Question for people with chickens and gardens

The #1 community for Gun Owners in Indiana

Member Benefits:

  • Fewer Ads!
  • Discuss all aspects of firearm ownership
  • Discuss anti-gun legislation
  • Buy, sell, and trade in the classified section
  • Chat with Local gun shops, ranges, trainers & other businesses
  • Discover free outdoor shooting areas
  • View up to date on firearm-related events
  • Share photos & video with other members
  • ...and so much more!
  • teddy12b

    Grandmaster
    Trainer Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    40   0   0
    Nov 25, 2008
    7,661
    113
    I've got an idea in my head that I want to run past people who've got egg laying chickens and are good at gardening. I've had chickens for a year and half now, and while we've had a garden for years I wouldn't say we've ever been all that great at it. Currently, we have 6 chickens for our family of 5, and aside from the brief severe temperature dips we went through we get eggs all winter long. I've got 8 more chickens coming in the spring, and I've been thinking of building a structure that'd be dual purpose for both chickens and gardening.

    Currently, I've got my 6 birds in one of these: Amazon product ASIN B07Z1T9BZZ It's nice because it's portable and I can move it around to a fresh area, because after a few months that ground is more of less a bare patch of tilled, well fertilized mud. Having this chicken run me thinking about a fixed version of this concept.

    For sake of keeping the concept simple, I'm thinking of a 20'x20' area where I'd put 4x4x10' posts in the corners, and one spaced in the middle at 10'. My perimeter would take 9 of these posts. Then, taking 2x4x10' boards and running one across the bottom, one in the middle, and one at the top as a frame work, but mostly just to be a place where I could secure the chicken wire. I'd wrap across the whole thing in chicken wire including the top of this for predator protection which makes me think I'd set another post in the center of this and run 2x4's across the top for a place for the netting to lay on. Basically, a fully enclosed, open air chicken run that's 20'x20' for 14 birds.

    So, if I build a 20'x20' or whatever size, it's a matter of time before it turns into another bare patch of tilled, well fertilized mud. So my concept was that I could build one of these 20'x20' sections that I'd keep the birds in, and then build additional 20'x20' section next to it and rotate my chickens in one area, and my garden in the other.
    So that leads me to thinking of a 20'x40' total area, with two sections, where the birds would be in one area tearing it all up all summer long, and then when winter hits I'd move the birds to the garden side for the winter. Then in the spring I could move the birds back to the other side so the birds would rotate between sections of the structure between summer and winter and would be tearing down the old garden area, and preparing it for the next season over winter.

    Does that concept seem like it'd work? I've looking at a lot of time and material for this project and I've never done this before so I don't want to be wrong and end up with a big mess on my hands.
     

    spencer rifle

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    66   0   0
    Apr 15, 2011
    6,544
    149
    Scrounging brass
    Too early in the season and the chickens will eat everything green. Though that depends on the flock. We had flocks that would eat all our hostas down to the ground, and others that wouldn't touch them. Same with wood sorrel. Some would peck holes in the tomatoes and bite into the beans, and others would leave them alone. We don't let them in the garden until later in the season for bug patrol.

    Chicken poop is hot and needs to be composted. The only thing that grows in the chicken pen that can stand it is pokeweed.
     

    teddy12b

    Grandmaster
    Trainer Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    40   0   0
    Nov 25, 2008
    7,661
    113
    Too early in the season and the chickens will eat everything green. Though that depends on the flock. We had flocks that would eat all our hostas down to the ground, and others that wouldn't touch them. Same with wood sorrel. Some would peck holes in the tomatoes and bite into the beans, and others would leave them alone. We don't let them in the garden until later in the season for bug patrol.

    Chicken poop is hot and needs to be composted. The only thing that grows in the chicken pen that can stand it is pokeweed.

    I'm not saying to keep the chickens in the same area as the garden we're actively growing or trying to grow at the same time. I'm looking at the two sections of space as a crop rotation of sorts. The timing of when to move the chickens from one area to the next would have to be something I'd sort out and time correctly for sure.

    Depending on the time to compost maybe it would take a third section closed off where one section would be the current chick area, next section would be the current garden, and the third section would be the old chicken area where the compost is currently settling.

    I should have mentioned earlier, but one of the appealing reasons for this is that I'd wouldn't have to worry as much about critters getting in the garden and it'd be nice to have an enclosed garden area that still gets rained on.
     

    teddy12b

    Grandmaster
    Trainer Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    40   0   0
    Nov 25, 2008
    7,661
    113
    It's a plan, I just don't know if it's a good one or not. I'm not the most successful gardener by any stretch of the imagination.

    I think the three section thing would address letting the chicken manure compost, but like you're saying the build becomes much more expensive the more sections I'd add. When I add up all the materials (4x4x10, 2x4's, chicken wire & quikrete) I'm pushing $700 for the first 20x20 section then an additional $450 per 20x20 section added after that.

    I've been trying to think of ways to build sections cheaper, but even with t-posts and cattle panels and I'm just not coming up with anything brilliant.
     

