They're just doing what comes natural. I'm afraid I treat them very unnaturally, and confine them in a large run.

I keep mine confined to a large, predator proof run as well because otherwise, I wouldn't have chickens in a very short while...too many foxes, raccoons, hawks etc out there for their own good.

I doubt there's anything you can do short of fencing them out, frankly - or maybe lay chicken wire on the beds with a thin layer of mulch over it - I doubt they'd like the feeling and might eventually learn to leave the beds alone. That assumes they can learn, though...mine sure are not the brightest biddies on the face of the planet.

O.K. I was afraid of that.
Thanks for your advice.

Somewhere on the garden web forum, I saw a nifty little contraption that allows the chickens to roam, yet it small enought to pick up the handles and roll it to another area. As you roll it along, the chickens walk underneath to the new spot. The thought of chickens in the garden sounds lovely.

cantstop

It's called a chicken tractor (and no, I have no idea why!). A lot of "free range" chickens are actually raised in those. Commercial ones are very large and are typically pulled by tractors around fields - some organic farmers use them as a portable fertilizing tool as well as to manage pests in livestock fields. Smaller versions can be made complete with coop for a small flock.

We're not allowed to have any "farm animals" in this very neat suburb. When I called borough hall to ask, the woman who answered the phone laughed.

Anyway, the thing you're talking about is basically a coop without a bottom. The sides are wire. You put the coop in one place, the chickens eat bugs and scratch there for a while, and their dropping fertilize the soil. Then you move it to a different area. That's how they did it 150 years ago, and it still makes sense.

Elaine,
I would have been insulted by her laughing! Chickens are pretty quiet animals (not including roosters). I think it's great that there seems to be alot of people choosing to have a couple of their own chickens in towns and suburbia. Another plus I've found with owning them is what a great "contribution" they make to my garden!

Our township kind of has a "don't ask, don't tell" policy - I did finally go and read the code and discovered that I can have chickens as long as no one complains. So I have been careful not to end up with any roosters and we've been fine. My next door neighbor (well, she's about a 1/4 mile away, we've got a weird set-up for living in a densely populated little piece of suburbia) keeps agitating for me to get goats - somehow, I think that would be noticed! Anyway, anything other than poultry is forbidden. Sigh...

Interestingly, a lot of my chickens came for a bird rescue that was operated out of the yard of a twin in URBAN northeast Philly. It was always a surreal experience to walk up to the back gate and have an emu poke his head out...

I wasn't surprised. This is a very proper kind of place--a town where the 60s didn't happen is how I think of it. My teenager was mortified that I would even ask; younger kid was disappointed. He had worked it all out--how many chickens, how only roosters make noise, the neighbors didn't mind, etc.