# Chickens garden combo question.



## Grape Ape (Oct 28, 2008)

Ok i have a multipronged question that includes garden and chickens in one big thing so I couldn't really put it in garden or animals so here it is.

I have been thinking about a raised beds garden for a while now and have a spot I want to put it in. The beds will be 4'X8', 12"-16" deep. With a 4 foot heavily mulched path between each bed to allow for travel, yet keep down maintenance around the beds. I have also been thinking of getting a few laying hens, maybe some meat chickens but not sure because the wife falls in love with every animal and might not want me chopping their heads off and eating them.

While sitting up in my swing surveying my domain I had the brilliant idea. How about I set up my raised beds as I planned, then build a vermin/rodent/raccoon/yote/dog/chicken eaters fence around it and in one corner of the thing build a raised coop for the chickens to roost in and lay eggs in.

I like the idea of having the chickens there to provide insect control. Plus I like having a set area for all of it making my work easier in that I only go one place for eggs and veggies.

The space I am thinking of using will have a finished footprint of 56'x56' with a 4 foot edge of mulch around the outside and between the beds with the coop in the corner. As in the pic below the brown is mulch green is garden space and the coop is red. Each square is 4'x4'










Coop size will probably be less than shown but madde it that size for the drawing. To possibly include a small garden shed attached to it to hold garden tools and chicken feed, etc...

Questions.

1. Will the chickens tear up the garden if it is inside their area all the time, or will they be bug killers and fertilizer providers with no worries.

2. Will the fertilizer provided be to "hot" and burn up the plants? Is is safe or does it have to be left to age a bit so as not to burn the plants?

3. Will I need to put a wire roof over the entire thing to keep the chickens in and hawks, climbing chicken eaters out. I can put it into my plan if needed.

4. What am I not thinking of in this plan?

5. I am only thinking of 3-4 laying hens and that or double the meat chickens if we go that route. Is that to many for that area. I will be providing feed for them they won't be left to live of the bugs they find.


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

I don't have a ton of personal experience with chickens, but I know that they will tear up a young garden and low-hanging fruit and veggies if they get a chance. One of the hub's coworkers has a big garden without raised beds and he just rotates his chickens 90 degrees to a new corner of the garden each year then tills in the old spot to use the fertilizer.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

The only place on the farm I don't allow free range chickens is the vege garden. In the garden they will devastate young plants and scratch everything to pieces, your soil will be on your paths in no time. 
We have moveable chicken pens the same size as our beds (4' x 12'). We keep bantam modern game in these as they will control weeds and pick up bugs without making a huge mess and they are super tame/quiet. I have put them in with full grown brassicas (cabbage, cauli, broccoli etc) for a day or two to pick caterpillars off but never with anything else. I use them to clean up after cropping has finished or to manage fallow areas. 
We keep heavy breeds of chicken to free range so they can't get over our low fences (we clip their wings as well).
I protect my young birds from hawks here by keeping them penned until they are about 1/3 grown, after that I have little trouble, eagles will sometimes take an adult bird but not often. We have foxes and goanna that will prey on our poultry. We lock up all poultry at night to keep the foxes out but goannas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goanna will break into almost anything if they are determined enough. We just put up with the losses and keep dogs in the surrounding yards most of the time. 
We have a few small yards here and there that we throw various types of seed into to grow greens for the chooks and give them access to that or I cut greens for them if they are penned up for any reason.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

Questions.

1. Will the chickens tear up the garden if it is inside their area all the time? Yes

2. Will the fertilizer provided be to "hot" and have to be left to age a bit so as not to burn the plants? Yes

3. Will I need to put a wire roof over the entire thing to keep the chickens in and hawks, climbing chicken eaters out. Yes


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Wellrounded made some good points.
Will the chickens tear things up? YES, especially in a small area. When we had more than an acre of garden we used to let the chickens in to areas that were established. Around corn for instance, they would eat the little weeds and bugs but didn't harm the corn once it was tall. With a small run though, chickens will really tear things up.

Without knowing what predators are like in your area it is hard to say if you NEED a roof, one alternative is bird netting, it is very cheap to cover a large area however it is plastic.

Their manure as it drops is fine, no problems when they are moving around. If you are talking about from the coop or in a small run then it should be spread thin or composted well.

Overall I think it might be an interesting idea, one heavy duty fence around everything and then it wouldn't take much to keep the chickens out of the beds.
If you toss the weeds and garden scraps to the chickens they will go right through them for anything they want, it would be nice to have them close.
If you were to attempt this I would consider putting the nesting boxes in a place that you could check them conveniently, even from outside the fence.
If you get laying hen chicks or let them hatch your own, half will be males so there's your meat birds right there, consider a dual purpose breed. They also don't fly very well

This article has some neat ideas: http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/chicken-manure-fertilizer-zm0z13amzkon.aspx


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

TheLazyL said:


> Questions.
> 
> 1. Will the chickens tear up the garden if it is inside their area all the time? Yes
> 
> ...


:ditto:

If only the chicken would be bug killers and leave the veggies alone (that would be nice) ... but no. (sorry)


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

You already have lots of good responses regarding the chickens ... I'm wondering if four feet wide paths might be a little excessive?

Steve


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

I fought a knock-out fight with my neighbors about their chickens tearing up my garden.

I agree with the rest, keep the yard birds out and you'll have a lot fewer headaches and grey hairs.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Davarm said:


> I fought a knock-out fight with my neighbors about their chickens tearing up my garden.


