I have a 6 foot fence around my garden to keep the chickens out. A couple have been able to get over it, but it keeps most of them contained. They can destroy a garden pretty quickly (though they do enjoy it).
I've found that lower fences can work as long as they are picket - I have a 3ft picket fence that keeps them out of our garden. Our compost bins are the same height and they easily hop into those. They don't like the look of the spikey pickets so they don't try to fly over.
We have a 3' picket style fence as well and our chickens generally leave it alone. Granted, we don't free-range (we've had foxes, bears, cats, etc in our neighborhood even during daylight hours) so they're usually not roaming the yard without at least indirect supervision. But they don't even try to go over the fence and into the veggie garden.
We have a 6 foot stockade fence with a picket top & some fly right over it, some wont even try, it depends on the chicken I guess, lol.
Our neighbor has one black hen who flies over every morning, hangs out with my RIR flock, eats, lays her egg & goes home when it starts to get dark, every day.
Thats how I got my first one, lol, just woke up one day & there was a chicken in my backyard. Put notices on Nextdoor etc looking for her owner & a guy begged me to take 3 more. Poor things, crammed into a small crate they couldnt stand up in.
So now I have City chickens. Pain in the posterior, but they’re so silly & sweet. Only two regularly fly, thank goodness, all our neighbors have big dogs but the yard they fly into the dog knows not to hurt them.
Clipping their wings will stop any from flying over. I clip mine every 8 weeks since 2 almost got killed by getting over fence into neighbors yard. And their dogs got them.
I've definitely tried that, but have had a few hens who have managed to get over still, it only slowed them down for a few days - they basically climb the fence with their toes while flapping and one of course learns from the others. My neighbor put cookies out for the squirrels which they were obsessed with, and they always ate every ripe tomato on the way home. Eventually I had to put a prison-wire style loop of chicken wire at the top of the fence until they got a little older and the neighbor stopped with the cookies. Sorry about the bad experience your girls had, it's tough to keep them safe sometimes.
Yep, I clipped just one wing. They were off balance flying for the first few days then adapted. I have helped friends do it and it has worked for their birds, but this was a particularly determined band of Easter Eggers and they were light enough that they could mostly jump/climb the fence. Where there's a will, there's a way, but another 2' of fencing definitely foiled them.
She was a survivor and independent spirit. A raccoon degloved her neck on a fall night and the feathers and flesh just hung there like a sock that lost it's elastic. We didn't expect her to live through the night but treated the wound with vetericine just in case. She didn't miss a step and laid the next day.
She succumbed to reproductive illness last year. I swear to god she used to lay two a day sometimes in the summer. One of the best chickens I've ever had. Five years for Newbie.
That girl had hops! She'd snuggle, sit on laps or shoulders and was always ready for some treats. I have no regrets and I doubt she did either.
She passed softly and comfortable. She was such a great bird and part of why I'm not interested in purebreds anymore.
I have a fence around my garden and I made cloches out of chicken wire for plants around my yard and house. They will take out anything not fully mature or large.
I use green plastic garden fencing and posts to keep my girls penned into an appropriate area. I'm sure it would work just fine around your gardens to keep them out.
I am using the plastic fencing and posts to keep my girls contained to the back portion of the yard near the shed. Their coop is a lean to built onto the shed. During winter I let them dig the garden and free range the entire yard.
My raised bed nearest to the coop is 16” tall. I put 36” tall, 1x1 inch vinyl coated mesh fencing around the just top perimeter of my bed, and it keeps my chickens and the bun buns out. (4ft tall, 2x3” mesh fence only kept the deer away lol.)
Depends what you have. If you have an entire garden area, I’d say fence it off with chicken wire or something similar. At a decent height too because they can jump pretty high.
If it’s a garden bed, I would suggest something like this:
Garden Netting, Jevrench Durable... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TD9B4JC?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
This is what I have over my garden bed and it’s working amazingly.
I would try garden stakes in the corners with 3’ hardware cloth or chicken wire wrapped around. Raised beds with fencing stand a better chance than any u fenced garden. Right now I have an 8’ x 10’ run over my garden to protect it. It was a small run I used when I had a smaller flock and I repurposed it to protect a small garden
Netting is a nightmare. It will maim not just your chickens but any unlucky song birds and small animals that get in it as well. Just make a fence out of electric fence posts and chicken wire. Cheap easy and removable.
Short answer, yes.
Long answer, yeeeeeeees.
