Will my chickens destroy my vegetable garden?

[mistymeadowchicks]

Quote:

Most definitely.

X 3!!

I let my chickens into the garden at the end of the season & watched them "jump" to snatch tomatoes, peppers & herb seeds. They rendered the remaining greens & lettuce a bed of stems & dug up the garlic bulbs. And I'm sure they would "till under" any vegetable seedlings, just like they do weeds. Chickens & gardens are best kept separated, IMHO! '

'

 

[Denninmi]

Just stop thinking of it as a vegetable garden, and start thinking of it as a giant salad bar for chickens. Viola, problem solved.

Well, not so much, but you get the gist of it.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Yea, you're gonna need a fence. Our local Lowes sells these 3' wide, 3' tall fence panels that slip together and you could buy a bunch of those and make a fence around your garden to try and keep them out.

 

[NonnasBabies]

Fence definetly!!! I had to do that last year!! Every once in a while one will get in there but for the most part they stay out!!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

You can fence the garden in or the birds out because there is no way they are going to coexist.

 

[elizabethbinary]

How do none of y'all have fence hoppers?! I had to put a fricken ROOF (made of chicken wire so sun could get in) on my veggie garden because the little girls were DETERMINED.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
My birds are too fat and lazy to hop the fence into the gardens... that said, they also have about 1 acre of cleared area that is not the garden to plumage. Guess the desire is not high enough to warrant jumping. Now if I leave a gap by the door, they will ALL be in it.

 

[ih66series]

Yes, your chickens will love that garden more than you will. It will need to be fenced.

 

[LovinMyPeeps]

4' garden fencing, LF fat happy chickens and you'll be fine.

 

[elizabethbinary]

Quote:
My birds are too fat and lazy to hop the fence into the gardens... that said, they also have about 1 acre of cleared area that is not the garden to plumage. Guess the desire is not high enough to warrant jumping. Now if I leave a gap by the door, they will ALL be in it.

My birds are fat but not lazy!! They've jumped 6' fences to get into the neighbours lillipilli tree and eat all his berries!! Thank goodness the neighbour had no idea that tree was edible!

Maybe I just have some really fricken determined little birds.... (I feed them enough....)