Chicken in a Pot

No, this is not a recipe post.

It’s about my friend Sivia, her garden, and her pet chickens. I’ve experimented with pet chickens before and the experiment went terribly wrong. Besides attacking my husband, my children, and a Viet Nam vet, my chicken, Missy Peeps (whom later turned out to be Mr. Peeps) ate all my plants.

Sivia has a few tricks up her sleeve for keeping harmony in her garden—even with chickens milling about. I was never able to do this.

First she keeps her veggie garden in a raised bed and netted at all times. Planting veggie gardens in a raised bed is a good idea, as chickens will destroy seedlings and young plants down on the ground.

My chicken not only ate all my plants—he pooped all over my patio—chased my poor dogs, and of course, never laid a damned egg. Sivia’s chickens lay eggs, primarily because they’re not roosters.

Sivia has a pen where the chickens sleep at night and where she can lock them up when she needs too.

She also keeps some of her more tender plants in pots.

Sivia uses a technique I like to call the pointy stick technique for keeping her chickens out of her flowerbeds. You take sticks approximately two feed long and stick them in the ground around your garden. You can push them into the ground at a slant. Diagonally placed sticks actually look kind of nice around a flower bed, like a rustic border. You could use wooden kabob sticks but they are kind of short and they will decompose rather fast.

Another way to keep chickens away from certain plants or places in your garden while still letting them roam free is to use a motion sensor that triggers a stream of water. Chickens don’t like getting squirted with water. Neither do deer and that’s what these sensors are made for

I’ve heard that creating a place in the shade where chickens can dig around, like their own sand box, can help keep them from giving themselves dust baths in other parts of your garden.

You can also lay chicken wire on the ground around plants.

Here’s a great method of controlling chickens while keeping them in your garden. You can use a chicken tractor. A chicken tractor is  a portable pen with no bottom that house’s chickens–letting them roam in spots with well-established plants that may need a little extra fertilizer and/or insect removal.

A chicken tractor is such a great idea that I feel another post coming on.

So let’s review: Don’t let your chickens roam free around young plants and seedlings or freshly planted areas. Chicken scratch for food and they will destroy young plants. Chickens in general are not destructive to mature plants. Do have a safe place to keep chickens at night or whenever you need to put them away. Raccoons, skunks, coyotes all find chicken very tasty.

If all else fails when trying to maintain harmony between your chickens and your garden, I have a great recipe for chicken potpie.

Stumble It!

Comments

[msmerlin]

Thank you for sharing these tips for raising chickens and vegetables in close proximity. I love the photos of Silvia's feathered friend. That's one beautiful chicken in a post!

My friend Lou used to raise hens in a coop in her backyard. Lou ordered baby chicks from a farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We saved store-bought egg cartons, and Lou filled them with delicious eggs of different sizes and colors.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a flock of chickents...and maybe a goat? Your idea for a portable chicken tractor-house sounds great! Please let us know if you investigate further!

[msmerlin]

Oops! I meant to say, "That's one beautiful chicken in a POT!" ("Post" was a Freudian slip, inspired by what I was doing.)

Oops again! Last paragraph should begin, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a flock of CHICKENS...and maybe a goat?"

[Jean]

Oh the memories....In a previous life, about 10 years ago, I raised hens. I loved my hens. They kept me connected to the earth and nature. I thought of the view out my kitchen window as my little farm. I suppose at one time it was a farm. I daydreamed a lot out those windows...about a simpler life. Somehow those hens brought me there whenever I needed to slow down. Now, we live in the Boston city limits...no hens for me! The view out my kitchen window is someone else's kitchen window.... Not exactly bucolic. For now, it must work. Thank you for bringing back memories. I enjoy your reading your blog and your photos...especially when it's snow to beat the band here!

[Gardening Seeds]

haha. great pics thanks!