Keeping Chickens Out of Flower Gardens

Chickens are a valuable source of fresh eggs, insect control and manure, but they can destroy flowerbeds without the right precautions. The areas of bare soil around flowering plants are attractive to foraging chickens. Installing fencing around each flower garden is an effective way to keep chickens out of them, but fences often detract from the appeal of flowers. With the correct accommodations, insect-munching chickens can become a welcome addition in flower gardens.

Chickens naturally forage for food while they are out and about in a yard. Foraging chickens scratch at the ground with their claws, damaging plants and tearing up soil and roots near the soil surface in the process. They can quickly turn the loose soil around flowering plants into a barren, dusty mess while they scratch the soil, looking for edible insects and seeds.

A fence intended to exclude chickens from a flower garden must completely encircle the garden and stand at least 4 feet high. Poultry netting is an effective material for a fence to exclude chickens and other animals; it is a hexagonal wire mesh available at most garden supply stores. Burying the fence's lowest 6 inches also helps exclude animals that, unlike chickens, may burrow under the fence, creating a path for adventurous chickens to follow.

Chickens will find and use gaps underneath fencing to get into flower gardens. Unless additional fence posts are installed, fencing around a flower garden on a hillside will have gaps below it at the base of the hill, where the slope becomes more gradual. Adding fence posts in those low areas along the fence row creates more attachment points for poultry netting and allows it to follow the ground closely. Each fence around a flower garden requires a gate that will direct foot traffic to one area. Over time, heavy foot traffic can kill grass and erode the soil, creating a gap in the fence beneath the gate. Installing flat rocks or stone pavers beneath the gate and over the ground around it adds a finished look to a fence and provides long-term soil erosion control.

Poultry netting installed over the ground can protect planting beds and low-growing flowering plants from the attention of hungry chickens. Installing poultry netting in a cylinder around individual plants also provides effective protection while allowing chickens to roam. Placing flat stones or masonry pavers over the ground around seedling flowering plants limits the areas of bare soil where chickens can scratch to areas away from the seedlings' bases.