Protecting Veg Beds

[Karen]

Hi, me again! The one with all the many questions! :)

So............. we've urgently got to get a chook system up and running. I've got two different ideas:

1. A deep litter chook house, with a chook yard coming off it (we have a "corner" in the yard, with a garage wall on one side & boundary fences on 2 sides, so it would be simple to use it for the chooks (it faces north, too). I'm thinking it might be good to cover the top with bird netting for protection, but not sure how to do that with banana trees in the corner - plus I'd like to plant another tree for shade. We would let the chooks out into the backyard sometimes when the kids are out there playing, so they can interact with the chooks, plus it's obviously good for the chooks! BUT..... my question is, how would we protect the vegies? They would be right next to the chook shed/yard. I like the idea of putting the chooks into a previously picked part of the vegie garden, so they can do the digging and weeding for me, but I'm not sure how to set all this up. Do I fence off the whole veggie patch in a way where we can open up one section at a time when it's ready for chooks, but keep the other sections fenced off? It sounds like a lot of fencing! So yeah, the question is, with this system, how do I protect the vegies from the chooks, but then give them select access to certain beds at certain times?
2. A Linda Woodrow style chook dome, with circular beds. Our yard is not the perfect size/shape for this system because it is kind of a T shape. We couldn't set it up like she suggests in her book. It sounds so detailed, but I'm sure it works well. But we could have a row of circular beds for vegies, that we rotate the dome on, once the vegies in each garden are picked. I can see how it could work very well, even though they wouldn't be set up in a mandala shape. I like the fact that the chooks would be safely in their dome all the time which would protect them from escaping etc and it's great for the vegie beds in terms of fertiliser & weeding. They'd benefit the vegie garden that they're on top of, and the other ones would be protected because the chooks would stay in the dome. We'd need to put it in one spot for a good length of time in between them going on the vegie beds, but that would be ok I guess, with lots of straw etc on the ground. My main problem/question with this system, is "would it work without it being in the mandala shape Woodrow recommends"? We would have a line of vegie beds that the chooks would move down, then we'd have to walk the dome back to the beginning again. And secondly, I think a problem with this plan is that the kids wouldn't interact with the chooks as much because they'd always be in the dome.

Has anyone got some helpful ideas/experiences of either of these systems? We need to get started ASAP - these chicks are getting HUGE! :)

We're loving our girls.....

Karen

[Penny Guy]

I use a Linda Woodrow type dome and find it works well. It is slightly smaller than hers at 2.8m in diameter and I found it pretty easy to construct. My beds aren't in a mandala shape as that didn't fit into the area I have.

[Karen]

Thanks Penny. I'd love to see a photo of your set-up!! I'm actually moving away from the idea of the Linda Woodrow method though, as much as I love it, simply because my children want the joy of having the chickens roaming around the yard for them to interact with etc. Of course, the reality of that might not be as ideal as they think, because I'm sure they'll probably end up on our verandah making a mess of our outdoor furniture etc!! I think I'll probably use the domes in our next house in 5-10 years time, when the kids are older. I think it is a great system!

So yeah, I'm thinking now of doing a deep litter house with an attached straw yard, and probably fencing in the veg. It's just a matter of working out all those logistics!!

[Dinah Dunavan]

My chooks are better at eating worms than weeds. So I tend to throw them bits from the garden rather than letter them in. Alternatively make some low moveable fences that will distract the hens from the part of the garden you want to protect.

[Rebekah Hay]

I tried the Linda Woodrow dome - and it was really difficult to construct. I really don't recommend trying it. But I think the concept is really sound and adapted it for my square backyard and limited space. After 2 years of trial and error, my system works like this;

I've got 6 rectangular raised-vege-beds, they're all 1m x 2m. I've made a movable fence that consists of 2m-tall chicken wire attached with plastic cable ties onto 2m-tall thin aluminium garden stakes. The fence is 6.5m long, big enough to go around a raised bed. I add a movable garden umbrella to give them some shade and plenty of water . It takes my 3 chooks a day or two at most to dig over one of those beds. It's more like a once-a-month picnic for them than a daily chore - they are such efficient diggers! I give them a couple of afternoons on each bed, so they've got the morning egglaying out of the way before they get digging.

They nest and sleep in a converted rabbit hutch, and I have that surrounded by another movable chicken wire fence made the same way. This movable fence is a lot longer so it can enclose much more space. I move them around the garden seasonally, I find they eat a lot of grass so I do need to move them every 3 months or so - by the time I move the big enclosure the ground has been scratched back nearly to bare dirt. This big enclosure always has an area where I put all the deep litter and compostable material we generate, and that's their favourite scratching spot.

I put bird netting above any space they would want to fly from - e.g. they climb on top of the hutch to look for a vantage point to fly over their fence, so I have a small netting roof above the hutch - and that saves me needing to clip wings. I use garden ties or screw-in cuphooks to fix the netting to fence posts or branches or tree trunks.

hope that helps

[Megan]

sorry Karen, had to delete my previous post, the link wasn't complete & didn't work. The instructions for the chicken tractor that fits over a raised bed could be adapted to include an additional fenced area as a run for your chickens. This is the same site that Margaret mentioned

http://www.gardengirltv.com/pets_small_livestock_raising_chickens_r...

[Mel]

Im a tad confused on placing (I need maps for directions not words ;) so Im lost on the lay out lol) but I built a 'moveable' fence to put between the chooks and the garden. It has thick wood lent against each side and each end to hold it up (and they are rammed in to the dirt, its solid as) and come winter Ill move the fence down and they will have free range to weed the garden, but my winter garden will still be on the other side. If I wanted just one fenced off Id just out it between the beds.
Ive uploaded a pic (its old, the gardens even more wild then that now :S), its hard to see the fence tho but might help. One chook nests in the grass by one bed, so they can still get over the fence but only she does, I think she has a peck at a few bugs, lays an egg and leaves again. Even if she went on a rampage the gardens so big now she wont do much harm, its just the seedling stage I worry about. If I was too worried about keeping a seedling safe until it was bigger Id stick a plastic drink bottle with the bottom cut off over it to keep it safe (makes it warmer and grow faster too)
You could also try that plastic trelis around the graden beds, or build a basic frame above the beds and put bird netting over, which would also have the bonus of keeping cabbage moths out and other birds.

Jakeb 016.jpg

[Margaret Beers Oliver]

we have a great information site in the States, www.gardengirltv.com that has some good information on chooks and the ways to keep them happy in the garden.