We live on hill (mtns) and have numerous perennial flowers on hill; chickens have been nibbling in these gardens all winter; couldn't figure out what they were eating until now ie bugs, grubs, insect eggs. That's great! I hope there are some plants left, but I see none - only bare ground; and our last frost is May 23 give or take a day. I've ordered more cone flowers, etc seeds and FORTUNATELY the neighbor says he plans to cage the hens when he plants HIS veggie garden.
This is the first year he has let his little hens run loose, and I have loved it. I am city gal and never knew that hens could be such a joy. For some reason I bonded with these gals. I love feeding them. I love watching them waddle up the hill to our home. And they love the game of running from our dogs.
Nevertheless, I plan to put one of my veggie garden in a fence and some in planters on tables and some under netting - I'm preparing in case neighbor doesn't cage the hens. We have many deer and have to spray on deer repellant. No one kills deer here, so they even come to front door. Regardless of these challenges, I love country life. There is soo much to learn. Thank you for this thread. Very helpful
Good for you, I am glad you find the thread useful and hope you will add to it, with your interests and or questions.
Chickens are a delightful creature that God invented, they are so useful, eat bugs and lay eggs, that is a deluxe machine.
I did post several ‘keep the chicken out of the garden solutions’, none of which will work, if my guess is correct.
Chickens come in all kinds, we got suckered on a summer deal once, kept a guys chickens for him for the summer, he came back and said he would be back with the money we were owed and pick up the rest of them, but for now he would take a few.
When it was over, he had taken the hens, and left us with about a 100 old mean roosters and no money.
One of the roosters was so mean that I had to carry a stick to go and milk, as he was always loose, I can show you scars still, where he used his spurs on my legs.
One day, the teenage son of a neighbor was in the house with me and we heard Mr. Mean screaming, I looked out the window and he had gotten caught in a loose roll of hog wire.
I told John “fine, leave him there”.
“But, he will die in the heat”.
“Fine with me”
“Well if you don’t want him, I will take him home, you can’t just let him die”.
John took that big old mean rooster home with him, and the stupid bird thought he had gone to heaven, as if you went to John’s house, the rooster was perched on John’s shoulder and they were going about life.
We had a big black hen, that came running when she saw me, she wanted to be petted.
If I was outside and Bill walked up to me, the hen would get between us and attempt to keep us from touching or hugging.
Which of course made us sure to do so, Mrs. Hen would set on Bills shoes, and peck at him..........she was jealous of him.
Then there was the child’s single big white rooster, that we said “sure send him out, he can live with our chickens”....
Wrong, he was scared to death of chickens and lived in the patio with us.
He would not go near a hen, but would rape the cat’s white plastic feeding bowl several times a day.
We found him a home with a half dozen hens and I hear he was happy at last, as they did not have a rooster.
Laura Killman, at Wellton, was from a pioneer family and was in her 70’s when I met her, she lived on the old home place and would sell me all kinds of poultry, for breeding stock, as I saved the money for a few at a time.
Once I went out to buy more and found her in the barn, teaching a group of 4-H youths how to dress a sheep out.
She asked me “Would you go to the house, at the back door, on the kitchen counter is the knife that I need and bring it to me?”
Of course, I was glad to.
“And if that Banty hen is sitting in the planter bed, pick her up and take the kittens out from under her, before she smothers them, please.”
Right, sure Laura, thinking, yep, you are having me on, gonna laugh at the greenhorn.
Sure enough, at the back door, there was a sitting hen, in the flower bed, so I picked her up and she had a half dozen tiny kittens under her.........sitting on them, as if they were chicks.
Animals and country life, will always be more interesting to me, than the tv. LOL, my opinion of course........LOL