Might be dumb question about chooks

belveder

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The other half wants a few chickens, and wants them running free in a large area we have set aside and fenced of, my question is will it work? I'll explain

Our house is a large corner block, two fences for the chook area (which also include vegie patch, pond and hard to grow succulent area plus 2 very large orange trees and 1 huge rampant mulberry tree) are 6 foot high, 1 fence is a garage wall and third is wire mesh, dogs can look through this but can't get in. My arguement is the chickens would climb/jump up the trees and over the fence plus destroy the veggie garden.

Am i right on this or is it safe to have a couple chickens running around?
 

Mark

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There's no such thing as a dumb question :)
This is a good question actually. Most chickens won't get over a 5 foot fence but you can always clip their wings (which is easy to do) for any lighter birds.

It's possible they could work out how to jump a fence using a tree with low branches in the right places.

Every chicken will make a bee line to a vegetable garden (it's like a magnet to chooks) and you are completely right chickens can be pretty destructive so your veggie patch would be hit hard. I can't let my chooks near my vegetable garden unless it's to help me prepare a bed for a new season.

Would it be possible to fence off the vegetable garden and just let them in when you want the beds tilled?
 

belveder

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Thanks for that, I thought it was a little impracticle without a chicken run
 

Mark

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Thanks for that, I thought it was a little impracticle without a chicken run
Well, people do have chooks roam around their backyards and seem to enjoy letting the chickens go where ever. However, I do think the garden has to be set-up specifically to make it work. Otherwise, the chickens will get into areas where they are not welcome such as ornamental gardens, mulch around fruit trees (they throw it everywhere), veggie patches, garden sheds, verandahs, compost heaps, etc.
 

stevo

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I used to let my chickens (bantams) go where ever they liked, I would even leave the front gate open but they would never go past a certain point. I think Bantams may be more cautious than normal chickens. They even scratched around the vegie patch and didn't eat the vegies... but they did scratch and flick all the mulch from out of my little fern garden so I was constantly chasing them out of that. ... and then Kevin (big female Silkie) decided he liked Spinach and stripped my spinach plants and once one does something they all watch and decide that's a good idea.

I have just recently put in a temporary fence to confine them to the back area of the yard. It was pretty cool having them walk around everywhere but it wasn't practical really. Although they didn't step inside the house, they would stand at the back door and look in and tell me how hungry they were, and do sloppy poos in the back patio area, so I had to hose it off every few days.
 
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