[WhatCameFirst]

so being out to free range that much what chance would our garden stand?

With a fenced off veggie patch, and protection for precious things in borders, the only damage will be to your lawn.  If you're not planning on test cricket, then don't worry.  But they will scratch bits up.  Actually, ours recently took to scratching up moss which was fine!  Did the job for us, but it did look a bl***y mess!

[WhatCameFirst]

.. and I should add that they are just a delight an soooo addictive and fun, and you won't care about your lawn!

[desandchez]

Hi we live near you in Leatherhead we got our girls from a very nice lady at Southmead poultry in Leatherhead she is very knowledgable and sells ducks as well. Best of luck

[shiatsusu]

im not sure if im less or more confused LOL

ok this is what it comes down to, we would love chickens and can put them on the grass (be it on chips or not) we would let them out for a bit at weekends and probably some evenings in the summer when getting home from work, in that time how much havoc could they cause? they wouldnt be out that much and we would either be in the garden or not far away....

i think we have already concluded we will have to fence off the veggie patch but we have lots of pigeons anyway so probably just as well

(our garden is a proper family garden (no kids - not yet anyway!) roughly 30mx10m, lawn area, brick pathway, pretty wendyhouse and shed and im not sure we would be prepared to hand all that over to 2 chickens :/ - we have already turned a chunk of the flower border to a veggie patch stuck right in the middle of the garden!)

so being out to free range that much what chance would our garden stand?

You'll be surprised at the damage they can do in a very short space of time- all my bulbs were dug out in under half an hour the day before yesterday- I'd foolishly thought they were safe because they'd ignored them all weekend!  The only way to ensure you keep certain bits of your garden the way you want it to be is to fence it off. BUT... the chooks are worth every second of effort I promise 

[milan]

thanks everyone :-)

does anyone out there have any tales of their chickens not destroying their garden?

[andreadon]

 

[raeburg]

No, what the chickens haven't destroyed the kids have (apart from the 15 foot pyrocantha (however it's spelt)