[pottsie]

I was wondering if anyone lets the chickens run about in the veg patch? i have read for and against but was wondering if anyone has actually done it and how much if any crops are lost.

Rob. 

[Samantha]

hi there .. when I had my chickens I didn't let them run around the veg.. apparently ducks are better and will not eat your veg (although I don't remember where I heard it) I did toss any slugs and snails I found into the chickens tho

Sam

[Fleecewife]

I can't keep my chickens out    They are totally free range and fly over the windbreak that surrounds my patch.  However, they only really come in in the spring when alot of ground preparation is going on, when they scratch and find worms and anything else that moves.  I sometimes let them into the polytunnel to dustbathe in the winter when outside is frozen solid. I also sometimes rear chicks in the tunnel if the winter is very hard - works wonders for fertility.  During the main growing season they don't really come into the veg patch much as there is no bare ground.  I cover some crops from wild birds, rabbits etc anyway and so far the only damage my hens have caused is to scrap up a few onions.

[pottsie]

Thanks i might try thm and see how we go, there isn't much they can bother now anyway.

Rob. 

[Rosemary]

Ours ruined the veg garden. They are anything green, scratched the soil out of the raised beds, created huge dust baths. And they had a one acre filed to roam in but they loved the veg garden. So be warned.

[jacob and Georgina]

we have not got any veg left now so we have been letting them in the patch all week. they keep the soil turned well and their poo does wanders for the soil!! its just how they used to manage the land in the old days!

[Cinderhills]

My veg garden is in a netted cage to stop ours (and the sheep) getting in.  When I am in there you can see them pottering about nearby just dying for me to accidentally leave the door open. 

[plumseverywhere]

One of ours, a black rock called chicken tikka, is the only one who comes in the veg patch. she has caused no problems at all - if anything she's really helped. she keeps the caterpillars down, adores slugs and (this is the best bit) helps dig potato's up. she scratches the earth to uncover them. funny thing is, she only comes to the veg patch when she see's me going there so all good fun. I dread to think what state it would be in with the whole lot of them there though.

[Hermit]

My turkeys flew into the veg garden when I had planted out in spring. All my neat little rows all carefully marked was turned into flanders field in an hour. I would not tust my chooks in there and the ducks just sit on and squash stuff under foot. I have a family of blackbirds in there who control the buggies, trouble is they eat good buggies as well as bad buggies.

[pottsie]

Thanks for all your responses, having put lots of hard work in i've decided not to bother putting them in with the veg. This decision has been made easier as my neighbour has offered me the land which she has not used for some years and which ajoins my chicken area, for the chickens to run in. She says it's a fair swap for the veg, eggs and labour i give her throughout the year and it helps me no end.

Thanks Rob.

[plumseverywhere]

here is tikka digging potatoes for me!

[jameslindsay]

But is she actually putting them in the basket for you Lisa? 

[Sylvia]

Ducks will decimate a veg. patch as quickly as any chickens. Guinea Fowl, however, will stroll through, eating insects as they go.

[plumseverywhere]

we are still working on that one James    currently she just digs them up and then hoof's them across the patch! bless her. actually she's got a cold at the moment and soppy thing that I am, I am quite worried because our Tikka has quite a personality. she knocks on the back door now for titbits and everything  sorry, have gone totally off topic there!

[northfifeduckling]

I thought of putting a couple of hens in the polytunnel for the day to help clear it once the squashes are finsihed.   Maybe they'd go to sleep in cat basket? The veg plot is open space and not predator proofed, so can't have them there. The ducks would trample everything to death, no thanks...