As my chickens get bigger more adventurous and hungrier I am curious if they will try to eat my garden...any ideas to train them not to or keep them out besides fencing?
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If I let my hens "uncaged" they'd obliterate my garden - therefore - they're "caged" - however it's on my list to build a chicken tractor so that I can give them "special" days to forage around in areas where my garden isn't. When seasons change for me - I plan to put the chicken tractor over the top of our raised beds - so that they can have a party in that box - digging, eating, popping in that box.
My idea for training them is fencing. ;) Chickens aren't trainable in the same way other pets might be, really the only way to keep them out is a physical barrier of some sort. It's best to keep them out BEFORE they discover it, then they have less motivation to try and get over/under your barriers.
I have mine caged because they have eaten several of my crops. I have a side yard with only fruit trees, I just decided to fence it off for them to roam there.
I planted a chicken garden for them to eat, more like a cover crop so they will till and mix my soil there while laying down fertilizer. Otherwise I keep them far away from the garden. If you want to plant bushes in the coop, try wolf berry. The birds love it. A thick line of 'deflector' plants, like a hedge of catclaw acacia would work too.
We had to put hot wire all around our garden beds with orange flags where the wire is - some how the chickens get to know that if they go near those orange flags they will get shocked. This is after a few times trying to get into the garden bed and getting shocked. The volts on the shocker is very low and doesn't hurt them, but they sure get to know those flags and wire and they don't go near the garden bed.
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