It likely depends on how much green space you have. My hens have certain spots they like (under the bird feeders, a couple dust bath spots, around the water bubbler) and I just let those areas take the brunt of their scratching. They love blueberries and will jump to get to those, but that leaves plenty out of their reach for me and the tweety birds (which are more problematic than the chickens). Squash, once they break into a big one, they seem to focus on that and I can still harvest the small ones. Kind of a give-n-take. I do keep them penned up after direct sowing until the plants are up at least 6" or so. And I usually limit their free ranging to a couple hours per day. I also have fields and woods and they seem to like to explore it all. Happy hens!
