chicken run for the rows in garden - my idea w/ pics

[montcapu]

was wondering if anyone had any pics for a run that can be put in between the rows of my garden, I left plenty of space for my rototiller to manuever between the rows of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, so I was thinking today that maybe I could place a removable run between the rows so they could help me with the weeds and help fertilize, does anyone else do this?

 

[davidkjh]

Hmmm, Interesting idea! Might think about doing that next year. I don't have room this year. I would think you'd have to be on top of things though. Chickens don't care if it is a weed or your tomato plant.

Might have to use screening or a tight fencing.

 

[Im4dabirds]

I took an old bread rack and turned it on its side. Put chicken wire on the sides and doors on the top. Fits in the rows of my garden great, well, it did until the squash and cucumbers went crazy and covered it all!

Just has the chicks in it in this pic, but it would easily hold 2-3 chickens for scratching around in the garden.

 

[montcapu]

great pic.... was thinking about putting a small coop (nothing they will stay in but could get out of the heat or lay their eggs (if they had not yet) and have run attached to it that runs between the rows

 

[SpunkyTheMonkey]

someone pls correct me if i'm wrong but i thought having them poop (almost) directly on your plants is not good as the dropping are so acidic. it's only good for ferts once it's composted for some time in a compost bin with everything else (bedding, food scraps etc).

 

[pixie74943]

I remember something when I was looking at building my tractor. No idea where I found it, but it was a guy who had built his garden so the chickens could run all around the edges of the garden, kinda like a hedge maze except minus the confusion.

End of the story was, the chickens kept alot of weeds at bay, and the neighbours lost their garden to locusts (or some other kinda bug, dont really remember) and this guy just ended up with plump chickens

So that didnt tell you how to do it, But good idea

 

[rebbetzin]

I bet you could easily used some PVC pipe and some chicken wire to make a chicken run for the garden. It wouldn't have to be very tall or complicated. Here is a link to my PVC chicken tractor

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2315244#p2315244

 

[saddina]

Quote:
It was the chicken moat from mother earth news.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1988-05-01/Garden-Pest-Control.aspx

My coop is in the garden area, and can be slid next to the row, the run is 3x6, so it takes up 1/3 of the enclosed garden area (last owner used it as a 28x8 dog run, it has one serious gate, and I feel better with my birds behind the gate. So hens on the left, tomatoes on the right.

 

[rebbetzin]

Quote:
In small doses the poop doesn't seem to hurt the plants. In fact, it greens them up nicely when I dilute the poop with a stream of water.

 

[Agape Builder]

It is 6:24 am and 33 of my chicks have been running through my garden for an hour now (since I opened up the coop). Did I mention that my tomatoes are now about five feet tall, my corn is about 6' tall with tassles and corn, I can't keep up with my green beans, and my sugar snow peas are super sweet? That is by the beginning of June.

My chicks eat the weeds, but rarely touch a garden plant. I am just trying to quickly grow more chickens because these 33 cannot come close to keeping my weeds at bay. I need about a hundred more...

The biggest problem I have with the chickens in my garden is that they are sort of trampling down a bunch of my onions that I have planted in a bed. I should probably have put a short fence around them because whenever a plane goes overhead or somethin else scares them, they make a beeline dash across the onions and knock them all down.

They are exterminating the bugs in my garden, though, something that was my original purpose for the birds. Also, they are fertilizing everything great with all of that poop. Since it is spread out and I water or get rained on frequently, I am having no problem with the nitrogen burning anything. Rather, the opposite is true. The garden is exploding with the addition of the chickens!


P.S. - Remember, on the tomatoes, the chickens will eat a few of the leaves, but they can only reach a little ways up. A healthy tomato plant needs to have the bottom branches and leaves trimmed off anyways, so if the chickens eat a few of those here and there, it will actually be good for them. I wish that my chickens would eat more of my tomato leaves, because then it would save me the time of having to go out there and trim them myself. Instead, they want to eat more leaves and grass and scratch the ground for bugs in the leaves that I am using for mulch.