My dear wife keeps letting the chickens out so they can be ‘free range’ and they are tearing up my beds. It’s driving me crazy. Finally decided to buy some electric fence.
I sympathize with you both. I do like the free range chickens as they have the best beautiful egg yolks.
However, I also know what damage to a garden you have slaved on is like, so a fence of some sort is a good idea.
Either that or put the chickens in a portable coup/pen. Move it daily around the yard, so that they are ranging in a limited area, but not long enough to make the soil bare, and not in the garden. Keeps them safe from critters while they are eating bugs too.
We’ve done 30-50 broilers each year for a few years now in chicken tractors...this year my wife got some laying hens (for which I now get to build a hen house) They have just started laying some cute little pullet eggs. How long before they lay standard size eggs?
Not sure of your location or handyman skills - I would suggest a "Chicken Tractor" which is a portable chicken coop and moveable fencing.
Depending on how frequently you move it ,the chickens are also free range, but you control how much yard they have access to.
Since the coop of the "Tractor" moves with them , eggs are easy to find, the chicks get good nutriition, greens and bugs, and you always can find the eggs.
Just a thought - instructions avaiable at Mother Earth News, many organic websites , or just 'google" it.
Electric fence is expensive - I just got 50 feet of chicken fence wire, 3 feet high, at Tractor Supply for $18.00 .
Posts , rerod , stakes are extra.
To keep the wife out of the garden?