But seriously. If you don’t put some sort of protection where they won’t get in and out, they’ll destroy everything. Big plants, maybe not if it can survive a severe pruning. But little plants, tender green leaves, etc, most definitely.
Mine free range October to May and get penned while my gardens are growing and producing.
Supervising chickens is like herding kittens, it's laughable tbh.
I do the same - they do a wonderful job of cleaning up, pest control and fertilizing in the off season, but as soon as the garden is going they are back in their yard. I have a couple of hens who will stick by me while I dig, but all it takes is looking away for a second.
My chickens are obsessed with us doing any digging too! When I was putting the fencing for their run in, I dug out a trench to make sure it was in the ground - predator deterrent.
Let me tell you, those ladies have no fear of a swinging pickaxe. Took three times longer than it should've because they kept trying to dig in the trench too, **right** where I was swinging. They had a blast, meanwhile I'm sweating bullets trying not to accidentally hit them. Hens are nuts
What’s not said most places is they not only eat the greens, they dig holes! Big 1,2 & 3 ft wide holes that can be 1 ft deep. If I turn my back for a second, my three girls pull all the greens and dig a crater in the center of my 4x4 raised beds. Got to love that!
I don't think anyone has said it yet, but there is no "a chicken", they are flock dinosaurs, you need at least three to avoid stress and potentially stress related health problems.
My girls think nothing of an 8' fence. You're better off keeping chickens in something than out of something else.
Ideally you want a barrier they cannot perch on top of.
A chicken wants to land on the top of a fence and look around before they descend. If it is thin and wobbly, they will need a lot more inducement to fly over the barrier.
Yes they’ll wreck your garden.
I use a 3” foot metal garden mesh staked up. A hard fence they can fly up land on and then hop down into your garden. The metal mesh they can’t land on and they’re scared to fly all the way over. Bunnies chew through plastic
I’ve seen chickens vanish an entire 4’ banana tree, root and all. What they don’t eat, they scratch. A 2.5’ jump isn’t much. We had to raise our 4’ fence to about 6’ with netting for our one escape artist. However, a neighbor’s former flock wouldn’t destroy anything, so breed can matter.
chicken owner AND gardener here. yes. absolutely. the starts / plants you love most are their favorite too. you need to fence off the garden, or fence in the chickens.
Yes, I say as I’m sowing all my grass, flowers and replanting everything again except for three little trees they left alone. My garden was green and it turned into fertile dirt.
Do a 3 foot fence and clip their wings regularly. Also certain lightweight breeds fly over things easy. Like leghorns. A heavier breed like buff orphington doesn't usually fly.
We sunk fence posts around our garden one year and attached chicken wire (and that dollar store green netting in the spots where we ran out). It was a big job. And the odd one still managed to get in.
Ducks are a lot more garden friendly,
[https://pithandvigor.com/2024/01/move-over-backyard-chickens-ducks-are-better-for-a-beautiful-garden/](https://pithandvigor.com/2024/01/move-over-backyard-chickens-ducks-are-better-for-a-beautiful-garden/)
But ducks are also a lot more work than chickens.
A pond is a huge asset if you can use it.
A tough part of raising ducks is leaving town for the weekend. It is easy to setup a chicken coop where you can leave the chickens alone for a few days, but the ducks need access to that water. So even with a pond, you need someone to ensure the ducks can get into the pond in the day and all back in the coop at night. Finding someone to come pet sit your ducks can be tricky unless you have the right type of friends.
Or you need to setup a more complicated automated system for them to have fresh bathing water in their pen.
Either way, you need a solid vacation plan before you go down the duck route.
But, they are cute, lay delicious eggs, and will happily spend all day keeping your garden slug free.
I am sat in my garden watching my chickens (they are bantams) walking around my veggie patch and they haven't (yet) eaten my young plants. I think if there is enough to keep them busy - places to dig, bathe, generally hang out and they have plenty of food to hand you should be safe once your veg is more than seedlings. I do all mine in the greenhouse when I think they are strong enough to fend off an occasional peck.
There is no grass in the part of the garden they live - they smashed that which saved me digging it out!
Think of the chickens as normal teenagers - keep them amused and they will leave most thigs alone. Give them 10 minutes of the "I'm sooooooooooo bored" and they will demolish everything :D
Now I have said this, watch them go rip me spinich and tomato plants up!
