Chickens as Vegetable Garden Helpers

[Iluveggers]

We built my coop & run a few feet away from our vegetable garden so we could utilize the chickens in the garden. Right now, I am letting the girls go everywhere except in my winter kale patch & my newly planted garlic (a few have sprouted and I caught someone taking a bite off the sprout).

How do you utilize your chickens in your garden? I am thinking this might be trickier when I have seedlings planted throughout. I have a few 6in high boxes, and the rest is planted in rows. The garden itself has a 6ft high fence.

So far they are gleaning my spent brassicas, eating weeds, and finding bugs, which is exactly what I was hoping. I would like to fence off areas I don’t want them in, but I don’t want to ruin the ambiance of the garden. Lol.

We consider the garden an extension of the run, and don’t let the chickens in the rest of the yard because of our dogs.

I’m very curious to hear how you all protect your plants but put your flock to work for maximum veggie production!

 

[nuthatched]

They'll eat everything that they'll have access to, yoy can fence of the sections but thats alot of extra work and fencing. maybe just let them in there in the winter to fertilize.

 

[Sally PB]

I would like to fence off areas I don’t want them in, but I don’t want to ruin the ambiance of the garden.

This idea might work for next season: Put the plants that will be there this time of year (like garlic) in one section of the garden, so you can fence that part off. A chicken part, and a non-chicken part, so to speak. Then the next year, have the chicken part in a different area so they can work/fertilize/clean up that soil.

For a temporary fence, I use my regular 4' tall, 2x3 welded wire fence. I have long metal poles that I weave through the fence and push into the ground to hold it in place. I do this around my small fruit trees to keep the deer from reaching them to browse on.

I can't let my chickens into my garden, alas. They are too far away from it, and would totally FREAK if I tried to catch them to move them there.

 

[Iluveggers]

This idea might work for next season: Put the plants that will be there this time of year (like garlic) in one section of the garden, so you can fence that part off. A chicken part, and a non-chicken part, so to speak. Then the next year, have the chicken part in a different area so they can work/fertilize/clean up that soil.

For a temporary fence, I use my regular 4' tall, 2x3 welded wire fence. I have long metal poles that I weave through the fence and push into the ground to hold it in place. I do this around my small fruit trees to keep the deer from reaching them to browse on.

I can't let my chickens into my garden, alas. They are too far away from it, and would totally FREAK if I tried to catch them to move them there.

I like this idea! Maybe I can figure out how to do something similar…or even access to 1/3 at a time!

 

[AnnPann]

I let mine have free range of the garden when I’m out there working (to monitor for predators). Their main run is attached to the garden (which is fenced). I have a way to keep them fenced in their own run during times I don’t want them meddling (like planting season). I planted extra, knowing they’ll trample some plants and will steal some produce.

When I planted something late in the season, I put a “cage” I made out of PVC and chicken wire over the seedlings/seeds to keep them out until the plants were established. If you have whole beds you need to keep them temporarily out of, you could use some moveable poultry fencing (the kind with the step-in posts).

I had 7 hens helping me this past summer and it was great. It was not the disaster I expected - I don’t think I lost a single plant to them. I really enjoyed their company while I worked, and they did a decent job eating bugs and grubs. They refused to eat cucumber beetles or squash bugs which was disappointing.

 

[Isadora]

I only let the chickens in the garden if the season is over. They enjoy going through and finding all kinds of leftovers to eat and I don't have to worry or go through the extra work of protecting any plants.

 

[Mrs. K]

I the time it takes to tell your mother on the phone that the chickens are out and in the garden, they can tear the whole thing apart. They truly love newly turned soil, and care not a Witt of freshly planted seedlings.

Mine are fenced in or fenced out.