Do chickens damage hedges?

[flamesong]

Well, apart from my introduction in another section, this question is my first post and perhaps the eventual reason I registered.

I have three Marans and a chick. I live on a rural estate and the hens are let out from their run from about 8.30am to about 7.30pm at the moment - longer in the summer. If I had to keep them in the run, I would not want to keep them - they love being out.

I'm concerned that there is a hedge (I don't know what kind) close to their run part of which has recently become a bit bare. I know that they like to take dust baths beneath the hedge and I'm worried that my landlord will think that the hens have caused the hedge to become damaged.

There are also quite a few pheasants around (belonging to my landlord) and I was wondering if they might be responsible for the damage.

I have searched everywhere for information about chickens damaging hedges but I am none the wiser.

 

[Lordcluck]

Chickens will 'browse' from the under storey of hedges, so they can cause a certain amount of damage, but I seriously doubt such a small flock could do any permanent harm to an established hedge. I would have thought if your Landlord is tolerant enough to allow you to keep a few hens on free range, he's probably not going to worry about a little defoliation.
If it worries you, try placing some netting around the base of the hedge to deny the birds access, and let the hedge recover, and provide them with boxes of dry earth/ashes/sand to bathe in.

 

[flamesong]

Thank you for the reply.

The situation is a bit complicated. The hens used to belong to my neighbour who is an employee of the landlord. I looked after them whilst they were on holiday and when they returned they asked me if I would like to keep them, so strictly speaking, he has never given me permission to keep them.

Their house and run is in a sort of communal area which is not an area covered by my lease. The hedge is on estate land where the hens roam.

I may try putting some netting up but I think I need to talk to the groundsman first as it might be interfering with his job.

 

[Marigold]

It would really help if we knew what sort of hedge it is - could you post a pic? Is it evergreen or deciduous? If evergreen I don't think they're likely to be harming it as evergreens tend to make strong low branches covered by sweeping inedible foliage. We have lonicera in part of our garden - this is common, it has tiny little green leaves and is evergreen but not the same sort of foliage as, eg, the tall pointy sorts of evergreens. Lonicera collects lots of 'thatch' at the base, ie old dead leaves and bits of other rubbish, which chickens might well like to pull out to make dustbaths or just generally poke around in. This may make the base of the hedge look bare but actually it's good for it, lets in the light and air, and clears out the rubbish. So if this is the case, no worries about the health of the hedge!
Presumably the landlord knew that his employee was initially keeping these hens, and if so, it's likely that he won't mind them moving to your garden? If he didn't mention 'no pets' when you moved in, probably he's not too worried either. Maybe it would be a good idea to just run it past the groundsman, or have a word with the landlord, to put your mind at rest and prevent misunderstandings in the future?

 

[flamesong]

Here are a couple of photos of the hedge.

The first is where it looks quite healthy and the second is where it looks pretty threadbare. There is a bit which is worse than that but there is something next to it which would identify the location so I cropped it out.

I'm a bit embarrassed that my limited knowledge of flora prevents me from identifying it.

 

[Marigold]

A bit hard to tell, but to me it looks as if it could be any one of several native deciduous plants or shrubs. Certainly it looks pretty tough and I wouldn't worry about it. Looks as if it could have become thicker if it had been pruned harder when first planted - in the first two years of a hedge. It needs pruning down to half its height each year so it spreads sideways and thickens up, instead of just growing upwards, as has apparently happened here. If it were in my garden I would cut it right back hard this winter and expect it to shoot vigorously next Spring. You could ask the groundsman for advice, but I wouldn't worry too much about the chickens. If some parts are a bit bare you could do as Lordcluck suggested and put some chicken wire under to keep them out, but this won't make it re-grow at the base. It doesn't look as if it would stop the chickens walking through it, is it just a decorative boundary?