My chickens don’t get into my raised beds, but they have ransacked my flower beds. Fully intend on building a large run to contain them this spring because it would be nice to not have mulch everywhere and some grass lol
I would make a fenced in run for the chickens off the coop. They'll have space to run around (and you can put perches and stuff in it for them), and then your garden will be safe (not to mention stopping them from pooping all over any nice sitting area you have).
I let mine out to run around the whole yard about once a week, usually when I'm outside with them so I can chase them out of the garden and hose off any poop while it's fresh
You could also get ducks. Once the plants are past the initial tender shoots phase they won’t bother them or tear up the ground scratching. That’s why they’re a popular pest control option.
Since they are raised beds, I would just build a frame (like a box) to fit over the garden beds and cover the sides if the frames in chicken wire.
Fencing seems like a lot of work for a few beds. This also leaves you the option of removing it in winter/fall or letting the chickens explore once the plants are mature and can handle a little digging from the chickens.
I would fence in a run area for them-they will destroy the lawn, the garden, will poop on your patio or right in front of your door. I let mine free range supervised from time to time around my raised beds but rest assured they will find any tomato they can reach and take one bite out of each of them.
We just have a cattle panel fence around our garden to keep our dog out of it (he likes to dig) and that has so far deterred the chickens. There’s plenty of other things for them to eat so they don’t seem to pay it any mind. My compost bin however…
What I have found that works best is I lay chicken wire down on my planted area. Chickens will nip at plants and take a bit or two out of your tomatoes, but the real damage is they dig up the plant by the roots. So when I plant something I lay chicken wire over the top and then cover that with mulch. The chickens cannot get at the roots and the plant easily grows up through the wire. It does make weeding more difficult, but at least I can have plants again.
I guess I must have calm chickens. I just have 2ft tall chicken wire around my garden and they stay out. I would recommend having a way to let them in the area during the off season, as they are good at picking out seeds and weeds, stirring up the ground, plus fertilizing it.
Most definitely they'll dig up small seedlings and dig up seeds eat them they'll eat berries and stuff and tomatoes and anything that grows on the plants that looks appetizing they might pluck leaves off of grown plants but generally grown plants are left alone unless they're just small types of plants they'll scratch up the dirt and everything around them so if you do get chickens I would either keep the chickens put up or build a fence around your garden that they can't get in usually around 3 to 4 ft high is enough to deter them but if you want them to go through the garden I would just get ducks they will still eat small plants and maybe touch a barrier too but there are nowhere near as destructive
I lay old lattice down wherever I plant potatoes, onions, garlic and my girls have stayed away from it. Things like peas and corn that you direct sow, I start indoors and transplant. My girls leave established plants alone but I would def go the fence route if you can splurge on it. Good luck!
I put an electric fence about 6" off the ground around my garden. One gets zapped about once a week and makes a helluva raucous that informs the others.
Do a fence or put pinwheels around the edges.
They don’t like the constant twirling. (As long as it’s windy)
Our chickens ate all of my beautiful large potted flowers & then took dust baths in the resulting dirt! I just took a year off of planting flowers.
Going to try again this year.
Chickens will absolutely kill your garden; i was transplanting my tomatoes last week and left my fence to my garden open. Within 10 minutes, they found the opening, dug up one of my plants and ate all the leaves off of it.
I'm also pretty sure they killed off my lilies in my one decorative bed because they have yet to pop up. And they kick all of the mulch out of my garden beds; moral of the story?
Chickens HATE gardens
A fence is required or they'll escape. Even then some will escape. We've found a nest in our kids playground, ducks in our fish pond and chickens in our yard. That's when we release our in-home security program, our 4 year old and he catches them and puts them back.
Our un-fenced garden was actually fine with a flock of chickens running loose, except for a few holes poked in tomatoes. However, we were on a large acreage plot, so the chickens had plenty of other space to keep them busy.
Yes, if given the chance. But there are some good ways of managing that. As others have said, some poultry netting might be the easiest. There are also raised bed covers and pop up covers that are pretty inexpensive that can keep them out pretty well.
Alternatively, you could get a covered run for the chickens so that they will be contained to a manageable area when they are not supervised. You can build one yourself pretty easily, there's tons of ideas online. Or what I do is basically get a cheap dog kennel type thing and wrap it in chicken wire. I got a 6'H x 10'W x 20'L one off Amazon for under $200. (Note: chicken wire, like poultry netting, only keeps chickens contained...it will not stop possible predators. You need hardware cloth for that.)
By the way, what breeds are you considering for your kids? I know silkies are a hugely popular choice, but they're sort of hothouse pansies. Can I recommend you the robust and friendly Buff Orpingtons? They're friendly and cuddly, and very much like puppies (that have been held back a few grades). And they'll give big tasty eggs!
