All Cooped Up
After days of a soaking rain, I was anxious to see how my garden was doing. Throughout the three days of endless rain, I occasionally noticed one of my Production Red chickens in my garden plot. I did not give it much thought at the time.
The saturated ground gave a little to each of my steps. My shoes were soaked before I made it to my garden. I was expecting to see my seeds sprouting into baby spinach and lettuces. I could already see the potato plants from my dining room window.
All Cooped Up
My excitement became shock and dismay. All of my cabbage plants were dug up and most were dead and/or broken. The potato plants were green, but they were all exposed and pecked. My rows of lettuce, spinach, and Swiss chard were part way destroyed with scratches all over the tops of the rows.
I did not need to call in a Crime Scene Investigation team because all the evidence pointed to that red hen. Her claw prints were all up and down and on top of my rows. The potatoes bore the scars inflicted upon them by her. A witness (me) saw her at the scene of the crime. It was time to act. We depend on our garden for food; it is not a hobby. We cannot afford to have one chicken destroy our food supply. Unfortunately there was little I could do at that moment. I did not feel like playing in the mud while trying to repair the damage in the garden.
Since my husband, Lane, and our son, Jake, had recently clipped our chickens’ wings, I wondered how she was getting out of her yard. It did not take long to see her coming from under the wire fence. I chased her back into the chicken yard. Then I plugged up the hole.
Upon close inspection, I found other weaknesses in the fencing. The chicken yard is large allowing them plenty of room to free-range. Many years ago, they were allowed to go wherever they pleased, but we lost too many hens to predators and they were eating my garden vegetables. So we decided to enclose them on part of our property. Their yard backs up to the perimeter fence of our property. On this side of their yard a different type of wire fence from the other three sides is stretched. It has larger spaces between the wires. We suspected that perhaps the chickens could squeeze through the spaces. So Lane stretched the smaller-spaced wire across that side. We also found several spots where the chickens could squeeze underneath the fence. They are surprisingly good diggers.
Fortunately, it did not take long for the garden to drain and dry out. I replanted the potato plants and the two cabbage plants that survived the attack. I replanted the lettuce, spinach, and chard seeds where the hen scratched all of the seeds away.
Now my garden is doing nicely. We successfully fortified the chicken yard. No chicken was hurt during the lock-down. I depend on them to lay their eggs. One hen did a number on our garden. Thank goodness we were only up against one and not the whole flock. With a little work and better fencing, peace has been restored to our family farm. All the hens and the rooster are safe and snug in their coop and surrounding yard.
What a hoot!!! I needed a smile today after taxes yesterday!!
I feel your pain. We are going to finish fencing in the rest of the garden that we had not planned on because the chickens have decide that is a great place to hang out and take dust baths. Our garden too is our food supply and we simply cannot afford to have them ruin it. Sorry to hear about the destruction. I pray you get it back up and running.