Will They Desroy The Garden?

[CovertS2]

I have heard that chicken love to poke around in gardens. Will they ruin the garden or make a small mess?

 

[spartacus_63]

Chickens do love to "Poke" around in the garden. It depends on how many you have if they destroy the garden or not, and at what stag your garden is. If you have young delicious plants, the ladies will strip you bare. With mature plants, they will just take the harvest. The will also dig in the nice soft dirt. I have box gardens in my run that I fence off until the plants start to bear and then let the girls have at them. They love it, but I would not recommend sharing your garden with them.

 

[hearts34]

You will want to fence around your garden. a couple lifetimes ago, I made alot of money as teenager taking games out for an elderly lady in the neighborhood after her husband died.
She said she always wanted nice flower beds, but never could because of her husband and his chickens.

I myself now much prefer the chickens!

 

[TwoCrows]

My chickens completely defoliated my garden in a matter of weeks. Down to the dirt. Even the roots got dug up from all the plants. Expect a moonscape after the chickens run thru your garden. LOL

 

[DangerChickenHouse]

My four hens have killed a tomato plant by their frequent dust baths and have eaten all of my spinach and lettuce. They don't focus on the garden, but they visit it at least once a day. I plan on fencing it in the next month to keep them out. I love my garden too much to let them destroy it.

 

[Jbrandt000]

YEP!. They will destroy your garden, your raspberry plants, your asparagus plants, and eat everything they don't tear up. Better than a garden tiller.

 

[ccrow]

Oh yeah, they will! My girls have been digging pits in my perennial bed, especially one bird. It is fenced, but the netting I used is short and I think I will have to put up something a bit taller, and use more bamboo poles so it's stiffer; I think she just walks up the netting!

I was chasing her out every time I saw her in there(waving a towel at her, lol) and she wasn't going in for a few days, but yesterday there were craters again.

 

[TheNewMrsEvans]

They aren't going to make you happy if you leave them in the garden full time. We allow them in the garden all winter, just prior to planting to help clear out the spring weeds, and again in the fall once we are done harvesting and everything is passed. They are good little tillers, bug eaters and weeders. I will also bring a few hens in with me for short "bugging" visits after the vegi plants are well established, but before there is any fruits on them. Chickens love tomatoes and berries!

I have seen setups where they use a rotational grazing on lawns. They have multiple runs surrounding the coop and only allow the chickens access to each for short periods. This way the grass has time to heal after their visit and they will have plenty to eat the next visit to that run.

 

[AutumnSol]

My chickens (5) are in my garden as I type this. I have not planted anything BUT I do have asparagus. I can only hope they don't dig enough to hurt it. It is way to early for the asparagus to start growing though. My garden is fenced and has a gate, which I had open for the geese. The chickens went in before I could close it. They are having so much fun I couldn't bear to run them out. I will put a small fence around where the asparagus is panted. Has anyone had them destroy asparagus that is buried deep?