their mini dino feet though. I never really have any issue with them eating any of the plants, but as we all know, they do love to scratch around the roots, so I do put a lot of rocks around the bases of plants. We have grapevines planted and they do love to eat off of those and we do plant sunflowers for them and the birds. They love jumping up to eat the seeds! In the fall, I notice them nibbling some of the seed heads from the the grasses that we have planted too.



For our veggie garden, we have raised garden beds and if not fenced off, they will devour any greens growing in here. So, my husband cut cattle panel fencing to fit around the raised beds. It works great because it can so easily be lifted up and removed if necessary and it's not hard to reach over. It also keeps the ladies out. I will find them nibbling on leaves that hang out the side of the fencing, but that's fine by me.



This was before we had the raised beds fenced off. Here we have Nana who found herself a tasty treat!



Henny Penny enjoying the sunflowers. Sunflowers seem to really keep them entertained!



The Hennie's enjoying their grass time.



- Composting with chickens?
I don't do the deep litter method because our coop is too small, so it doesn't work properly. However, we do have compost bins that we use for composting their manure and pine shavings along with other yard and kitchen waste.

what a beautiful set up you have!!

Lovely

 

[harmesonfarm]

I have two compost set up. One I have for my garden and one I setup for the girls. They love digging through it. They also have 3/4 of an acrea of raw forest land which is fenced in. They love to dig around the roots of trees. Thry have saved me from having to cut the tall grass and showed me the wild blueberries that where growing on my property which they love to eat. So I would pick and they would follow and help themselves. They also love ants and their eggs which they found and destroyed a plus for me.
I have planted some winter wheat and rye grass on the property so in the spring they will have some grass to feast on. My place also becomes loaded in dandelions which they love to eat.

They love to follow me and my shovel when I am working the ground. They know there are great treats under the soil for them. I had to fence the main garden area off as they had a tendency to throw the soil out of the raised bed.
They are great little helpers.

Our chickens sound about the same!!
we ended up fencing off our main garden area as well, as they head straight there otherwise and leave us with a pile of vegetables uprooted and nibbled. Our yard is also covered in "weeds" which I call the chicken salad bar

I'm harbouring the many diverse plants like dandelion, chickweed, wild geranium, peat moss, sweet grass, mustard, wheat, yarrow, tansy, chicory, wild carrot, white clover, red clover, vetch, daisies, etc.

I love that the salad greens for them, also benefit all the wild insects (especially when they flower). In turn, the chickens eat the little buggies they leave in the fall and their eggs. It's a wonderful cycle!