I must have the wrong kind of chickens. Last summer when I put my over grown chicks out on range they found my garden and had a field day of eating my cucumbers and tomatoes. And then they started eating all my beans. I read in these forums where people let there chickens run through there garden to eat the bugs. So my question is "What kind of chickens do I need to get that will eat the bugs and not the vegetables"?

-- Russell Hays (rhays@sstelco.com), May 13, 2001

Answers

Your supposed to put the chickens on the groung before the veg.

-- Steve Hill (ukph@edsamail.com.ph), May 13, 2001.

we have bantams and let the young ones run in the yard and garden. They don't cause enough damage to matter and sure do help to keep the bugs under control.As they get older they are put in pens so we can keep the breeds seperate.When we had large breeds,they made a mess of the garden.Ate almost everything and scratched up what they couldn't eat.

-- JT (gone2seed@hotmail.com), May 13, 2001.

Try ducks.

-- Marty (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), May 13, 2001.

You have my sympathy, Russell. Many are the times I have been reduced to tears by chickens ruining the garden. This year, I put up a fence, (duh) and so far the little monsters are staying out. Like someone else already said, I think the idea is to put the birds in before and after the season, but not during.

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), May 13, 2001.

Mine would actually fly over two fences to get into the garden: theirs and the garden fence. If you have flyers like mine who also love the garden, you might think of clipping wings before the damage.

-- mary, texas (marylgarcia@aol.com), May 13, 2001.

I let my hens have the run of the garden (save the parsnip patch, which I fence off from them) from late fall until early spring. They do a delightful job of tilling any and all leaves, soiled bedding, compost, etc into the garden that I dump in there, plus they tidy up any weeds and weed seeds that managed to escape my never vigilant eye (no, that really wasn't a typo - my garden gets weedy patches by late fall). In the spring when the snow is off the garden and the parsnips are starting to come up, they are evicted back to their own pen which sets between the swamp and the garden, acting as a sort of barrier to swamp critters. There, they are more than happy to gobble up any weeds or grubs or other bugs that I toss over the fence each day. When a hen has managed to get into the garden I have had a mess on my hands, particularly with my greens.

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), May 14, 2001.

Hello Russell, Chickens will destroy your garden but, they love to eat bugs and snails. Here is what I did. I built a chicken moat! The chicken moat is a double fence around my garden area which allows the chickens to "patrol" the perimeter of the garden without having access to it. For the gate to get into the garden I just fenced off the ends of the entrance and made a tunnel under the walkway where the gate is placed. This allows you to keep the gate open without chickens escaping. If you want to see some pix of my chicken moat just check out the "Ozark Lifestyle Photo Album" on my webpage. Sincerely, Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), May 14, 2001.

Tee-hee,gave up years ago, and keep the chickens in a large henhouse, got tired of destroyed flowerbeds and garden, they love petunias! Lots easier collecting the eggs too, no problem with predators either. Easier for me just to pick them a five gallon bucket of greens every day than let 'em run loose.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), May 15, 2001.

In the spring I let them run in the garden and put screens[ pvc and chicken wire]around the plants i want to protect, as the garden goes into mass production they are kept out and veggie scraps are brought to them.

-- kathy h (ckhart55@earthlink.net), May 15, 2001.

We let the chickens in in September and put them out when I plant potatoes on May 1st. We keep a smaller fenced off area that has a strawberry bed, asparagus, garlic, and for planting lettuces, peas and fava beans that the chickens are never allowed in. That way they can work on the garden longer by eating lots of bugs, grubs and seeds and by aerating the ground and digging in compost, etc.

-- Carol Eury (fie@peoplepc.com), May 29, 2002.