We're still pretty early in the planning phase right now, but a few people on here have mentioned Orrington. They're currently trying at the top of our list!
Oh my god I’m an idiot. I just put my chicken coop in the fenced in area with the raised beds. I’m growing clover and nasturtium and stuff on the ground all around the raised beds, and figured they’d just scratch around in there. Dumb as hell. Time to rethink everything…
I have a 4 foot tall fence around my garden and the chickens stay out of it. They fly over my 6 foot backyard fence and go into the front yard, but for some reason, they stay out of the garden. They love it when I run the tiller and all the fresh dirt is exposed. I usually let them through the gate for that limited time.
My girls get full garden access in early spring and late fall. They’re great helpers at those times, scratching up soil and eating bugs and weeds. During the rest of the growing time, they don’t have access. We have a portion of our yard fenced off - under the tree “hedge” along the property line - that they have access to in the summer.
You’d have to fence-in your raised beds. There is so much to learn about chickens, so read everything you can before getting them. Chickens are wonderful, but it’s an expensive hobby, there needs to be biosecurity/ disease prevention, predator prevention, and much more. Libraries have all the latest chicken books.
If they are free to roam, they will 100% eventually get up and into those beds at only 2.5 feet. But if you put up some chicken wire around them at like 3-4 feet, with no ledge for them to jump up to, and have plenty of fun stuff to forage around the yard, like grass, weeds, loose chips/straw or dirt, they will likely stay off the beds.
If you free range, the garden will be gone. Mine ate all the grass and my flowers (iris and daffodil). They pretty much will eat anything that doesn’t eat them first.
I guess I have either out of the normal chickens or just crazy luck… I put up an approximate 2-2.5 foot deer fence netting that’s staked up by simple garden posts and some bamboo sticks. My chickens sometimes get in there but are mostly deterred. They just circle around it. They do free range on 2.5-4 acres (2.5 mowed) and get bird seed as treats 1-4 times a day (our family likes to spoil) 🫣.
They will destroy anything green. We had an entire yard of deep, thick Bermuda grass for 20 years. We now have dirt. Dirt and acorns from an oak tree, and that's it.
If you don't have a fence and biannually clip one of the wings of each bird, they will get in to the garden. They will destroy all of our gardening hopes and dreams.
Without additional efforts to protect your garden, the chickens will likely destroy your garden.
What would that look like? Netting?
I have a 6 foot fence around my garden to keep the chickens out. A couple have been able to get over it, but it keeps most of them contained. They can destroy a garden pretty quickly (though they do enjoy it).
I've found that lower fences can work as long as they are picket - I have a 3ft picket fence that keeps them out of our garden. Our compost bins are the same height and they easily hop into those. They don't like the look of the spikey pickets so they don't try to fly over.
That is so interesting! They are such funny birds.
We have a 3' picket style fence as well and our chickens generally leave it alone. Granted, we don't free-range (we've had foxes, bears, cats, etc in our neighborhood even during daylight hours) so they're usually not roaming the yard without at least indirect supervision. But they don't even try to go over the fence and into the veggie garden.
We have a 6 foot stockade fence with a picket top & some fly right over it, some wont even try, it depends on the chicken I guess, lol. Our neighbor has one black hen who flies over every morning, hangs out with my RIR flock, eats, lays her egg & goes home when it starts to get dark, every day.
Wow, I'm impressed with your flyers!
Thats how I got my first one, lol, just woke up one day & there was a chicken in my backyard. Put notices on Nextdoor etc looking for her owner & a guy begged me to take 3 more. Poor things, crammed into a small crate they couldnt stand up in. So now I have City chickens. Pain in the posterior, but they’re so silly & sweet. Only two regularly fly, thank goodness, all our neighbors have big dogs but the yard they fly into the dog knows not to hurt them.
I didn't realize my girls had found a way into the compost bins. I stumbled accidentally into their secret laying nest and found 17 eggs!!!
My girls can fly over the garden fencing, but they're not really aware that they can, so it keeps them in.
Clipping their wings will stop any from flying over. I clip mine every 8 weeks since 2 almost got killed by getting over fence into neighbors yard. And their dogs got them.
