chickens and veggies?

[Corris]

We had no garden, and got the chickens first, so I have been letting them out of their (rather substantial) run every day and they have kept to the confines of ours (and next doors) gardens whilst we've been digging and clearing. Very happily actually.

Now I find myself, this very morning, about to plant my first things - broad beans (Hope I'm about right with the timing?).

Now, history tells me that they will all six be digging around my feet - so I need to leave them in don't I?

Will they dig them up after? Or can I let them out once my beans are in the ground?

And what on earth do I do now? My tree feller last week said he went to university with someone who allowed hers free range of her vege patch because they ate the slugs and snails - how did she manage that? Mine eat everything that's not dead already! I had very few flowers in the garden, but I swear they've had most of them away, including the poppies.

[chris]

Mine demolished my broadies. Infact, anything green (including tomatoes, aubergines and potatoes). If you don't want them to get to your veg you'll either have to confine them to the run if there is enough space or fence off your veg/fruit

I'll give you an idea of how fast they work:

I've 9 raspberry canes - about 7' tall, the lower half of them was stripped bare... plus I've 2 4' wide currant bushes, about 3' tall, completely stripped, and a massive blackberry bush - bare all part one really tall vine. This was done in a day.

I'll be moving them at some point, was a bit annoyed at the currants as it was my first year with a massive crop (of which I got 100g). They're greedy and will munch anything that takes their fancy. Ended up washing their bums for a couple of days as they did have the runs!

On the plus side, the yolks were extremely deep orange and lovely and gooey thick !

[Corris]

Thanks Chris - I knew they had to stay in now, I just felt really mean, and have no idea how this woman would have kept her garden growing and her chickens loose - currently they are all marching around the perimeter of the run looking for holes in the chainlink.

The run is plenty big enough - the shed is 8 x 10 or something, and the run is about 40 x 30 - I only have six chickens.

[Two_Sheds]

You have to either fence your chickens in, or fence your veg in.

[angelat]

I have a small veggie patch and only two free ranging chickens but I tend to make a temporary fence around my patch with posts and chicken wire or netting while i have veg in there but when the season has finished then i demantle my makeshift fence and let them roam all winter on it as they work on the soil and make it really fine and also find lovely slugs etc. in summer i tend to have a lot of hanging baskets!!! they never get them! and plant summer flowers in pots that i keep on a wall. i have planted spring bulbs last autumn and to protect the bulbs i put netting over that keeps them protected. i patch my grass up every year and generally keep on top of the garden in all seasons by sweeping hosing etc. it can work,chickens and nice gardens but you have to work at it!!

[RichmondHens]

You have to either fence your chickens in, or fence your veg in.

Agree. We fence the veg in. Then when we let chickens out (or they escape), which isn't all the time as they have huge enclosures by most standards we don't have to worry about the veg. The veg are actually fenced off against rabbits, the chickens could easily fly into the veg patch if they wanted, fortunately they don't bother.

[veggiechicken]

You called??

[kathyd]

Hi Corris

Oh the joys of chicken keeping you don't think about until it's too late eh? . I have 7 birds and they also have a huge run, but I do like to let them out to free range when I'm around to keep an eye on them. They've been banned from the veggie patch until the past couple of weeks while we're in there digging, and now they screech every day until I let them out to join us. They've actually been fine with the bigger plants - they've been scratching between the leeks and the strawberries, and they don't seem bothered by the onions and garlic either - but I've covered the asparagus bed with fleece because of the shallow roots. I also cover the broad beans with fleece because they like young leaves. In the polytunnel they've completely ignored the big caulis, but have bitten holes in all my baby cabbages and left bits of leaf all over the place. I suppose I'm resigned to having to re-plant a few things if they happen to dig them up, and in the spring once everything's planted up, they'll be shut out of the tunnel and I'll use netting outside like angelat to make temporary fences around places I don't want them to go - which may well end up as the whole patch if they get too destructive!