Surely you harvest everything in your garden, right? Them chickens must've a been good eatin'.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Bobbb said:


> Surely you harvest everything in your garden, right? Them chickens must've a been good eatin'.


I came pretty close several times, if his scrawny little birds had more meat on their bones I'd have put them on the menu.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Bit confused by the plan, the drawing is 28 feet but you've said the area is 56 feet?


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## zimmy (Aug 17, 2012)

*Chickens in the garden*

Grape Ape: Mother Earth News had an excellent article on chickens in the garden. Here is a link to the article. Pay close attention to the fence used to contain the chickens. Remember, chickens are very short, they don't need a tall fence.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...re-fertilizer-zm0z13amzkon.aspx#axzz2V9inpc8G


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## zimmy (Aug 17, 2012)

*Chickens in the garden*

Oops, Cowboyhermit beat me to the link, good job man!


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

zimmy said:


> Remember, chickens are very short, they don't need a tall fence.


They CAN fly and often do. 
3 feet tall works unless you have a couple that love to fly - - and they will train the others to fly over, too. I have weights on the legs of some to keep them from flying over.

3 feet tall of fence will NOT stop a stray dog from jumping over!!!


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

You can clip their wings, that would help with keeping them fenced.


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## zimmy (Aug 17, 2012)

*Chickens in the garden*

Don't forget, the Avian flu virus can be transmitted by other wild birds. Keep them separated!!


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Davarm said:


> You can clip their wings, that would help with keeping them fenced.


I forgot to mention they are clipped. That did not help.

I don't cut down to where the feather becomes hollow, but close. I just have really strong, healthy birds.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

LincTex said:


> I forgot to mention they are clipped. That did not help.
> 
> I don't cut down to where the feather becomes hollow, but close. I just have really strong, healthy birds.


Yep have to agree, not much will stop a fit bird.

We have a number of penned birds. The pen walls are 6 foot high mesh, we have birds that will climb/fly over these walls easily, yep they have clipped wings (one side only). Normal stock fences are pretty useless with some breeds.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Hopefully this summer I'm going to be making a fenced run and a chicken coop. Gonna put welded wire over the top of the pen to prevent hawks from stealing birds.

Dont know how it will turn out or how difficult it will be but gonna give it a try, especially since the pen will border my garden.lol


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## Grape Ape (Oct 28, 2008)

mosquitomountainman said:


> You already have lots of good responses regarding the chickens ... I'm wondering if four feet wide paths might be a little excessive?
> 
> Steve


 I thought about that then figured since the area is a ways from the house we will probably be down there working with our 4 wheeler and pulling a home built trailer back and forth through there plus working around it with a wheelbarrow and having the room to turn around with the barrow will be nice. Plus we have the space so why not make it comfortable to work on.



Wellrounded said:


> Bit confused by the plan, the drawing is 28 feet but you've said the area is 56 feet?


I had the idea in my head and drew it on paper real quick then counted the rows and multiplied by something and then counted again and said heck yeah that is 56X64. Then I drew it up on the puter and figured again and said hey it is missing a row so it must be 56x56. One thing I know for sure from my skool days I r gud at maths.

Thanks for all the information. when I thought of the idea it did sort of sound to good to be true. I have been thinking of a chicken tractor, prior to this idea, so it looks like I will be doing the chicken tractor and the garden separate. It is nice to know I can put chickens in an established garden. That way I can use them to keep the bugs down. Thanks for the links, now I have more stuff to read while my wife is watching crazy stuff on TV.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

How well they can fly depends a lot on the breed, the age, and how fat they are. Roly poly Orpingtons don't have much more lift than an ostrich Bantams on the other hand

A 3 foot fence will not stop predators, it won't stop deer either That's why I think there is some merit to having a solid fence around the perimeter (heavy fencing), then it would only take some light stuff to keep the chickens out of the beds when you wanted to.

Chicken tractors are awesome


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## Ezmerelda (Oct 17, 2010)

I believe that the reference to chickens not needing a tall fence referred directly to the Mother Earth News article - in which tunnels of welded wire (or hardware cloth) are used to direct the chickens to the area in the garden in which they are welcome, not that an open area's fence only needs to be a short one.


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## Hooch (Jul 22, 2011)

It seems dooable to me...I have a simular plan with my hens. I built them a huge fully enclosed pen for nighttime and when Im at work. I also built a secure fence built around the garden area that is connected to the coop as well. During the growing season I put up a simple t-bar chicken wire fence around the 4 raised beds so they cant get in n damage n poop on the veggies. Plants like my pumpkins n corn, when they get established I will take down the fence n put large rocks around the base of a plant If I feel it is exposed or will get exposed n stressed to the hens scratching n rooting around. Granted right now I have only four hens so it's very manageable..I've had more hens without issues. When Im home the girls have access to the whole yard now that the dog is over trying to kill them. My path around the one of the beds is brick but the others is pea gravel..they scoot it around some but pea gravel is easy to smooth out back into place. When the girls have access to the beds I really havent had a problem with them flinging the dirt out into the gravel. alittle did but it hasent really been a issue in the 2 plus years.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Davarm said:


> Gonna put welded wire over the top of the pen to prevent hawks from stealing birds.


It's not totally needed. Hawks are not VTOL, they need horizontal distance to fly off with a bird. Take that away from them and they have little choice.

Place little "false walls" in the area, preferably with a small roof on top. They can be moved easily, they provide shade and are great shelter to run to when a hawk is spotted (and yes, the chooks are looking for them!). Give your chickens some defenses, and they will be magnitudes safer.


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