[Heather]

what's the best veg to grow when there are chickens ranging about?  Don't want to use slug pellets as I imagine they're not good for chucks.

[Hermit]

Best to leave the chooks and the veg seperate. The chooks will root the young plants up, create dust baths in your seed beds, eat the veg, poo on the veg, get the picture? Some folk let the chooks in to full grown veg for a slug fest but not leave them in there.

[Frieslandfilly]

It is possible to grow veg and have chickens but you need to be able to keep them away when necessary, I let mine out during autumn and winter onto the veg patch, but as mentioned above in the spring when you have young plants it would be a disaster! They never pick over the bit that you want them to, always heading for your prize seedlings. Having said that, what about fruit bushes and canes or herbs, they dont go for onions or leeks but as both of those like quite dry ground the chickens are likely to dust bath there!

[OhLaLa]

The previous two posts sum things up quite nicely re your chickens.

And the veg to grow is the veg you will eat. Don't plan it around your birds.

If you want to put your chooks in with your veg maybe give them a bit of limited access late in the season when everything is mature/up and you have no seedlings or fruit. I don't though.

Never use slug pellets - they are harmful to wild birds and other wildlife too. You can get animal friendly pellets so use these if you have to use any - check the package, it will be clearly written on the front - then make sure you keep your chickens out of your veggie patch.

Hope it all grows well.

 

[Fleecewife]

Mine have a habit of flying in over the 2m high windbreak netting surrounding the garden, and you're all right - disaster for the veggies. Not quite as bad as ducks with their big flat feet squashing everything    I let my chooks into the tunnel in the winter, so they can eat pests and also have a good dustbathe when outside is frozen. They also get into the fruit cage all year round for their beneficial effect on pest numbers.
I have heard of a way of making use of hens all year, but I haven't tried it because ours are so free range I think they would die of indignation if we did.  You make a small cage which fits over a part of your beds or covers a small part of your growing area and fold the hens in that over areas you want picked over and manured.  The next day you move it on so they can deal with the next bit, without destroying things which are growing.  Some hen houses are moveable so it might work then - obviously there can't be a floor.

[Frieslandfilly]

That's a good one Fleecewife only don't do what i did, carry a heavy run over to the area that i wanted picking over, put two youngsters in to do the job, wake up the next morning to find we had a hard frost that turned to a cold winter and the ground didn't thaw for over a month!  Consequently I had to let them out to free range anyway as there was never anyone around to help me move the run back!!

[Mo]

Fleecewife, ours were not co-operative when we tried to confine them 
Early last year we tried confining them to one raised bed that had just been dug over, whilst we worked on some others - lots of goodies for them to go at....we thought. Not a chance, they quickly formed an escape committee and had a very noisy meeting. Before we knew it they were out.
We only have a few at the moment and they've had full range of the place over autumn and winter... little do they know. As soon as we are ready to plant out they will be cordoned off again. I wouldn't be surprised if they teach themselves to whistle....

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Hi 

  I'm glad Heather asked this question as I too let my girls have free range of the veg patch over winter but I plan to fence it off shortly in preperation for planting my veg. Any thoughts on how best to fence it?

Buffy

[OhLaLa]

To keep the chickens out will really need to be chicken mesh. Buy the taller stuff to prevent them flapping up onto it and then dropping down the other side. Maybe tension across the top/bottom with fencing wire too just to stop it collapsing down on itself.

  

[silver swan]

In response to a query I posted in the veg section about protecting Purple sprouting broccoli from butterflies etc, Andrew suggested one of these www.walk-inwonderwall.co.uk. I'm getting one!!!!! Brilliant for keeping chickens/dogs/cats/pigeons etc out of veg patch as well as usual insect pests. Not so good for the beans/pollinating insects though - only just thought of that. Hmmmm.