peteyfoozer
Garden Addicted
Just wanted to know if anyone has it and would recommend it or not.
Does Anyone have the book "Free Range Chicken Gardens"?
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thistlebloom
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I'd be very interested in hearing some discussion about the book. Frankly, I don't believe it. :/
My chickens are let out only occasionally and they are really hard on my perennial beds. Any bit of moist soil is excavated, and any plant that they can straddle on moist soil gets tore up.
It's a lovely photo on the book cover though!
My chickens are let out only occasionally and they are really hard on my perennial beds. Any bit of moist soil is excavated, and any plant that they can straddle on moist soil gets tore up.
It's a lovely photo on the book cover though!
Just-Moxie
Garden Addicted
Will be keeping an eye on this thread. I tried to let mine free range, but they wouldn't play by the rules. They are wild game fowl, and refused to come back to the coop at all. So, I took an empty wire round cage I had been using for composting.....empty right now....and circled an old rotted stump with it. Hooked their coop up to it...and they have beeb having a blast with it for the past week. The stump is nicely exposed now, and they have been enjoying whatever bugs and grubs they could find. They've even dug two small tunnels into the ground.I have another stump in the middle yard that I will put them on next week. It keeps them entertained and digs up my stumps.
grow_my_own
Deeply Rooted
I was recently gifted this book by a friend. It's a great book, but here's what I can see and what I've experienced.
I let my chickens in the garden at the END of the growing season. They do all the fine soil tilling for me and harvest what's left of the plants. By the time they're done with it, there's not much left for me to do but pull out any plants that are left and do the big tilling to overwinter the garden. I could not see myself putting my chooks in my garden at any point where I wasn't ready to harvest.
That being said, the first year we had chickens, though I did put ONE hen in the garden once every couple of weeks for bug control, but only for about an hour and only while I was out there with her. The minute she started eating something other than the bugs, I'd get her out and that would be the end of that for a couple of weeks. The upside of that is that we had no bugs that year.
We just put up a big fence and divided our yard in half to keep the chickens out of where the garden's going to be. I just can't see chickens and a pretty garden going well together. We had a lovely, green yard when we moved here last April and have had no lawn at all, complete "moonscape" since late June. I can't see how chickens can NOT completely destroy a garden.
I let my chickens in the garden at the END of the growing season. They do all the fine soil tilling for me and harvest what's left of the plants. By the time they're done with it, there's not much left for me to do but pull out any plants that are left and do the big tilling to overwinter the garden. I could not see myself putting my chooks in my garden at any point where I wasn't ready to harvest.
That being said, the first year we had chickens, though I did put ONE hen in the garden once every couple of weeks for bug control, but only for about an hour and only while I was out there with her. The minute she started eating something other than the bugs, I'd get her out and that would be the end of that for a couple of weeks. The upside of that is that we had no bugs that year.
We just put up a big fence and divided our yard in half to keep the chickens out of where the garden's going to be. I just can't see chickens and a pretty garden going well together. We had a lovely, green yard when we moved here last April and have had no lawn at all, complete "moonscape" since late June. I can't see how chickens can NOT completely destroy a garden.
Nyboy
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LOL it amazes me how little feet can do so much damage!
chris09
Garden Ornament
IMHO, The last thing you want to do is teach a chicken where the garden is at. One chicken can and will do more damage to a garden than a colony of rabbits.
Chris
Chris
nachoqtpie
Deeply Rooted
What about ducks?? 
If I could teach my lil duckies to JUST eat the bugs while I'm in the garden... I think we might let them in there when we're out there. Last year we had a TERRIBLE time with pests! I picked so many bean beetles that I had nightmares about them!
If I could teach my lil duckies to JUST eat the bugs while I'm in the garden... I think we might let them in there when we're out there. Last year we had a TERRIBLE time with pests! I picked so many bean beetles that I had nightmares about them!
momofdrew
Deeply Rooted
I let my chooks into the garden and cover or wrap what I dont want them touching...a little row cover or chicken wire goes a long way... of course I have silkies and they are little so they dont do as much damage as a full size bird would if they get into something they shouldn't...
