[bubbles108]

I have recenty allowed my 2 chickens to roam free for about 1 hour  day.
Prior to chickens I spent a great deal of time and money on my garden and so am trying to minimise the damage my girls are causing but am begining to wonder if its unrealistic to keep a decent garden along side chickens.  What do others think?

[viettaclark]

Chickens scratch and scratch and scratch.
Any low plants either get submerged with earth or rooted up so you have to stick to woody/prickly shrubs. My bulbs have amazingly survived 2 years of scratching but my pots are wired as are my nice beds.
Chicken wire everywhere kind of defeats the object of a beautiful garden!

[Tony H]

give up on the garden if you let chucks out  they destroy everything in sight you could try fencing a small section of with some 2 1/2 foot picket fence keeps the chucks in and looks good in the garden, i have found them plants with the smelly leves are best the chucks avoid them compleatly  :blink:

[alaj]

Lol do I sympathise!!!  We have 7 chooks, they are toe rags!  We have fenced off about 6m x 8m of garden surrounding their house that they can do what they like in. We used willow weave fencing to make it look nicer. They are allowed into the rest of the garden but not all of the time. Thy go on slug amd snail duties with help of our 4 kids who love the chooks 
A

[Aunt Sally]

It depends how big your garden is, where you allow them to range and how many chickens you have.

I had 2 - 3 chickens free range in my garden for 6 years without much damage.  I used low wire fences to keep them off my main flowerbed but they had plenty of ground to scratch in in the shrubbery at the end of the garden.

[New shoot]

I just love that middle picture of your girls looking expectantly in through the french doors Auntie    And I love their parasol as well 

Mine get an ex army camouflage net tied to the mesh of their run in the summer to provide dappled shade for them 

My back garden gets a bit of a pounding if I let the big gang out, but they tend to concentrate on the shadey border running along the side of the garden.  It's planted with big evergreen shrubs and did have ground cover shade loving plants under them.  Now it grows mostly dust baths 

The trio I have wander all day with very little carnage 

[alaj]

Love that photo of the girls at the window!
Just needed to say that!

[bubbles108]

Hi

Thanks for the feedback.  I think I already knew the answer
I have one bed that 'I'm trying to make into a cottage garden bed and think I'll have to keep them them off that.  It would be just too upsetting to lose it but think I'll have to be realistic about the rest.  I notice from your photo's aunt sally that you have another run independent of their coop.  I had wondered if to extend the run they already have on the grass and put them in there most of the  the time and only really let them roam free on their way back up to the coop so that would be for probably 10 mins max.  Would this be  cruel??  I know it goes against what I really consider to be free range but am just trying to think of ways to compromise.

Thanks again

[bubbles108]

PS Aunt Sally love the photo's

[Aunt Sally]

That was just a temporary position for the coop while we were building the new run.  The coop (eglu) was put into the big run when we'd finished building it.

They only stayed in their run when we went out (I'm at home most of the time) so that foxy woxy didn't get them.

[Aunt Sally]

Glad you like the pictures

[Tony H]

 Hi theres no real point to letting them out for ten mins they will still destroy what they see
and you will end up chasing them all over the garden to get them in there run  if you have the space you could increase the size of there run  :blink: unfortuanatly your choices are limited i know you want to the best for your girls but in reality its your garden or the chucks 

[SarahJC]

When we just had 5 chickens, they used to free range the whole of our 200' x 35' garden. Notice the 'used to'! They had their safe enclosed covered run for when we were not at home.

They were very partial to the plants and could dig for England! Trying to plant anything was rather chaotic as they thought I was on worm duty and I'd be forever lifting them out of the hole I was digging. As soon as they were aware I was coming out of the back door they'd be there with their beaks pressed against the glass.

It got to the point where I would look at plants to buy and wonder whether they'd survive the chickens.

We ended up giving them roughly half of the garden to themselves which is fenced off. The far end of the garden we never had plants in although it has a grass area. The veg patch is there, which is fenced off when in use and in the winter they get to dig it over. They do have some plants in their area. Rosemary and lavender and fruit trees. I find highly aromatic things they don't touch. Or prickly things or big shrubs with tough leaves.

I think it all depends on what kind of gardener you are and what sort of garden you want.

I do miss them being nearer to the house though and about my feet while I hung out the washing!

[bubbles108]

Thanks to everyone
I love my garden and I love my chickens so I think there is going to have to be a compromise which will include them being allowed to run free for a limited time but under strict supervision.
I'm also going to have to look into alot bigger run for them when I can't be out in the garden and so accepting that a large amount of lawn will be lost to them.  I know its not ideal but I really don't want to get to the point where I resent the damage caused
 

[viettaclark]

Try and do a moveable run. Any grass in a small area would be completely destroyed in a couple of weeks!