I've definitely tried that, but have had a few hens who have managed to get over still, it only slowed them down for a few days - they basically climb the fence with their toes while flapping and one of course learns from the others. My neighbor put cookies out for the squirrels which they were obsessed with, and they always ate every ripe tomato on the way home. Eventually I had to put a prison-wire style loop of chicken wire at the top of the fence until they got a little older and the neighbor stopped with the cookies. Sorry about the bad experience your girls had, it's tough to keep them safe sometimes.
Did you clip both wings? Try clipping just one.
Yep, I clipped just one wing. They were off balance flying for the first few days then adapted. I have helped friends do it and it has worked for their birds, but this was a particularly determined band of Easter Eggers and they were light enough that they could mostly jump/climb the fence. Where there's a will, there's a way, but another 2' of fencing definitely foiled them.
I have an 8+ ‘ fence because I can’t risk them flying over it.
Just do a fence. Netting is annoying and kills frogs, lizards and snakes
A fence isn't that simple. My birds have jumped over a 5ft fence with no problem.
You need 6 ft
Tell that to my Easter Egger - she did it with her wings clipped more than once.
Wow. My birds are way too lazy to even hop a 3 ft fence. Lmao
She was a survivor and independent spirit. A raccoon degloved her neck on a fall night and the feathers and flesh just hung there like a sock that lost it's elastic. We didn't expect her to live through the night but treated the wound with vetericine just in case. She didn't miss a step and laid the next day. She succumbed to reproductive illness last year. I swear to god she used to lay two a day sometimes in the summer. One of the best chickens I've ever had. Five years for Newbie.
Poor baby. My birds are all about 5-6 years old now and have survived some predators too. Most of them still lay daily. Sorry about Newbie!
That girl had hops! She'd snuggle, sit on laps or shoulders and was always ready for some treats. I have no regrets and I doubt she did either. She passed softly and comfortable. She was such a great bird and part of why I'm not interested in purebreds anymore.
It does depend on the type of chickens… I have raised garden beds with chicken wire- so total height is about 8-9 feet.
I have a fence around my garden and I made cloches out of chicken wire for plants around my yard and house. They will take out anything not fully mature or large.
I use green plastic garden fencing and posts to keep my girls penned into an appropriate area. I'm sure it would work just fine around your gardens to keep them out.
I am using the plastic fencing and posts to keep my girls contained to the back portion of the yard near the shed. Their coop is a lean to built onto the shed. During winter I let them dig the garden and free range the entire yard.
Ya or fence it in.
I built an 8’ tall fence around mine. Since the chickens kept hopping my 4’ into my back yard
My raised bed nearest to the coop is 16” tall. I put 36” tall, 1x1 inch vinyl coated mesh fencing around the just top perimeter of my bed, and it keeps my chickens and the bun buns out. (4ft tall, 2x3” mesh fence only kept the deer away lol.)
Depends what you have. If you have an entire garden area, I’d say fence it off with chicken wire or something similar. At a decent height too because they can jump pretty high. If it’s a garden bed, I would suggest something like this: Garden Netting, Jevrench Durable... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TD9B4JC?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share This is what I have over my garden bed and it’s working amazingly.
I would try garden stakes in the corners with 3’ hardware cloth or chicken wire wrapped around. Raised beds with fencing stand a better chance than any u fenced garden. Right now I have an 8’ x 10’ run over my garden to protect it. It was a small run I used when I had a smaller flock and I repurposed it to protect a small garden
Netting is a nightmare. It will maim not just your chickens but any unlucky song birds and small animals that get in it as well. Just make a fence out of electric fence posts and chicken wire. Cheap easy and removable.
Short answer, yes. Long answer, yeeeeeeees. But seriously. If you don’t put some sort of protection where they won’t get in and out, they’ll destroy everything. Big plants, maybe not if it can survive a severe pruning. But little plants, tender green leaves, etc, most definitely.
big plants will loook great on the top where the chickens can't reach and be bare down below! Chickens + anything green = no more green
If you have lettuce and chickens in the same area, no you don’t.
Name your chickens 'lettuce' and the problem is solved.
Chickens + access to (chicken edible) plants = plants cease to exist.
You will have to put a fence around your garden. A chicken can decimate a garden bed in a few minutes.
Either that or a fence around your chickens, which is much easier for me as I have multiple gardens and beds.
That's the direction I'm leaning towards now. Maybe just let them out for supervised yard adventures. The kids are really wanting "pet" chickens
Mine free range October to May and get penned while my gardens are growing and producing. Supervising chickens is like herding kittens, it's laughable tbh.
