Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[Bootscooter Nell]

Hi,

Does anyone have any tips on how to sucessfully combine the two.

 

I had my girls enclosed inside Omlet netting but the little darlings flew over the net because they were getting frustrated with being able to see the rest of the garden. I gave in and let them free range completely but they have since desimated my flower beds, the brocolli didn't stand a chance and they dig in all the tubs. We want to grow veggies next year in raised flower beds and pots but our garden is not huge. It's big enough to keep my 3 girls occupied from about 2pm to bedtime but I need to find some way of keeping them out of the raised beds when we plant things next year. Has anyone been sucessful at this or am I expecting a miracle

 

Thanks in advance.

[Couperwife]

erm, i think you are expecting a miracle

 

no, seriously, you will need to fence them off if you want to grow anything.

 

they will decimate everything (unless of course, they dont like it, then you are safe )

 

fence them off and enjoy the veg

 

 

cathy

x

[Chicken Licken]

I plant some things they are allowed to eat and then use fruit netting to put them off the things I want to keep them off. To be honest once most things have grown a bit they are chicken proof - courgettes, beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, sweetcorn. They have comped the broccoli and the spinach but I have them netted now. I also netted my fruit and it was definitely the way forward (my girls don't like raspberries but love gooseberries redcurrants and strawberries!!).

I tend to try to supervise them on the allotment as they are prone to eating the neighbours ones as well!!

[pollenbird]

Hello,

 

Have just come across this post (looking for something else).

 

I have raised beds at the back of the garden and have them surrounded by 60cm high netting (I think it's called pond netting? 'tis black and quite sturdy). That keeps the chickens out and my veggies safe

 

Only problem is if one of the neighbourhood cats has tried to jump over the netting and knocked it down without me noticing then the chickens are in like a shot - I lost all my carrot seedlings to a dustbath and scratching a month ago! So...now I check the netting before letting chickens out.

 

Good luck!

[dancing cloud]

I tried using the omlet netting to corral my ex-batts in a specific part of the garden - so they whinged constantly because they wanted out and I felt suitably guilty about them being contained again.

 

I now use the netting to surround my raised veg beds to keep the greedy beaks out and the hens have the rest of the garden to play in. Seems to work well and none of them have flown over the netting, though they can reach quite a long way in. Amazing how long a chicken's neck can get if there's lettuce to be reached

[pollenbird]

Isn't it? and also how tall they can get if they really stretch... I definately have chicken browse lines on my tomato plants!

[Spike-J]

Like some of the others I have fenced off the raised beds- I used Plastic coated wire netting from B n Q held up with bamboo canes. It also is about 1m high and as yet they haven't got in.

 

I used the omlet netting (which they flew over when it was being used to fence them in at the start) to fence off 1 flower bed along the fence (about 3ft deep). For some reason they seem to love the minature primroses and decimated them when they first arrived so that's one of the reasons that bed is fenced in.

 

Because there isn't a big space behind the net they don't seem to have any desire to attempt to fly over. (probably same reason they don't fly into raised beds- they are all 1m square).

 

My pots also have netting round them for the same reason- they love acer trees, blueberry bush leaves and rubarb leaves (but thats another thread elsewhere).

 

This all seems quite sucessful!!

[chickencam]

We have got a few raised beds made with offcut wood from a building site which then have Enviromesh lids which are raised up about 18 inches on a frame. We use these for growing salad crops and the odd cabbage.

 

We have also got sturdy boards around all the beds to stop the chooks throwing the soil everywhere and grow a few things in big pots which they seem to largely leave alone.

 

We have got a pretty good balance between chicken freedom and a nice garden but it takes a bit of flexibility and trial and error to find the balance. Good luck.

[mostin]

Luckily for the chickens , I grew veggies before I got them and already had to deal with a plague of squirrels and rabbits who use to dig all of my veggies up.

 

Because of this my hubby had already constructed a massive fenced in cage (including ceiling) aroung all my raised beds to ward off attacks.

 

Thanks to this, my chooks can free-range without getting told off.

[crazygal]

I've found it quite tricky, and need to have a rethink for next year!

 

I had a small polytunnel type thing which has just about lasted- daft chickens would jump up onto the top of it so it now has holes all over, and then they worked out they could dig to get in underneath it, then yesterday I caught all 3 in there digging like crazy and they had succeeded in digging up the remainder of my very earthed in potatoes! Still, I suppose it saved me a job.

 

They also loved to eat the carrot tops, but fortunately the carrots survived.

 

I considered getting an allotment so I could have a chicken free space, but I love to have the chickens around me when I'm outdoors, so we will have to come up with a cunning plan involving fencing...lots of it!!!