[sweet_lfa]

Our chickens are kept in a relatively large run, but I also like to let them free range about the place for a few hours a day.  However, out of the 30 acres they have to roam, they always decide to dig up my garden Sooooo annoying!!  For future reference, is is true that breeds with feathered feet are less likely to do this because they don't like getting the feathers dirty?!

[Bionic]

I only have one with feathered feet but she seems to like to dig as much as the others. Maybe they are just teaching her their bad habits 

[happygolucky]

Mine are only back garden hens and they keep thier patch flower and weed free although we do have some trees and shrubs growing well, so its not completly bare, the little sods jump up for the apples though, initialy I thought it was some one stealing them  until I saw them jump up!! 
I see that some people manage to keep a garden with chickens but certainly not us, they would scratch any plant up!!!

[ZaktheLad]

We have some quite large craters in our garden courtesy of our 8 hens!   I do not think there is one flower border that they haven't dug up and made in to a deep dust bath.  They free range in the back garden and so we have the front garden fenced off so we can grow some flowers there!   

[happygolucky]

I had a bit of a fall last year when my husband had planted some lovely red tulips and one of the chickens gets into our flower bit all the time, my husband said "do not let that chicken near those tulips" well one day I saw it happily scratching away at them, so I ran out    and tripped, with our guests watching as I lay sprawled out in the back garden!!....no tulips this  year

[HesterF]

No idea on the feathered feet but the biggest problem I've had is with the dust bathing. They don't seem as bothered with the borders full of flowers (or weeds more specifically) but where there's a patch of dirt they can kick all over the gravel path, they're onto it. I've actually put a temporary fence around the area nearest to our house to keep the geese off the patio an the chickens out of those borders.

H

[shygirl]

in our experience - chicks that were raised in the incy without any adult role models, tend not to scratch too much so i think it is a copied behaviour.
i remember planting loads of rows of onions to watch with dismay at our rescue hens digging them all up and the crows flying off with them.

[HelenVF]

My speckled sussex which was hatched in an incubator is the worst offender out of my lot.  Thankfully, they do stick to one flower bed, but unfortunately, it is the one near my "nice lawn".  Going to sort out their bit and enclose it so they aren't out so much.  It has been interesting finding out which plants/flowers they don't like.

Helen

[Rosemary]

The only way to protect your garden is to keep poultry out. Our garden at Longcarse was wrecked mainly by dust bathing. Now our poultry (apart from three Legbar chicks) are penned.

[Mel Rice]

My gardens not bat even with free roaming chooks. I do fence off the veg garden (they still manage to get in though)...Lots of my flower bed is white dead nettle. The bees love it and its one of the only things that grow under the lime tree. It grows so fast that it keeps the chooks off.
They flopped last week in the sun so got scratched. I try and leave them one patch they can use...at the moment its the strip between the grass and the edge of flowerbeds.
When I do plant new stuff I HAVE to put slates round it until it gets established. Keeping the beds full of plants seems to work.

[ellied]

Mine are free ranging for 12 hours a day and they're a mixed blessing - if I dig or weed a patch they scratch away more and keep it weed free for longer.  But I have only managed leeks and garlic in open beds this year, the rest is in containers with wire over or it'd be mangled and my rhubarb was decimated a few weeks ago cos I thought they'd leave it alone and they didn't..  There are sheep haiks (over gate kind) which I bought for ponies and have never used, thought I'd sell in autumn once I worked out a price, and they're currently upside down as mini cages over the baby leeks!

Other good thing tho is they're great motivators for keeping nettles at bay - leave them long enough to hide a nest of eggs in and within a few days you're out there cutting back to reclaim the eggs you know are tucked away somewhere there..

[sweet_lfa]

Glad to hear it's not just me then!  Madge, our light Sussex is the worst offender, but she is actually quite good at scratching the weeds out too!  I have resorted to putting rocks around newly planted things and I guess I'll just have to carry on with that!  Thanks for your replies everyone 

[in the hills]

They all scratch to some extent but we find that our feathered feet pekins do very little damage .... unlike our big fowl  . Have read that feathered footed fowl do less damage in gardens and it is true of our pekins certainly.