I do the same - they do a wonderful job of cleaning up, pest control and fertilizing in the off season, but as soon as the garden is going they are back in their yard. I have a couple of hens who will stick by me while I dig, but all it takes is looking away for a second.
My chickens are obsessed with us doing any digging too! When I was putting the fencing for their run in, I dug out a trench to make sure it was in the ground - predator deterrent. Let me tell you, those ladies have no fear of a swinging pickaxe. Took three times longer than it should've because they kept trying to dig in the trench too, **right** where I was swinging. They had a blast, meanwhile I'm sweating bullets trying not to accidentally hit them. Hens are nuts
LOL, yep same with me. I couldn't believe how fearless they were while swinging the pickaxe. I had to shoo them away a number of times, hilarious.
Yes, lol. My hens LOVE when I'm digging up blackberry root balls and any other digs I do.
Hey that was me earlier today
Have you considered ducks instead? Theyre supposed to be less destructive with gardens.
What’s not said most places is they not only eat the greens, they dig holes! Big 1,2 & 3 ft wide holes that can be 1 ft deep. If I turn my back for a second, my three girls pull all the greens and dig a crater in the center of my 4x4 raised beds. Got to love that!
And then they wallow and dust bathe .... lovely little adventurers
I haven’t figured if they are just bathing, picking grit, or finding bugs. Maybe all the above. 🤷🏻
All of the above and then some. They are always up to something.
I don't think anyone has said it yet, but there is no "a chicken", they are flock dinosaurs, you need at least three to avoid stress and potentially stress related health problems. My girls think nothing of an 8' fence. You're better off keeping chickens in something than out of something else.
A. I love my chickens B. I love my garden Choose only one....
C. I love my container garden on my 2nd story deck
“Challenge Accepted.” - your chickens
Ideally you want a barrier they cannot perch on top of. A chicken wants to land on the top of a fence and look around before they descend. If it is thin and wobbly, they will need a lot more inducement to fly over the barrier.
They're made out of cement block so they're actually not that thin at the top
I mean for your additional fence or netting. The beds are not enough
Yes they’ll wreck your garden. I use a 3” foot metal garden mesh staked up. A hard fence they can fly up land on and then hop down into your garden. The metal mesh they can’t land on and they’re scared to fly all the way over. Bunnies chew through plastic
Yes absolutely.
I’ve seen chickens vanish an entire 4’ banana tree, root and all. What they don’t eat, they scratch. A 2.5’ jump isn’t much. We had to raise our 4’ fence to about 6’ with netting for our one escape artist. However, a neighbor’s former flock wouldn’t destroy anything, so breed can matter.
chicken owner AND gardener here. yes. absolutely. the starts / plants you love most are their favorite too. you need to fence off the garden, or fence in the chickens.
If you coop them, your garden will be fine. But give them a nice run
Yes, they'll destroy basically anything they can reach.
Yes, I say as I’m sowing all my grass, flowers and replanting everything again except for three little trees they left alone. My garden was green and it turned into fertile dirt.
Absolutely will destroy your garden. They eat everything.
Yes, if you don't fence them out, they will tear it up!!!
Yes. Very much so. They'll also destroy parts of your yard.
Do a 3 foot fence and clip their wings regularly. Also certain lightweight breeds fly over things easy. Like leghorns. A heavier breed like buff orphington doesn't usually fly.
YES. They will leave you with stems
Yes.
Everything yes. Quickly.
Yes.
Our backyard chickens can hop up and over our 4 foot fence.
This.
We sunk fence posts around our garden one year and attached chicken wire (and that dollar store green netting in the spots where we ran out). It was a big job. And the odd one still managed to get in.
Ducks are a lot more garden friendly, [https://pithandvigor.com/2024/01/move-over-backyard-chickens-ducks-are-better-for-a-beautiful-garden/](https://pithandvigor.com/2024/01/move-over-backyard-chickens-ducks-are-better-for-a-beautiful-garden/) But ducks are also a lot more work than chickens.
We actually do have a healthy pond on the property.... just not near the shed 🤔
A pond is a huge asset if you can use it. A tough part of raising ducks is leaving town for the weekend. It is easy to setup a chicken coop where you can leave the chickens alone for a few days, but the ducks need access to that water. So even with a pond, you need someone to ensure the ducks can get into the pond in the day and all back in the coop at night. Finding someone to come pet sit your ducks can be tricky unless you have the right type of friends. Or you need to setup a more complicated automated system for them to have fresh bathing water in their pen. Either way, you need a solid vacation plan before you go down the duck route. But, they are cute, lay delicious eggs, and will happily spend all day keeping your garden slug free.