    Magyars

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    36   0   0
    Mar 6, 2010
    9,096
    113
    Delaware County Freehold
    I have goats and chickens.....so I mellow my compost in piles by the year, so if I or someone I know needs compost it comes off the oldest existing pile.
    We went with raised beds. Makes it easier to works the weeds out and I can plant crops closer. This fall I added two more boxes. IMHO this is best/cheapest way to go.
    I keep my chickens enclosed...witha fenced in Area attached to the coop...you can see it in The upper left corner
    20220622_132918.jpg
     

    BehindBlueI's

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    29   0   0
    Oct 3, 2012
    25,890
    113
    Magyars has it right. Chicken **** will 'burn' the roots if it's applied too liberally or is remotely fresh. We'd turn it into the soil at the end of the harvest and let it sit until the next year at the least.

    Can your chickens free range in relative safety? If you build them nesting boxes they'll put themselves away at dark and you can just close the pen to help prevent nocturnal predators, then let them back out in the morning. Easier on the yard and they'll eat more bugs/less vegetation.
     

    teddy12b

    Grandmaster
    Trainer Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    40   0   0
    Nov 25, 2008
    7,661
    113
    We put in 4 raised beds years ago that were 4'x12'. Since then I've had to rework them due to the wood rotting out. This year my wife has told me that we're tearing it all out because it really does look like garbage. The beds are falling apart, and I've got a lot of work to do to rebuild the whole area.
     

    teddy12b

    Grandmaster
    Trainer Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    40   0   0
    Nov 25, 2008
    7,661
    113
    These pictures are of the current setup.
     

    Attachments

    • 20221210_133316.jpg
      20221210_133316.jpg
      1.2 MB · Views: 21
    • 20221210_133222.jpg
      20221210_133222.jpg
      1.2 MB · Views: 21
    • 20221210_133219.jpg
      20221210_133219.jpg
      1.3 MB · Views: 21

    stocknup

    Expert
    Rating - 100%
    30   0   0
    Mar 28, 2011
    1,059
    113
    Monrovia area
    Lots of good advice on here .........I agree a 3 section set-up could work the best . Not sure you need a separate area for the garden ? You could just have one dedicated section for your birds that you could section off down the middle if you wish , and then let the vegetation replenish itself in the vacant area .
    Not many established garden areas can support a chickens` appetite . ( I do let mine into my corn patch after it has been well established , as corn can take the added Nitrogen )
    Here is my main chicken run .......a lot cheaper than your described construction methods I`m sure .
    It is about 45` square , I attached the netting at the perimeter pretty taught then just propped the posts underneath in a pattern of #5 on a dice with the middle post being the tallest . I placed small pieces carpet atop each post to protect the netting .
    They are well protected from most predators ......
    IMG_5763.JPG IMG_5761.JPG IMG_7241.JPG IMG_9538.JPG
     

    spencer rifle

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    66   0   0
    Apr 15, 2011
    6,544
    149
    Scrounging brass
    We have hideously bad luck with netting. Raccoons have broken right through it. One night a rascal was inside the run and saw me approach. It tried to get back out where it broke in but got tangled. I had nothing in my hands and nothing nearby, so I punched it through the netting in the hopes it would get the message and not come back.

    The result was two things:
    The raccoon didn't get the hint and was back the next night.
    I discovered that "I punched a raccoon and I liked it."
     

    stocknup

    Expert
    Rating - 100%
    30   0   0
    Mar 28, 2011
    1,059
    113
    Monrovia area
    We have hideously bad luck with netting. Raccoons have broken right through it. One night a rascal was inside the run and saw me approach. It tried to get back out where it broke in but got tangled. I had nothing in my hands and nothing nearby, so I punched it through the netting in the hopes it would get the message and not come back.

    The result was two things:
    The raccoon didn't get the hint and was back the next night.
    I discovered that "I punched a raccoon and I liked it."
    We have a lot of racoons here , but they have never tried to get thru the netting ? It`s been up for 4 years now .
    This is pretty heavy duty stuff ......Came from Strombergs .
    I did go out one winter to find a big hole tore thru one area ........A deer thought it was jumping a regular fence and landed on top of the netting . I did not see all that happened but I suppose it was a site to see it trying to get back out .
     

    snapping turtle

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    6   0   0
    Dec 5, 2009
    6,463
    113
    Madison county
    I like tiny little raptors everyone calls chickens. I have not raised them since I was a kid. Raising 200 chickens from babies to full grown convinced my mother that dad could by me my first single shot shotgun. i killed 2 a Saturday for months and we had fried chicken for Sunday dinner. After all that butchering it took a long time before chicken was a favored food again.

    I do know chicken poop will kill off (burn) many crops as it is to hot without composting it for a season. I would clean the chicken cope poop and straw and take to the composting pile every couple weeks and throw down new straw and bedding. That said old chicken coop areas are the best garden spots you can find. They do a great job of making the soil healthy.

    I would think if you do not late fall plant the garden letting the little rsptors in the garden in the fall would be ok for a May planting of veggies.
     

    cburnworth

    Expert
    Site Supporter
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Jul 13, 2010
    999
    93
    I let my chickens have the run of the garden area all fall, winter & spring until I start planting. I currently have an orange plastic fence around the garden to keep the chickens out. I think you need to look at chicken tunnels: 1674958861584.png
     
    Top Bottom