Chickens and gardens can be raised together if managed properly.
The idea of having a little flock of chickens free ranging throughout your yard is idyllic at best, but as soon as those chickens get in and make a mess of your garden, that ideology changes. A chicken or poultry wire fence must be installed around the perimeter of your garden to keep the chickens out and the produce safe. Chickens can dig holes in garden beds digging for bugs and worms. This scratching can damage vegetable root structures and kill the plants. They will also eat the leafy greens, vegetables and fruits by pecking at them with their beaks. The chickens can be turned out to range free in the garden once produce has been harvested at the end of the growing season. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Keeping Free Range Chickens
1. Pound a 7 foot steel fence post in each corner of the area where the chickens will be free-ranged using a post pounder.
2. Tie a string to one of the corner posts and then run it around the other corner posts to outline the perimeter of the fence.
3. Pound additional fence posts into the ground every 6 feet along the length of the fence. Use the guide string to keep the fence posts in a straight line.
4. Unroll chicken wire along the outer edges of the fence posts around the entire fence perimeter. Lift the wire up at one of the corner posts and tie it to the post with pieces of metal wire. Install a wire every 6 inches along the width of the wire to fasten it securely to the post. Stretch the chicken wire from the corner post to the next post in line and fasten the chicken wire to the post in the same fashion as the first. Continue this process until the free range area has been fenced in.
5. Place a chicken coop anywhere you want within the fenced area. Turn the coop so that the side where the chickens enter and exit faces south. Fill the nesting boxes in the coop with 4 inches of clean straw and place 8 inches of wood shavings on the floor of the coop. Ensure the coop has 12 inches of roosting space per chicken, 4 square feet of floor space per chicken and one nesting box for every five chickens.
6. Lock the chickens in the coop at night to protect them from predators and to help them recognize that the coop is their home.
7. Place chicken waterers and feeders just outside the chicken coop on top of cinder blocks. The food and water should be at shoulder height. Put 18 percent protein lay crumbles and chicken scratch in the feeder during the spring, fall, and winter months and 16 percent lay crumbles and chicken scratch in the feeder during the summer months. Store the feed in a plastic or metal garbage can to keep mice and moisture out. Pour in one 50 pound bag of crumbles and one 50 pound bag of chicken scratch simultaneously into the barrel and then mix the feed together with your hands.
8. Fill a 1 gallon tub with oyster shell and place it near the feed and water. Fill another 1 gallon tub with chicken grit and place it near the feed and water. Oyster shell is fed to chickens to help keep their egg shells strong. Grit is eaten by the birds to help grind up the food they eat.
9. Let the chickens free range around the yard or property to forage for seeds, insects, worms and greens. Allow this everyday.
Keeping a Vegetable Garden
10. Chickens love to forage in a garden for bugs and greens.
Enclose the garden area by building another fence just like the one you built around the entire free range area. Pound in corner posts. Outline the perimeter with guide string. Pound in posts every 6 feet along the fence line. Unroll the chicken wire around the entire garden. Lift the chicken wire and attach it to the posts by tying a piece of wire around the post and every 6 inches along the post's length.
11. Dig rows in the garden 24 inches apart using a hoe and shovel. Plant vegetable seeds according to the directions on the seed packets. Sprinkle the seeds with water three times a day using a watering can. Keep the soil moist to allow for proper seed germination and sprouting. Water the garden once a day during the garden season by dropping a garden hose into each garden row. Water according to each plant's watering needs.
12. Grow the garden until the plants are near maturity and then allow several chickens to enter the garden once a day for a few minutes to control bugs. Chase them out of the garden with a broom once they start digging in the dirt with their feet. Weed the garden daily.
Tags: chicken wire, corner posts, around entire, chicken scratch, fence posts