flower garden protection

[Emily's mom]

Spring is just around the corner and the flower gardens will soon start to grow.

My problem is my sweet little chickens that I love, we let them out of their pen for the afternoon after most of the eggs have been laid, last year they made tossed hosta salad with all my hosta as they came up. So my husband said they must stay in their pen and were alowed out just before dark to fly around and scratch and stretch.

Would covering the ground with chicken wire before the plants start to come up prevent the little "gardeners" from digging up the new plants. Or fence in all my gardens....any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks

Any plants that they will leave alone?

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Oh my, you have a problem. I don't think laying down wire would help, as they would just eat hte new green popping up. Unfortunately, I think your only solution is keeping them confined. Could you make a portable pen out of PVC pipe? It is easy to assemble and you could cover it with wire, then move it around the yard so they could scratch. Or, give them a flake of alfalfa or hay to play in during the day in their pen.

They are hatched to excavate, and I don't think there is much you can do about it.

 

[jayne]

Well, I couldn't stand the thought of them never getting out of their pen to eat grass and bugs again. So, while it doesn't look quite as nice, I fenced off my flower beds and vegetable garden from them. It doesn't take much to discourage them, so I got some cheap chicken wire that is about three feet tall and put it around the area with some re-bar pieces as the posts threaded through the chickenwire about every 6 feet or so. It doesn't sound too pretty, but truly, from about 10 feet away you can hardly see it, and definitely not from the road or driveway.

Now the vegetable garden needs big protection too, so we put a T-post in each corner and one more along the long way, then got some deer/bird netting for something like $10 at Lowe's and used zip ties to attach it to the t-posts. The 100 foot length was just enough to go around. We wrapped the end of it around a stake and use that at the corner as our 'door' that we hold in place with other loose zip tie that we slip down over the Tpost and the stake to hold it up in place.

Once the chickens know they can't get in those areas, they pretty much stay out of the area. They do check, however, because once I left the 'door' to the garden open to go do something and those little peckers got in there behind my back!! Good thing I love those darn girls so much!!

Jayne

 

[Emily's mom]

Jayne, if you are still here.....does the flower garden have a top so they can not fly in or just sides.

 

[Pepipony]

I miss all my lil peckers running around

When I had them I couldnt have any plants, even my patio set had to be set onto pavers because they dug pits around it, making it all fall in LOL You will have to fence off your area, at least 4' high, and even then you may have some jumpers. But even then you can 'train' them not to fly in by REALLY chasing them out, dont laugh, it works LOL I trained mine not to get onto my patio furniture by doing just that. I just couldnt stop the lil peckers from digging LOL

 

[jayne]

Sheesh, I'm probably in here 10 times a day, so I'd be happy to answer a follow-up question! So far I've only needed the sides. My girls are all big and fat, so they really can't get much off the ground, and the two banties haven't been in there yet. I would say the chicken wire fence by the flowers is about three feet tall, and the netting around my garden is probably 4 feet tall. Maybe because there are so many other good things to dig in and eat (horse manure, the compost pile, the neighbor's garden!) they are easily distracted away from the things I want them to stay out of.

Here is a picture of most of my hens. Darn little peckers, but we just love them!

 

[Emily's mom]

Jayne, thanks for the help, your ladies are lovely

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Those are gorgeous girls! Can hardly wait till we can have some again.

We had to have a top on our pen, as raptors would fly in and carry them off. Also had a bobcat climb up the side of the fence. You don't need a top to keep the girls in, just to keep the bad guys out.

Heavy breeds cannot get off the ground much, but leghorns can.

I had a short 2 foot high fence around my "civilized" yard in NM. It was to keep the rabbits out. The girls would jump to the top and eye all the possibilities. My austrailian shepherd let me know, and she would chase them out. They were good friends, so I think they both enjoyed the little game. She used to lay by their pen and they would "groom" her.

 

[Sterling]

I hear you loud and clear! Been there done that...and some of the advice given is good. But don't discount your hubby's idea either. He has a point. The later you let your birds out the closer they seem to stay to their coop. I have done that in the past as well...like about an hour or half an hour just before the sun sets, I open the door and let them out...they know they have free range and yet they seem to know they should not wander too far as the predators will be strolling by once it gets dark and so they stay close. Keeps my beds and gardens from being picked at as well.

Oh a couple of years ago I had a really nice little potted Impatients plant. They stripped it of all the flowers. Someone on the forum (I believe it was Cooperminis?) told me to leave it be and it would come back bigger and better. Well he was right....it was as if someone pruned the bush because when the flowers came back it was so much prettier!

 

[Emily's mom]

Sterling....I remember your poor impatients plant you showed it after the nibbling and later when it came back beautiful....sorry it happened but it turned out lovely!