Protecting the garden from Chickens

Having chooks has been something of a learning curve for me.  We always had chickens when I was a kid so I think I thought that I was fairly knowledgeable about them.  WRONG.  I’ve found them both entertaining, bewildering and just straight out strange.  I’ve also found them quite destructive when let loose in the garden.  As a result I’ve opted for some protective measures to try and dissuade them from entering certain areas of the garden.

This metre high plastic fencing has kind of worked.  They can fly over it and occasionally do, but mostly they can’t be bothered and stay on the appropriate side of fence.  It has the advantage of being entirely portable and will allow me to choose which areas of the garden they free range in.

For my most recently planted seeds and seedlings I have added additional reinforcement to allow the plants to survive in the instances the chooks do break free of the above fencing.  We initially built these cages to stop blackbirds from digging up areas of the garden but they work equally well for chickens.

The other method I have tried is just to put some chicken wire loosely over the planted area.  This did not work nearly as well as the cages.   They just ignored it and pecked and dug away at the area regardless.

Overall though I think my combination of protective measures seems to be working….for the time being anyway.  Now I just need to work out how to get them to go back in their pen at night rather than attempting to roost on the washing line.