 

[flamesong]

I don't have any domain over any of the land here. I don't even have a garden, as such, just a few square feet under my windows - so all the land that the hens inhabit belongs to the estate and as such is outside my responsibility. I do clean up after the hens, though, as there are sometimes children about and I think that it is only right that I pick up the droppings from the grass.

But I am reassured by what I have read that regardless of what anybody may think, the hens aren't responsible for the depleted hedge. I was worried that only a few months after taking them on I might have to look for new homes for them as there is no way that I could keep them cooped up.

As an aside, I have noticed since making the original post that they are wandering way beyond their normal range now - sometimes if I can see them at all during the day, they are 100m or more from their house - even the four week old chick - and still gather outside my front door before they retire to remind me to feed them.

 

[Margaid]

In the top photo the hedge looks older than in the bottom pic - you can see where it seems to have been cut to the same height a few times. It is thicker at the point of cut, below the new wispy straggly bits. That is very typical of how people cut hedges. If you look at roadside hedges on farmland which are cut level at the top, when the leavea re off you will see all the old knobbly scar tissue. Ideally hedges should be cut tapering from the bottom to the top - but try telling the farmer next door to us! This not only keeps the hedge thicker (and therefore more stockproof) at the bottom, it also protects the nestlings from magpies and other predator birds in the spring. With a flat top the magpie can hop along and reach down to the nest. Going by the apparent size of leaves and the colour they are turning, it looks as though it may be a type of box, pyracantha or berberis (does it have long thin thorns ?), all of which will go leggy (bare) at the bottom if not pruned correctly. However, the shape and cutting of the hedge is someone else's problem.

You say they were your neighbour's hens and he is employed on the estate. Where did he keep them? If the hen house and run are still in the same place, I doubt if the landlord is even aware that they are now yours. Your biggest problem may be if the groundsman/gamekeeper thinks the hens are taking food he has put out for the pheasants. As is often suggested on this forum, the gift of some eggs may well solve any problems that arise.

 

[Marigold]

As an aside, I have noticed since making the original post that they are wandering way beyond their normal range now - sometimes if I can see them at all during the day, they are 100m or more from their house - even the four week old chick - and still gather outside my front door before they retire to remind me to feed them.

Lovely for the hens to have all that space, but there may be two problems with it - they may start laying in the fields and hedges instead of the nestboxes, so you dont get any eggs, and, more serious, if this is a rural estate, there's a real risk of foxes getting them, especially as winter approaches and food is harder for them to find. Did they have a run in their previous owner's home? Of course you'd prefer them to be always free, but better shut up in a run than eaten by a fox!

 

[flamesong]

If you think mine are free, you should see my girlfriend's hens. Admittedly, they have a cockerel to protect them but they don't even get shut in at night time as mine do. Apart from a short period when one of them became aggressive to the others, they almost always lay in the nesting boxes. It's fairly easy for her to tell as each hen lays different coloured eggs.

Mine had to be kept in for two weeks a while ago whilst there were visitors nearby with dogs and their laying whilst kept in and free was fairly consistent until a few days ago when, according to their previous keepers, they seem to have stopped for the winter.

Maybe I ought to have said that my neighbour is the estate gamekeeper. I once told him I had seen a fox nearby and he was quite shocked as he didn't think that there were any in the area. But, as mentioned, there are plenty of pheasants for any predator - buzzards included. My main problem is a certain person's dogs. I know that at least two hens have survived having been in the jaws of one of the dogs and when I found a pile of feathers a few weeks ago, prior to keeping them in, for a few hours I actually thought I had lost them all.

 

[EddieS]

A bit late, but from the pictures it looks like one of the small leaved Cotoneasters.
Perhaps Escallonia. Pictures are not great, but Cotoneaster would be my guess.
Tough old species, looks as if it hadn't been butchered by trimming it would be a good hedge :roll:

 

[Margaid]

That was the other one I was trying to remember Eddie.

If the game keeper is OK with you having the hens I wouldn't worry too much flamesong.