Keeping chickens out of your garden beds

NHGardener 3/5/2011, 12:00 pm

I don't know if a lot of people have this problem, but I'm thinking my free-rangers are going to look at my newly seeded, painstakingly prepared SFG boxes and think: OOOOH!!! DUST BATH!!!! And ruin all my beautiful new seedlings.

I'm thinking I may need to chicken-wire off the entire SFG area. Does that sound about right?

BackyardBirdGardner 3/5/2011, 3:55 pm

Critter problems occur from chickens to rabbits to squirrels. And, from what I've read the solution is about the same.

If you have Mel's book, there is a chickenwire cage you can build with a top that would likely solve any problems.

Basically, zip ties, chickenwire, and some 1x2 wood lengths are about all you need. Fasten the chickenwire to the 1x2's along 4 sides, then zip-tie the chickenwire "roof" on your cage. You have a removable critter-proof cover.

I'm sure someone has pictures.

But, personally, I've found the best way to keep chickens from the garden is to keep them IN the fryer. Wink

boffer 3/5/2011, 4:28 pm

NHGardener wrote:I'm thinking I may need to chicken-wire off the entire SFG area. Does that sound about right?

So far, everyone on the forum keeps their chickens out of their SFG boxes during growing season. Except for guineas; apparently they don't do damage.

But, they are also figuring out ways to let the chickens into the boxes during the off-season to take advantage of their weed eating, dirt digging, and fertilizing habits!

windrider1967 3/5/2011, 4:36 pm

My problem isn't chickens - it's the deer and rabbits that look at my garden and see a free salad bar. I was thinking about fencing off the entire area but can't handle the cost involved. With the "cage" you were talking about - how do you get in to do your gardening (OK I'm being dense) and don't the plants take off up the sides of the chicken wire?

**camprn** 3/5/2011, 4:54 pm

electric fence?

boffer 3/5/2011, 4:59 pm

Windrider, if you search for 'deer fence' on the forum you'll find quite a few threads. Keeping out deer is different than keeping out rabbits which is different than keeping out chickens.

NHGardener 3/5/2011, 5:31 pm

Thanks for the ideas. I'll probably throw this one on the chicken forum and see what they say too. I may have to stake out an area around the beds by about maybe a few feet all the way around, and staple up some chicken wire. To get into the garden area, I suppose I can twist-tie where the chicken wire meets, and just twist and untwist to get in there. A pain, but my chickens are the closest I will ever get to having a personal groundskeeper who will get rid of ticks, grubs, spiders, and other pests, and fertilize the lawn at the same time. cheers

Oh, and they are great at recycling those garden pests into nutritious, edible eggs. Very Happy

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