Official BYC Poll: How Do You Chicken-Proof Your Garden?

[maceleneo]

My yard looks more like a zoo for plants. Your country has some beautiful olive groves and gardens.

I would love to see some pictures of your yard!
I bet there are a lot of plants I don't know!

 

[K0k0shka]

My chickens have free reign of the garden in the off-season, which over here lasts 9 months Plenty of time for them to get it out of their systems. I plant winter greens for them that stay green throughout the winter (yes even in Boston under deep snow), so they have something to snack on. June to September they are not allowed in the garden though.

 

[TropicalBabies]

thanks for pointing this out. chickens used to eat only the leaves and as far as I know the only toxic part are roots. I never noticed signs of intoxication! anyway, since I love my irises, I raised the fence and they are safe now (both irises and chickens!)!View attachment 2706977

This is just magazine gorgeous!
I have a slope that I need to tackle and I am going to use your photo as inspiration. Hope you don't mind. Beautiful, flowing without overworking. Just heaven. Love the materials and the fuzzy model ♡ Bravo!

 

[lizziemae]

I have a raised garden bed with chicken wire 4' high around the sides. Keeps the chickens out, but more importantly, in my opinion, the deer and rabbits.

I recently had someone erect a four foot high wire fence around the area where my raised beds are. Before that the chickens were constantly digging and throwing the soil out. I was having to replace soil amendment and soil every couple of days. Unfortunately I have one hen that continues to fly over the fence. So now I'm still trying to protect the beds. I installed hoops on one, covered the lower part with chicken wire and then put down cat scat around the plants. So far so good on that bed. I enclosed smaller beds using those outdoor dog exercise enclosures. Those secure the beds very well but make it really hard to harvest crops. Before this the hens kept eating the rhubarb leaves which are toxic. They absolutely love them. Aside from the vegetable beds the hens have pretty much demolished my flowers and any shrubs that are not already well established due to constant digging. They ate all my hostas. parsley and some other pants. I've had to move all my containers to the front yard because I couldn't keep them from digging the soil out and that killed most of my new plants. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has better ideas because sometimes I feel like I'm running around doing damage control all day.

 

[lizziemae]

My chickens have their own penned area to terrorize, and I am planting plants and herbs in their area too, but will manage it so they can't scratch up the roots.

So, how will you prevent them from scratching up the roots? I've tried putting rocks around the newer plant but that's only a temporary fix. They manage to kick them aside eventually. I put rings of chicken wire around some plants and that seems to work better but it's not very attractive and doesn't work well if plants are close together. I'm at a loss here but I don't want to confine the little guys,.

 

[Ascholten]

One thing that I have done that seemed to work a little bit, I put burlap coffee sacks down as a ground cover around the plants. They can't dig thru the burlap so it helps for a month or three until the bag composts then I get another one and repeat.

Ive also found that a thick layer of grass or leaf mulch seems to turn them off, I guess it does not look as yummy as fresh dirt as far as oh gee crickets!!! dig dig dig to them. THen again maybe I just am too noob and have not had by best laid plans dashed against the intestines of hope by a hungry chicken either

Aaron

 

[BDutch]

I recently had someone erect a four foot high wire fence around the area where my raised beds are. Before that the chickens were constantly digging and throwing the soil out. I was having to replace soil amendment and soil every couple of days. Unfortunately I have one hen that continues to fly over the fence. So now I'm still trying to protect the beds. I installed hoops on one, covered the lower part with chicken wire and then put down cat scat around the plants. So far so good on that bed. I enclosed smaller beds using those outdoor dog exercise enclosures. Those secure the beds very well but make it really hard to harvest crops. Before this the hens kept eating the rhubarb leaves which are toxic. They absolutely love them. Aside from the vegetable beds the hens have pretty much demolished my flowers and any shrubs that are not already well established due to constant digging. They ate all my hostas. parsley and some other pants. I've had to move all my containers to the front yard because I couldn't keep them from digging the soil out and that killed most of my new plants. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has better ideas because sometimes I feel like I'm running around doing damage control all day.

Make a run big enough for them where they can be locked in 24/7. Or make a ‘run’ around the veggie garden and choose plants they don’t like for the decor garden.

 

[Ascholten]

and choose plants they don’t like

So you put plastic plants in your garden?

Aaron

 

[BDutch]

So you put plastic plants in your garden?

Aaron

No way! I prefer the real thing and if possible organic.
The chickens don’t like our (not sure if by google translate translated correctly): butterfly bush, laurel, tulips, magnolia, iris, lily, thyme, chives, (grape) hyacinths, jackfruit, narcissus, rose, cotoneaster, marigolds, hydrangea, phlox, cranesbill…

 

[PioneerChicks]

So, how will you prevent them from scratching up the roots? I've tried putting rocks around the newer plant but that's only a temporary fix. They manage to kick them aside eventually. I put rings of chicken wire around some plants and that seems to work better but it's not very attractive and doesn't work well if plants are close together. I'm at a loss here but I don't want to confine the little guys,.

Mine are confined away from the garden and yard plants so they can't tear those up. But if they try scratching up fruit trees we put bricks around the base. I'm not sure what they're called, but we also use the black ground tarps.

As for the chicken garden, well, I want to do a grazing box. It's a wooden frame with wire over the top. Google it and you'll see what I mean. I'll also probably do some wire around them. I don't have many plans beyond that because I'm new to chicken gardens.

I recommend the book Gardening With Chickens by Lisa Steele. I started it, I didn't finish due to an overabundance of books, but it seemed really good and I like Lisa's other books.

Good luck!