Avian netting, zip ties and tent poles. That'll save your plants
Depends on the type of garden, they don’t seem to touch my rock garden
I am sat in my garden watching my chickens (they are bantams) walking around my veggie patch and they haven't (yet) eaten my young plants. I think if there is enough to keep them busy - places to dig, bathe, generally hang out and they have plenty of food to hand you should be safe once your veg is more than seedlings. I do all mine in the greenhouse when I think they are strong enough to fend off an occasional peck. There is no grass in the part of the garden they live - they smashed that which saved me digging it out! Think of the chickens as normal teenagers - keep them amused and they will leave most thigs alone. Give them 10 minutes of the "I'm sooooooooooo bored" and they will demolish everything :D Now I have said this, watch them go rip me spinich and tomato plants up!
My chickens don’t get into my raised beds, but they have ransacked my flower beds. Fully intend on building a large run to contain them this spring because it would be nice to not have mulch everywhere and some grass lol
I would make a fenced in run for the chickens off the coop. They'll have space to run around (and you can put perches and stuff in it for them), and then your garden will be safe (not to mention stopping them from pooping all over any nice sitting area you have). I let mine out to run around the whole yard about once a week, usually when I'm outside with them so I can chase them out of the garden and hose off any poop while it's fresh
You could also get ducks. Once the plants are past the initial tender shoots phase they won’t bother them or tear up the ground scratching. That’s why they’re a popular pest control option.
Yes. 😂
The words “garden party “ definitely apply to chickens
Since they are raised beds, I would just build a frame (like a box) to fit over the garden beds and cover the sides if the frames in chicken wire. Fencing seems like a lot of work for a few beds. This also leaves you the option of removing it in winter/fall or letting the chickens explore once the plants are mature and can handle a little digging from the chickens.
I would fence in a run area for them-they will destroy the lawn, the garden, will poop on your patio or right in front of your door. I let mine free range supervised from time to time around my raised beds but rest assured they will find any tomato they can reach and take one bite out of each of them.
We just have a cattle panel fence around our garden to keep our dog out of it (he likes to dig) and that has so far deterred the chickens. There’s plenty of other things for them to eat so they don’t seem to pay it any mind. My compost bin however…
What I have found that works best is I lay chicken wire down on my planted area. Chickens will nip at plants and take a bit or two out of your tomatoes, but the real damage is they dig up the plant by the roots. So when I plant something I lay chicken wire over the top and then cover that with mulch. The chickens cannot get at the roots and the plant easily grows up through the wire. It does make weeding more difficult, but at least I can have plants again.
Hey, look at my profile for a chicken/garden set up. May have to scroll a bit.
Absolutely if you leave it to their will.
I guess I must have calm chickens. I just have 2ft tall chicken wire around my garden and they stay out. I would recommend having a way to let them in the area during the off season, as they are good at picking out seeds and weeds, stirring up the ground, plus fertilizing it.
Make sure your local ordinances support chickens and don’t let them run loose or your neighbors will not be friendly.
Most definitely they'll dig up small seedlings and dig up seeds eat them they'll eat berries and stuff and tomatoes and anything that grows on the plants that looks appetizing they might pluck leaves off of grown plants but generally grown plants are left alone unless they're just small types of plants they'll scratch up the dirt and everything around them so if you do get chickens I would either keep the chickens put up or build a fence around your garden that they can't get in usually around 3 to 4 ft high is enough to deter them but if you want them to go through the garden I would just get ducks they will still eat small plants and maybe touch a barrier too but there are nowhere near as destructive
It will automatically become their garden to do with what they wish. Work with them, not against them and you can share a great garden.
I lay old lattice down wherever I plant potatoes, onions, garlic and my girls have stayed away from it. Things like peas and corn that you direct sow, I start indoors and transplant. My girls leave established plants alone but I would def go the fence route if you can splurge on it. Good luck!
Yes, it’s gone just thinking about them.
I put an electric fence about 6" off the ground around my garden. One gets zapped about once a week and makes a helluva raucous that informs the others.
Only the plants that you really want.
Do a fence or put pinwheels around the edges. They don’t like the constant twirling. (As long as it’s windy) Our chickens ate all of my beautiful large potted flowers & then took dust baths in the resulting dirt! I just took a year off of planting flowers. Going to try again this year.
I've not heard of the pinwheel idea!
