Chickens and the Garden: Which One Will You Fence?
Chickens and gardening seem to go hand in hand as each component can benefit the other. The chickens can fertilize and till the soil; they can eat weed seeds and insects. Meanwhile, the garden can grow food for the chickens. With this in mind, acquiring chickens and having a garden were both a priority for us as we began our journey towards self-sufficiency. We soon found out that all was not as simple as it seemed: while having chickens and having a garden are both wonderful things…they need to be separated!
Free Ranging Without Boundaries
We acquired our first batch of 10 chicks in February. During this time, we were also planning our first garden on this property. Knowing that chickens can be beneficial to the garden, we were not too concerned with letting them free range. While they spent their early months in the chicken tractor, we ultimately wanted to free range them. Free ranging would allow them better access to food and help control nuisance insects.
However, we soon found out just how wrong we were! Nowhere in our gardening and free-ranging research did we come across one vital rule: either fence in the chickens or fence in the garden. While chickens can offer seasonal benefits for a garden, we learned seasonally, they can also be incredibly destructive. They will eat desirable seeds before they have a chance to germinate, destroy seedlings by scratching them up or stepping on them, and snack on any reachable “fruit.”
Fence in the Chickens or Fence in the Garden?
As we started increasing the free ranging time of our chickens, we soon realized how destructive they could be to the garden. We had incorporated ideas of edible landscaping for our first garden and therefore had garden to protect all around the house. This meant we also had to fence in all these separate areas to keep the chickens out. We ended up using 2 inch chicken wire and 2×3 welded wire to make a fence that was approximately 2 feet high. While I could step over the fences to garden, for the most part the chickens did not fly over them.
We also had chicken tunnels we had picked up off of Craigslist. The builder of these tunnels had his chicken coop next to his garden and attached the tunnels to the run to let the chickens move through or around specific parts of his garden (it was a great set-up!). Instead, we did the opposite, and used the tunnels and barriers to keep the chickens out of some garden areas.
After using up all of the fence and tunnels, there were some areas we still did not have fenced. When I went to plant in these areas, I learned to put “cages” over the seeds to keep the chickens from eating them. Then there were other gardening spots that I simply gave up on. One of the chickens’ favorite spots to spend hot summer afternoons was in the shade on top of what were once beautiful irises. While these flowers had completed their blooming cycle before the chickens found them, I am hoping they did not do any permanent damage to the bulbs.
What We Learned
From our first summer of free ranging chickens and gardening, we have learned that either the chickens or the garden need to be fenced. While we quickly adapted to fencing in the garden for this previous year, in the future we are hoping to fence in the chickens. Now that we have access to our entire property, we will have better space to work towards this goal. The question for you, is which one will you fence?