Urban chicken farming is everywhere in my small suburban area. We’re used to seeing “chicken found” or “chicken lost” signs and even chickens themselves strutting across our lawn. Those people didn’t do a good job of testing their garden chicken. But you don’t just want the chickens to go crazy. Protecting plants from chickens is also a priority. How can I chicken-proof my garden, you ask? Read on to find out how to protect plants from chickens.
Urban chicken farming is everywhere in my small suburban area. We’re used to seeing “chicken found” or “chicken lost” signs and even chickens themselves strutting across our lawn. Those people didn’t do a good job of testing their garden chicken. But you don’t just want the chickens to go crazy. Protecting plants from chickens is also a priority. How can I chicken-proof my garden, you ask? Read on to find out how to protect plants from chickens.
Garden plants and chickens
There’s nothing like a freshly laid egg for breakfast. For this reason and because more and more people are concerned about how their food is grown, urban chicken farming is trendy. Adding chickens to your landscape has more benefits than freshly laid eggs, but it can also have its share of problems.
Chickens scratch to catch insects, often a blessing to the gardener, but all that aggressive scratching can wreak havoc on tender plants. Once they get a plant-free area, it becomes an economical chicken spa – a dust bath. Therefore, it is important to keep garden plants and chickens at a safe distance or go with them and install plants to The chickens.
Don’t let the fact that chickens can disturb some plants discourage you. The benefits of having chickens outweigh the drawbacks. Because they tend to eat pests like beetles, aphids, and larvae, your garden will be less affected by them without the need for chemical controls. Their droppings are incredibly rich fertilizer and while they peck in the garden, they eat many weed seeds that might otherwise overtake the garden. In fact, many gardeners move chickens to different areas of the garden to reap the benefits of manure and the removal of larvae, pests, and weeds by their feathered friends.
How to protect plants from chickens
However, if the chickens are overzealous and you’re losing too many plants, you’re probably wondering how to chicken-proof your garden. There are several methods to protect a garden from chickens. The most obvious is to fence off the most problem areas. There are several ways to do this. Probably the most common is chicken wire. There’s a reason it’s called chicken wire.
You’ll certainly want to fence the vegetable garden, as tender new seedlings will emerge, as well as tempting bare areas where chickens can’t keep their claws out. You don’t have to use chicken wire, any wire barrier will work. Livestock fences or heavy-duty wire mesh work well. Creating a hedge will also block chickens from areas where you would prefer not to have them.
If you don’t want to make a complete fenced area, there are other ways to protect plants from chickens. Rocks placed around the base of new plants will prevent chickens from scratching and digging them. Hoods or nets around the plants will also protect them. The trellis keeps plants up and out of reach. Plants in tall pots will keep chickens away from vulnerable plants, as will hanging baskets.
Plant flower beds close together. Any patch of bare dirt is irresistible to chickens. Also, keep one area of the yard as a dust bath to prevent chickens from scratching other areas of the landscape. Sprinkle with diatomaceous earth periodically to keep them free of mites.
There are some plants that chickens don’t seem to be interested in. These are usually taller plants that are out of reach. Roses , barberries , dogwoods , and hydrangeas are all beauties that chickens don’t appreciate. Sunflowers for obvious reasons are chicken proof, but plant them carefully as unhulled seeds are not good for them either.
You don’t just want to focus on keeping plants away from chickens; You may want to incorporate some plants just for the chickens, especially if they are outdoors. It’s a good idea to plant at least one evergreen so they have cover in the winter and a dense undergrowth of shrubs so they can scratch and snooze under them during hot days. Chicken-friendly berries, such as elderberries or cranberries , are a great choice for thickets. The chickens will eat the berries, thus reducing the costs of expensive chicken feed.