Chickens in the Veggie Patch?

[Ash323]

Hi All,

I have a veggie patch that is separted from the rest of my backyard by a small wall and fence. I wanted to know if anyone had any advise on keeping chickens or quails etc in the veggie patch to help control snails and other pests.

Any tips?

Cheers
Ash =)

[hardworkinghippy]

Hi Ash,

My chickens free-range everywhere and I protect vulnerable plants with cages or put sticks around newly planted veg or grills over seeds. You need a really big space for the chicks to be able to do this but you could definitely get them to help you out at certain times of the year even if your garden's really small.

I've started a set in Flickr to show people how I protect my veg if that helps.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hardworkin ... 288270606/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hardworkinghippy/sets/72157615288270606/)

[rudymegan]

My chickens do get to free range a bit although we have been keeping the in their yard more since they often get down into the street. In my garden the chickens will do fine with grown veggis but anything that can't take a peck here or a scratch there will not be a happy plant. So, seedlings are often killed if not protected. Chickens love to dig up a bare patch of dirt (like a newly planted seed bed) and roll in it.

They are great at keeping down bugs, slugs, ticks, snails, all sorts. they will also keep down weed seedlings in a established veggi or herb bed. Also something we have been doing more is to only let them out at the end of the day. they don't have a lot of time to wander far and then they put themselves to bed at dusk while still getting some free range time.

Hardworkinghippie, I loved your pictures and I've just been inspired about what a few old animal cages could be used for! thanks for sharing. your garden is lovely.

[gardenlen]

my experience with chooks in the vege' patch is they would scratch up your vege' plants and scatter the garden medium & mulch all over the place, just how chooks work. so it could be done bed by bed between plantings put up a temp' chock wire around a agrden bed or 2 and let them have a scratch around for a few days. we used other methods to control snails.

len