Chicken (hen) or birds pecking at my seedlings?

[TaoRich]

Has anyone ever had any experience of chickens pecking at their cannabis seedlings or plants?
Or any other birds?

I have some leaf damage on my plants
- young seedlings about 12" / 30cm tall
- 1 gallon / 4.5 litre planter bags
- outside in the garden
- ground level on the paving

The damage looks too erratic to be a small insect or worm
- it's not neat curved cut-outs like you see with something that holds onto a leaf and munches their way around\
- some leaf tips are kind of ripped off with a flat edge, and just the central vein remaining

And it looks to be too extensive.
- one night there was far too much damage to have been one critter
- and I do check them every day for pests.

We have a resident chicken ... and most of the damage is suspiciously at a standing peck level.

Also the damage is round the edges of a block of seeding rows ... looking like something browsed the easy to reach plants.

- - -

I have done some reading, but all I can find are stories of seed eating birds pecking at buds. That's not the case here.

 

[TaoRich]

Hmmm ...

I just did a pest patrol, and I discovered a small green grasshopper or locust on one of my plants.
Not one of the the same plants with the existing damage, but close to them.

I am still keen to hear if anyone else has had chicken or bird damage ... not conclusive as yet.

 

[DancesWithWeeds]

I have chickens, too. They don't seem to have much interest in the pot leafs. I've tried to get them to eat it but they avoid it. If your chicken is pecking leafs I'd be looking for bugs.

As for your seeds, chickens scratch. That's what thay do. An easy fix is make a poultry wire cage for your plants.


There is a small opening from the chicken yard to this garden. The girls are getting it ready for next year.


Btw, this picture was last year. The rings around the plants were a loser. They were the sides of wading pools with the bottom cut out. They were only about 4 inches into the ground but no roots got past them.

Anyhow, the chickens eat the bugs and fertilize at the same time. All natural. What more could one ask.

 

[xtsho]

I don't know about weed but when I had backyard chickens they stripped my ferns almost bare.

One way to rule out that chicken.

 

[TaoRich]

I've been looking up recipes.

 

[pahpah-cee]

Chickens fucked my garden up. I’ve honestly given up on my outdoor garden until I can build a barrier around all my plants to keep them out.

They will definitely eat random plants. The worse is they rip plants out by the roots so they can find bugs. My wife convinced me they were a good idea.

 

[xtsho]

Chickens fucked my garden up. I’ve honestly given up on my outdoor garden until I can build a barrier around all my plants to keep them out.

They will definitely eat random plants. The worse is they rip plants out by the roots so they can find bugs. My wife convinced me they were a good idea.

Screw the damn chickens. Eggs are cheap. I couldn't wait for that last chicken to die. Having chickens turned into a nightmare for me. Never again.

 

[pahpah-cee]

Screw the damn chickens. Eggs are cheap. I couldn't wait for that last chicken to die. Having chickens turned into a nightmare for me. Never again.

They’re at least 4-5 months old now and still no damn eggs. I swear they’re broken. I need more land….so I can put them in the corner. Far far away from my garden.

 

[Nope_49595933949]

Chickens are awesome but you need to protect small plants from them. They absolutely eat leaves and grass as part of their diet along with bugs, small reptiles, sand/small rocks, etc.

 

[xtsho]

Chickens are awesome but you need to protect small plants from them. They absolutely eat leaves and grass as part of their diet along with bugs, small reptiles, sand/small rocks, etc.

They sure are. Fried, roasted, barbequed, Kung Pao, etc...

 

[Nope_49595933949]

They sure are. Fried, roasted, barbequed, Kung Pao, etc...

We have 26 laying hens, 2 roosters, and have 60-100 meat birds raised a year. We eat a good amount of chicken haha

 

[pahpah-cee]

Alright you chicken pro’s help me out here:

my wife and I are complete newbies to this. We have 4 hens from the same breeder who claimed to vaccinate them. 1/4 got mareks and recently the other 3 are getting over fowl pox. My wife is going crazy with vitamin mixes and electrolyte and ever other concoction she can find online to get them healthy.

As a bystander to this chaos I’m starting to suspect that the breeder sold us some weak ass chickens that may not of been vaccinated. I feel like these Hens are getting cared for very well so I want to point blame at the breeder.

 

[Nope_49595933949]

Alright you chicken pro’s help me out here:

my wife and I are complete newbies to this. We have 4 hens from the same breeder who claimed to vaccinate them. 1/4 got mareks and recently the other 3 are getting over fowl pox. My wife is going crazy with vitamin mixes and electrolyte and ever other concoction she can find online to get them healthy.

As a bystander to this chaos I’m starting to suspect that the breeder sold us some weak ass chickens that may not of been vaccinated. I feel like these Hens are getting cared for very well so I want to point blame at the breeder.

Never had this issue, all ours are vaccinated. Where did you order from?

 

[pahpah-cee]

Never had this issue, all ours are vaccinated. Where did you order from?

We found a local breeder because we thought that was more ethical.

probably would of had better luck with freaking track supply co.

 

[Nope_49595933949]

We found a local breeder because we thought that was more ethical.

probably would of had better luck with freaking track supply co.

Hatchery | Myers Poultry Farm

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www.myerspoultry.com

 

[pahpah-cee]

I’ll check them out thanks!

Now I just have to convince the wife to put down her mareks chicken. She is literally keeping a partially paralyzed chicken alive.

 

[DarkWeb]

Alright you chicken pro’s help me out here:

my wife and I are complete newbies to this. We have 4 hens from the same breeder who claimed to vaccinate them. 1/4 got mareks and recently the other 3 are getting over fowl pox. My wife is going crazy with vitamin mixes and electrolyte and ever other concoction she can find online to get them healthy.

As a bystander to this chaos I’m starting to suspect that the breeder sold us some weak ass chickens that may not of been vaccinated. I feel like these Hens are getting cared for very well so I want to point blame at the breeder.

Go here.

Raising Chickens 101 - Chicks, Breeds, Coops, Tips

Does your pet make you breakfast? Tips & Tricks for raising chickens, building chicken coops, & choosing chicken breeds + ask questions in our community forum

www.backyardchickens.com

 

[Nope_49595933949]

Go here.

Raising Chickens 101 - Chicks, Breeds, Coops, Tips

Does your pet make you breakfast? Tips & Tricks for raising chickens, building chicken coops, & choosing chicken breeds + ask questions in our community forum

www.backyardchickens.com

Chicken ladies are crazier than some of the bat shit crazy people on here. That's a unique place

 

[DarkWeb]

Oh and chickens are assholes. Screw those stupid shit bags.

 

[DarkWeb]

Chicken ladies are crazier than some of the bat shit crazy people on here. That's a unique place

More specifically

Forum list

Tips for raising chickens, building chicken coops & choosing breeds. Get help from thousands of community experts

www.backyardchickens.com