Our banties, ducks and geese roam freely every day which is how they keep the bugs under control. However the banties do love to scratch and roll in freshly worked soil. So when I plant or weed they are not far behind me looking for new ground to 'work' themselves. And worms to eat.
Late yesterday I planted 5 tomatoes, 5 basil plants, and 2 cucumber plants. I carefully spaced them and laid newpapers between and in front of them(they are against a 6' chain link fence with poultry netting on the inside of the pen around the bird yard)and got the 36" poultry netting that is in the front to keep poultry out of there pretty well back up to protect them. While I was visiting with a friend who came out to the farm the banties got in and tore up plants, newpapers, etc. making a real mess. I had to relay the paper, replant a few plants, and then put down 15" plastic roll of latticing on top of the paper. I poked the plants up thru the holes in the lattice and weighted it down with pots of dirt. Then I made sure the poultry netting was more securely put in place. They will have to really work hard to tear up those plants again.
This morning I planted Asparagus beans thru the openings of another stretch of the latticing and weighted it down too. Now I feel the beans can come up safely. Of an entire pkg. of snow peas I planted only about 5 got to come up. The chickens dug out and ate the rest of them. They also destroyed a row of spinach. I have to keep the soil moist in some beds until the plants get some real root systems and strength to them or the birds will dig them out. Several of our beds always have wire of some kind over them all season to protect the plants.
I have to use refrig and oven racks and pieces of wire, etc. over most new plants to protect them. I know it doesn't look as nice, but it lets me have my plants and lets the birds run free too. We often have to shut the ducks and geese in the pen for a few hours or a day or 2 while I till, dig, etc. because no worm I disturb is safe if they are loose. They will get right next to me and grab every worm that is brought to the surface. I don't mind if they eat grubs, etc. and maybe even a few worms, but they are gluttons when they see worms.
Does anyone else have to go to these extremes? I'm not complaining or whining about it, that is just the way it is around here. Sometimes it takes 5' tall fences to keep the banties out of a bed. If a baby gets thru the netting, that mother hen will find a way in to that child of hers. And once they decide it makes a good private play/food area they are very difficult to deter.
Free roaming poultry and gardening
I'm right there with you, leaflady. I love having the girls "help" when I'm digging a new bed, but when they got out they completely leveled parts of a raised bed and took out about a fourth of my pea plants. I have had to keep them in their yard during the seedling stages, and I plan to fence the garden in again. Unfortunately, four foot fencing is not guaranteed to keep them out. What kind of fence is your 5' one?
I'd really like to have the hens patrolling for bugs, but I've lots so many seedlings to those powerful scratching feet that I don't know if it'll work any more. A smallish fence around a new planting does work, but as soon as they find any mulch, they will scratch it away altogether.
Banties are better flyers and better at squeezing into small places, but these large hens can do a huge amount of damage in no time.
Its a *must* to fence off the vegetable gardens and flower beds from free range poultry and waterfowl. They eat everything and make a mess scratching. Clip their wings to try to prevent them from going over fences.
Hey Y'all , Yep Love to have them free range but once they know the seedlings are there that s all she wrote!
I do Clip the wings and it does help, but I also make the young garden not so inviting! It doesnt look so nice but this does help! I take the outside walls from a 4 ft above ground pool and surround the garden on 3 sides and make a gate with 4X8 lattice . When the plants get bigger I remove the wall. It works for smaller spaces, but larger garden plots would need some other camoflage.
If the chicks cant see it they arent interested!!
So, Eufaula, how high would the garden have to be to trust them???
Sherry, I usually open the gate after the stems start standing on their own and the roots are steady and deep. The chicks seem not to be interested in the stems as much as the disturbed ground around the plants.
depending on the actual vegetable,the plants will be fine. I found though, that new tomatoes or squash fruit,do need a little protection like a chicken wire screen or netting. Tomatoes in cages are pretty safe!
Hey, thanks for the info!! I took one little Sultan hen out today - she is a real sweetie, follows me like a puppy - she scooted around stirred up lots of dirt but didn't hurt anything and she did find some bugs...
My chicks were fun to have in the garden until they got to about 4 months of age. Then no tomato was safe, not even the ones up 3 feet high and caged. They ate ALL my borage, too.
Just from having the young Sultan hen alone in the garden today, I realized that one by one is the only safe way, with me standing right there with her. I wish they would behave themselves, I'd love to leave them 'out', it's fenced with LOTS of space. Oh, well. Thanks, Zep!
Our 5' fencing is welded wire. The bird yard is 6' chainlink. Clipping wings has never helped us much. They just dig out under the fence if they can't fly over or find a hole to sqeeze thru. And it doesn't take much of a hole. Especially for a baby bantum. They go right thru poultry netting!
I got rid of the big chickens years ago. When they started digging out established iris and daffs I decided we had to come to a parting of the ways. Banties can do enough damage.
It is nice to know I am not the only one struggling with this issue. As I said before, refrig & stove racks may not look too nice, but they have saved many plants from a sure death. And they last forever. We have some old washer and dryer tubs we use for raising some plants, including mints I don't want to escape all over the place.The hens often get in there to lay eggs, set on nests, and tear up the tubs.
I planted a garden of ornamentals with hog wire over it. Sort of mounded it, then covered with mulch and pine straw. They no longer tear it up. I had trouble with them scratching the mulch in the front planter that is flush with a sidewalk, I had to put up a small fence... it keeps the mulch in. No matter what the brood does, I am one step ahead! I even planted bulbs and put each one in a little square of chicken wire and squeezed it around the bulb. They all came up. I am trying to do that with new plantings...
Good ideas, everyone. Hilary, that is how I plant a lot of things. We know it isn't what some people would like to see in the yardens, but at least we don't have to use so much insecticide and such and get to have our plants too.