[ChristyRose]

I love my garden and I love my hens!!  The hens have got a good sized run which has been eaten bare of any grass etc.  So, sometimes I feel sorry for them and let them out and they start digging around and I get worried and I put them back.
Is there anyone who loves gardening but manages to let their chickens free range without too much distruction?
My garden is a good size (I think) and a has a lawn and established shrubs.  The only plant they seem to demolish are the forget me nots.
If I were to chill out do you think the chickens would just peck around and not demolish it or am I being naive?

[New shoot]

My main chicken run houses complete hooligans cleverly disguised as banties who cannot be trusted in the garden for 2 seconds. 

However I have a smaller movable run with a Serama cockerel and 2 bantie girls and they are pretty good in the garden.  They have a dust bath hole under one of the shrubs and peck at a few things, but are out for hours if I am home with very little damage.

You might have to try it and see.  If you find they are destructive but still want to give them some freedom, a handfull of budgie tonic mix or similar tiny seeds takes an age to pick up and keeps them occupied 

[ChristyRose]

I have got 13 chickens which includes 3 orpingtons, 3 ex batts, 1 leghorn and the rest are a mixture.  They are very good at digging out the slugs  .  They do make a mess digging the earth onto the paths  but I am trying to be relaxed and thinking of their happiness.... hehe 

[Foghorn-Leghorn]

We have a very big garden and decided to let our flock of 12 free range for most of last summer and then over winter into this spring.  I finally admitted defeat and got O/H to build them a very large run as I just couldn't cope with the destruction, the raids on the greenhouse to get at the tomatoes, the poo (so much poo from such small creatures!) and them mugging visitors for food 

They're happy in their run - it has various shrubs and trees for them to shelter under and they can dig as big a hole for their dust baths as they want and I'm happy as my garden looks so much better.

[ChristyRose]

Ooops.  Naughty chickens!!   
They have been out all day today and it hasnt been too bad.  I dont mind so much at this time of year as things are starting to die back and they do help with the weeding in their own messy way and slug control.  In the spring they tend to eat all the new shoots and dig all the seedlings up and then they're back in their run and I say never again!!  But I have a short memory 
Foghorn - Leghorn, how big is the run you have built them?

[Foghorn-Leghorn]

Cluckingham Palace is approx 30m2 - we used a corner of the garden that really wasn't doing much (other than annoying hubby as he couldn't tame it!).

We do let them have the odd afternoon out in the garden but the veg patch has to be secured first!  At least then the damage is limited.

[bexybeck]

Ours will rip the place to shreds given half the chance! We've even opened our run to our new neighbour's garden because it had become a bit overgrown when it wasn't occupied. They're doing a great job turning it over

We sometimes let them out when we're gardening and we chuck all the worms we find their way. Turn your back though, and they're in the flower bed digging up great-grandma's London Pride. Best to just give them the biggest run you can and supplement their feed with green stuff like veg scraps.

[lmpd]

Our five ex-bats or 'The Ginger Crimewave' as they are now known, free range for a large part of the day, they have done a sterling job of keeping the weeds down among my caulis and cabbages, the downside of course is that they have annihilated said caulis and cabbages. I now make sure whatever I plant is chicken proof.

[francais]

We gave up on the garden after having our girls! TBH though I would rather watch them in the garden any day than admire my nice flowers (the height of which are the hanging baskets that they can't reach...yet! sure they are planning ways at getting to these though!)

Nothing beats a chook standing on the kids covered sand box lid to peer in at you through the patio windows!

[ChristyRose]

Yes they are lovely to watch and if the patio door is open they often pop in for a peck around 
I'm abit of a messy gardener anyway.  They dont seem to have done much damage today apart from poo on the patio and earth all over the paths.   

[Foghorn-Leghorn]

    just wait until they dig dust baths (not easy to type that after a glass of vino!) deep enough so you can't see your cats (presuming you have any!) when they're sat in the bottom of the hole! 

[storme37]

free range and beautiful garden wont go together unless you fence of part of it u dont mind being wrecked. let em wreck the lawn it will save you having to cut it thats what i did its like a farm yard outside my window lol

[viettaclark]

My garden looks like Colditz with chicken wire and bamboo fencing everywhere I don't want the girls to go. Pots have got sticks in to block them off. Then there's green and black netting draped to stop the cats digging and debris netting on the raised beds to stop birds and unwanted insect pests.
I still have most of the garden available including a large lawn (sorry...not LAWN......area of grassland) for freeranging and I have no weeds or slugs there!!
You just have to be inventive with your choice of plants; ground cover NO, shrubs etc YES.
I still have plenty of flowers (roses are good!!) and I poo pick the grass and chuck it on the borders and everything does well.
Including the chooks.....

[Lindeggs]

A beautiful garden = a garden with chickens in it! 

I'm still trying to develop effective ways of keeping the girls out of my vegetable patch... well really it's the patch of dirt they think of as their dust bath because there are no veges in it. 

My garden looks more like a farmyard than a garden too.  I've come to accept the patchy grass, blurry borders and nibbled leaves.

[evie2]

Ours Huddersfield Hooligans did a grand job of clearing an old veg bed at the end of last year  then gave them the run of the garden early this year with the Sabelpoots, who are delicate little cherubs and never make a mess or behave badly :happy: 
We still have grass in patches but have decided that we really need to have chicken free areas for wee Evie and Josh to play in next year so we will be fencing off an area of the garden so the humans don't mess up the chickens play area