chickens and ducks in garden? Plus a silly chicken question.

[CCJWGM]

We have 3 chickens and will expand our flock to include 2 ducks in the spring. Our garden area is located on an acre that has the garden, grapes, trained berries, and orchard. The ducks and chickens would have the whole acre to roam and the chickens would have their little coup there as well.

Is this a reasonable arrangement or would they destroy my garden? I have plenty of slugs for them to eat and they would get their duck/chicken food and kitchen scraps as well.

Now for the stupid chicken question. My chickens are in my back yard now which is really the most giant dog run you've ever seen. It is surrounded by chain link and they can't get out. They sleep in their little coup every night. My garden area has field fencing that they could escape from. Do I need to re fence or should I assume they are trained enough now to always come back to their coup. That is where their nesting boxes are and their perches.

[MamaMonica]

They'll probably destroy the garden, unfortunately. We fence them out in summer and let them in during the fall/winter/spring (the ducks eat the slugs and chickens scratch around).

They can go through field fencing, so it depends on how far they want to roam. Ours do roam and we had to improve the fence to keep them out of the neighbor's yard.

[WaitingForKiddos]

Oh ya, they are going to strip your garden bare!

A chicken will walk right through and wander as far as they feel like it. I'd refence the garden or you might have issues with the flock off your propriety. They might go back to the coop to roost at night or they might pick a new spot to spend the night. Either way it's way safer for them to be put away and locked up at night so a predator doesn't get an easy dinner.

[Tizzy]

Ducks and chicks LOVE seedlings, chickens love to dig up freshly planted bulbs and ducks think beans (especially the plants themselves) are ever so tasty.
Long story short, they will destroy your garden and berry crops.

Best to harvest everything they are allowed to eat and dump it in their pen. I weed almost daily and give the animals any extra fruits and veggies, I'll collect slugs in the evenings and early mornings and put all those in the chicken run.
When I have let the chickens loose, they wreak havoc on my flowerbeds and gardens.

[CCJWGM]

Okay. This is just depressing. We have 45 acres and you would "think" we could come up with a place for the chickens other than the back yard. I guess I have some "thinking" do to.

[weliveintheforest]

soemthing else to keep in mind with the fencing is keeping other animals out. We let our chickens out of their run for short periods of time to get some better free ranging, but we've lost 2 that way We need to fence a bigger run but even chicken wire is pricey so we are waiting.

[PenelopeJune]

I'd fence the garden if you want them to roam free.

[Chicky2]

You got your answers about the chickens and the garden already. If you want birds you can have in the garden, get guineas! You certainly have enough land! (LUCKY!)