Anyone have a chicken moat?

[promiseacres]

saw a post about a chicken moat around your garden, it's a alleyway/run built around the garden where your hens can keep the bugs from getting into the garden and they also should slow down the crabgrass we have in the yard! showed DH a FB post on them and we're hopefully going to build one this summer! sounds like a great way to keep the bugs and weeds down in the garden! If anyone has any thoughts about them please let me know!

 

[elevan]

Never heard of it, but it sounds like a fascinating idea. If you decide to do this, I'd love to see pictures of it in action!

 

[Gryphon]

Well here now you have me thinking of a trench filled with water and alligators to keep my girls from wandering into the neighbor's yards! I guess your version would work too though. -_- I actually do think it would work, because I noticed last year (my first summer having chickens) that there were no japanese beetles in the back yard where the girls are penned, but walk into the front yard and one of those stupid bugs would fly right into you.

 

[RockyMountainFarms]

I to thought a little river and was like they would just fly over it.

 

[Prairie Farm Woman]

Last summer we had our girls eating bugs between the rows of our garden. It took some messing with. A moveable fence that my DH put together. Clipped wings on the girls and then let them scratch and eat bugs between the rows. Worked good and kept the ticks, potato bugs and squash bugs down. Didn't have too much tiling to do either. Was careful about what might tempt them too.

 

[canesisters]

I'm working on setting up something simmilar.
My gardens are small circles (actually previous compost piles). I'm working to expand the chicken run to enclose the garden area - then a little chicken wire around the garden circle during the growing season and remove the chicken wire to let the girls have a fall buffet after harvest.