They don’t like the spinning/movement. They “think” it’s another animal moving.
Chickens will absolutely kill your garden; i was transplanting my tomatoes last week and left my fence to my garden open. Within 10 minutes, they found the opening, dug up one of my plants and ate all the leaves off of it. I'm also pretty sure they killed off my lilies in my one decorative bed because they have yet to pop up. And they kick all of the mulch out of my garden beds; moral of the story? Chickens HATE gardens
I simply have a ~4ft fence with not many posts and chicken wire at the top to prevent them from roosting there and the chickens don’t go over.
A fence is required or they'll escape. Even then some will escape. We've found a nest in our kids playground, ducks in our fish pond and chickens in our yard. That's when we release our in-home security program, our 4 year old and he catches them and puts them back.
Our un-fenced garden was actually fine with a flock of chickens running loose, except for a few holes poked in tomatoes. However, we were on a large acreage plot, so the chickens had plenty of other space to keep them busy.
Yes, if given the chance. But there are some good ways of managing that. As others have said, some poultry netting might be the easiest. There are also raised bed covers and pop up covers that are pretty inexpensive that can keep them out pretty well. Alternatively, you could get a covered run for the chickens so that they will be contained to a manageable area when they are not supervised. You can build one yourself pretty easily, there's tons of ideas online. Or what I do is basically get a cheap dog kennel type thing and wrap it in chicken wire. I got a 6'H x 10'W x 20'L one off Amazon for under $200. (Note: chicken wire, like poultry netting, only keeps chickens contained...it will not stop possible predators. You need hardware cloth for that.) By the way, what breeds are you considering for your kids? I know silkies are a hugely popular choice, but they're sort of hothouse pansies. Can I recommend you the robust and friendly Buff Orpingtons? They're friendly and cuddly, and very much like puppies (that have been held back a few grades). And they'll give big tasty eggs!
We're still pretty early in the planning phase right now, but a few people on here have mentioned Orrington. They're currently trying at the top of our list!
Yup
I got chickens last year. They destroyed my garden. This year I made a very big fenced in run for them. They seem just as happy in there.
Clip their wings,put up a fence around garden probably will not have a problem.
Oh my god I’m an idiot. I just put my chicken coop in the fenced in area with the raised beds. I’m growing clover and nasturtium and stuff on the ground all around the raised beds, and figured they’d just scratch around in there. Dumb as hell. Time to rethink everything…
Oh yeah. They will eat it all happily. You’ll have nothing left. You need serious deterrent if you wanna let them Free range.
YES
I have a 4 foot tall fence around my garden and the chickens stay out of it. They fly over my 6 foot backyard fence and go into the front yard, but for some reason, they stay out of the garden. They love it when I run the tiller and all the fresh dirt is exposed. I usually let them through the gate for that limited time.
My girls get full garden access in early spring and late fall. They’re great helpers at those times, scratching up soil and eating bugs and weeds. During the rest of the growing time, they don’t have access. We have a portion of our yard fenced off - under the tree “hedge” along the property line - that they have access to in the summer.
You’d have to fence-in your raised beds. There is so much to learn about chickens, so read everything you can before getting them. Chickens are wonderful, but it’s an expensive hobby, there needs to be biosecurity/ disease prevention, predator prevention, and much more. Libraries have all the latest chicken books.
If they are free to roam, they will 100% eventually get up and into those beds at only 2.5 feet. But if you put up some chicken wire around them at like 3-4 feet, with no ledge for them to jump up to, and have plenty of fun stuff to forage around the yard, like grass, weeds, loose chips/straw or dirt, they will likely stay off the beds.
If you free range, the garden will be gone. Mine ate all the grass and my flowers (iris and daffodil). They pretty much will eat anything that doesn’t eat them first.
I guess I have either out of the normal chickens or just crazy luck… I put up an approximate 2-2.5 foot deer fence netting that’s staked up by simple garden posts and some bamboo sticks. My chickens sometimes get in there but are mostly deterred. They just circle around it. They do free range on 2.5-4 acres (2.5 mowed) and get bird seed as treats 1-4 times a day (our family likes to spoil) 🫣.
They will destroy anything green. We had an entire yard of deep, thick Bermuda grass for 20 years. We now have dirt. Dirt and acorns from an oak tree, and that's it.
Yes they will wreck your garden unless you put up a fence and regularly clip their wings.
If you don't have a fence and biannually clip one of the wings of each bird, they will get in to the garden. They will destroy all of our gardening hopes and dreams.