Having chickens is great… they are amusing strange little creatures; I
\ncould sit in the garden for hours and watch them as they gorge themselves
\non the smallest of insects and chase each other around when the other has
\nfound a worm or some such. They can also run the entire length of the
\ngarden is nano-seconds when you open the back door. Oh, and the obvious, they give you eggs every day.<\/p>\n
Having chickens is a pain in the arse… if you like your garden. As they
\nsearch the undergrowth they trample on smaller plants and peck at flowers
\nand leaves, many of which they don’t like but they seem to forget, so try
\nthem every time they pass. The also scrat at the soil and unearth root
\nballs or distribute top soil around, often onto the grass etc.<\/p>\n
I bought a lot of bigger plants at the weekend to fill two small beds. My
\nreasoning is that more mature plants can stand up to the chickens walking
\naround them and actually the chickens notice them and tend not to just
\nwalk straight over them.<\/p>\n
So far most of the plants have been relatively untouched and the plan
\nseems to be working, apart from two lupins… I’d say they have been
\ndecimated, but that means reduce by one tenth… these have been stripped
\nbare in little under a few hours.<\/p>\n