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johncc

Keeping chickens out of flower beds etc.

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Dear forum-

 

I love watching my chickens wander around the garden, and dust bathe and scratch and everything they love to do, and I don't care that there is the occasional bomb crater, and that the mower strikes sparks off all the stones they kick out onto the grass, and that the terrace is always covered in poo :)

 

But occasionally I'd like to keep them out of a flower bed -- and it's usually exactly the one they want to go in, because it's freshly dug and full of new compost and worms and other goodness. They are very enthusiastic scratchers and will totally destroy any new plants.

 

I haven't run my veggie garden since we go the chickens 3 years ago! That I can probably just fence off. On the other hand, I've just laid a new bed along the front of the house, so there I'd like something easier on the eye if possible.

 

Any handy tips that anyone has found, or is a physical barrier the only way? We don't clip their wings but they are also quite lazy.

 

Thanks in advance to all omleteers!

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I don't think anything other than a physical barrier will do! I use Omlet netting to keep mine in/out of certain areas.

 

That expanding willow trellis is cheap and easy to move, but you'd have to be around to make sure they don't hop over it when your back is turned.

 

I wish it were possible to train them ('Keep off the Grass' would be my first one!) but I doubt it very much! :wink:

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What flowers? :lol:

 

I have a large bed of what was flowers right by their run and I'm getting a little worried about it.

 

I think I shall be investing in some Omlet netting very soon, although there is a part of me that wants to leave it to see what plants they don't touch.- Then I think of the 5 years of planting I've put in there :evil:

 

They have eaten one of my Ornamental poppies that WAS coming up, but have left the other three poppy plants alone, so I'm not sure there is much rhyme or reason to what they eat! :x

 

Helen

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Hummm...they ate your ornamental poppies? :shock:

I really love gardening (I usually just point :lol: ) and have really gotton into it in the last 2 years....so I will have to make sure that they can't get to some of the flower beds that I'll make when we move...if they touched my Ornamental grass I'll scream esp the red buttons one. My cats and dogs have one by one attacked, chewed, pulled, ripped and eaten them and also my blueberrie bush that my nxt door neighbour gave me for my 22 birthday! :twisted: I WILL NEED NETTING! :wink:

 

Though once I get a green house at least the new shoots have time to bulk up before going out to the greedy mean monsters :lol:

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I started off with some green coated fencing about 3' tall to protect the patio.. I loved having them by the back door, but had got fed up with the poo everywhere and them raiding my herbs and veggies. It works a treat and is practically invisible when you look out to the garden.

 

I have graduated onto 2' high chicken wire along the borders to keep the banties off the plants. They still have places to dustbathe, and I still have my flowers - a truce I feel. :D

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I've given up trying to keep them off the flower beds, they've also wrecked the grass (that we only got turfed last year :oops: ) so we're building a massive run and they'll stay there mostly and if they come out they've got the bottom bit of the garden fenced off. That way the grass (which I'll try to recover) and the flowers will stay for us and the kids. Course keeping the dog and her toxic wee off it too is another matter! Garden is starting to look a bit like colditz with it's temporary fencing. :roll: Just for info our seem to have left most of the shrubs alone but there's not a forget me not left. nor a crocus flower, all gone. :(

 

Mrs Bertie

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it such a dilemma. I love having them out in the garden but they just wreck the place. Ours have a decent sized run so they stay in that most of the time and I tend to let them out for just an hour or so when Im around. Our vegi patch has a small 2 ft ish fence around it which they are quite capable of vaulting over if they like but they tend not to bother. It seems to act as a deterrent.

They really like a pebbled area we have and reduce this to mud when they are out. I think they home in the the area you dont want them to go in the most and destroy it.

And if you heard them to another area, they dont forget and go straght back to where they were when you are not looking.

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We only let ours out for about 2 hours a day and we have given up on any ground cover or herbaceous plants in the back garden sticking to large evergreens, roses and spicky things.

 

We have edged our beds with large planks of wood to stop the soil being thrown onto the lawn and the lawn is covered with various bits of chicken wire upturned wire hanging baskets etc to let it recover a bit.

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I can't bear the thought of having no plants/flowers in my back garden in the spring and summer so have decided to have a garden full of hanging baskets. There are hanging baskets on the wall, on the fence and garden crooks with hanging baskets on. I also have a bird feeding station that I can hang some small baskets on aswell. My small vegetable ploty will also be fenced off too. I will not be beaten!!!!

 

GNRPP(green eglu)

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Good for you!

 

I'm going to have to resort to bird netting (on the ground) in one of our beds - it's a former built-up pond/water feature that we drained and filled with compost, and whilst its rocky walls prevent the chickens from kicking the soil about, the plants in there don't seem too happy with the excavations :(

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I've given up trying to keep them off the flower beds, they've also wrecked the grass (that we only got turfed last year :oops: ) so we're building a massive run and they'll stay there mostly and if they come out they've got the bottom bit of the garden fenced off.

 

I'm doing the same as you Mrs B. Massive new run which they will stay in most of the time, and fencing off a third of the garden for them to freerange at my convenience. Leaving the other two thirds, which we are re-turfing as DH says what was the lawn will never recover, and then we can plant veggies and flowers and all live in peace and harmony :roll: I must say they have turned over the old flower beds and veggie plot very well :)

 

Tessa

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I'm doing the same as you Mrs B. Massive new run which they will stay in most of the time, and fencing off a third of the garden for them to freerange at my convenience. Leaving the other two thirds, which we are re-turfing as DH says what was the lawn will never recover,

 

:shock: don't say that .... I 'sacrificed' what was a very poor quality lawn anyway, so I could have the girls nearer to the house for winter, but I've convinced myself that when I get the Cube, which I still haven't ordered, I will be able to re-seed the area where the Eglus are.

 

I can't afford to get it turfed. Has anyone else tried re-seeding what used to be their lawn?

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Have just spent the day in the garden and could cry :cry:

I love my girls and want them to roam around but.....I like my plants too. I must admit though that they don't eat them they just scratch them up and out of the beds! I have a lot of pots on the patio with lillies and fuschias that the kids have bought me for mothers day over the years. Betty is the pest, she's right up in the pots, showing her fluffy bottom and scratching away. I was thinking of making some domes out of chicken wire to put over the top - do you think that would work?

I don't want to restrict them too much and they do do a super job at getting rid of the pests! OH took down the old wooden shed this weekend and the girls were positively giddy with excitement :lol: They were under his feet eating anything that moved. When I let them out today they went straight back to the area to look for more spiders. (I don't mind spiders personally but my daughter has a phobia so the girls are now her best friends!) I was thinking of putting domes over the plants I want to keep (either chicken wire or I saw some willow cloches in the paper) then they can scratch around between doing the weeding for me! Do you think that might work? Like others I don't really want to turn the garden into Colditz!

 

Lisa :eh:

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You just need something sturdy and high enough to separate the chickens from the plants. Could you put all the plants in one corner of the patio and cordon them off with a fence of whatever material is least obtrusive? Trellis, chicken wire or whatever...

 

I say this as someone who has considered erecting a fence between the patio and the lawn, to keep the former poo-free!

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