Will they eat crops if allowed to hunt in the garden?

You won't have much of a garden  left if you do.

They will go crazy in your garden.

Depends on the crops.  My chickens eat only the bugs in my garden but the ducks eat just about everything including squash and cabbage.  Ducks and geese are great at keeping orchards clean, they love spoiling fruit but can be problems elsewhere.  My yard fowls are no trouble whatsoever and really easy to pop one in the head with a .22 when BBQ time rolls around.

Party like it's 1999.

lol

yep, they love squash and tomatoes and they will dig up your potatoes.

but, it will be a bug free garden.  

My friend has about 10 running around his yard and there are no bugs.  Before he got the chickens you couldn't walk across the short grass w/o getting 10 ticks, now there aren't any ticks.

I figured if they'd eat the bugs w/o eating the fruit I'd have it made.

Guess not

32 chickens loose in garden.  sure I got a few tomatoes pecked, but the chickens were so busy eating bugs my garden was untouched.

Veggie free garden = Bug free garden.

OK but how big is your garden?   I saw wat a few did to my samall trial garden last year and fenced them out this year.  I would prefere to have some in there but dont really want to experement to much with the Crops if ya kno what i mean.  

garden is pretty big, inside a fenced in orchard.

Chickens  are pretty destructive when they scratch.We got rid of ours and now just keep Turkeys and Guinea fowl.
Shameless Plug to follow.. ;p

Guinea fowl dont scratch and dig like chickens do. They love ticks, are excellent alarms .. And they look funny .
Alot of people dont like them because they are noisy and can be a nuisance at times.
But I take guineas over chickens now anyday.
We do have 2 small banty sized roosters still but they dont scratch like my big hens did. They hang with the Guineas and the Turkeys.We also have 2 Midget White turkeys and a Royal Palm Hen that thinks she is a Guinea
Just in case you never seen these funny creatures.They are not full grown yet but they will get uglier as they get older.. I love the way they look tho




ETA.. and they taste like pheasant...

Chickens will pretty much destroy a garden.  If they are confined to it, they will destroy it completely.  YOu will lose veggies otherwise.

The guineas noted above are a better bet, but they are difficult to confine, more difficult to tame, in my experience (so get them when they're tiny chicks) and around here, they end up preyto hawks, owls, coyotes and foxes (or dogs) because of these two issues.

kitties

Yup..
I  have mine in a pen at night and they go in at dusk by themselfs. I  have hawks but they dont bother them around here. But I know people who have lost their fowls to hawks etc. They are not like chickens for sure. Penned up they dont like to be touched. Once they are outside tho freeranging they will come up and greet you and let ya pet and handfeed them.
Some peopelcan get them tame liek chickens but I dotn spend to much time on them to be tame..My Royal Palm Trukey hen is pretty tame tho.
But they do go in by themselfs at night into their pen. I had them locked up until they where around 3 motnsh old so they knew where to go at night. They are definetly not chickens. But i like mine better for pets since they are rather funny to watch and do stuff chickens dont do. They will do alot  better freeranging and of the 11 I started with I have not lost one yet
.I am sure come spring tho and they pair up to lay a clutch of eggs , there will be loss.. They do make nests  in woods and on the ground so you will loose  some chicks if not all of them.Plus the chicks get chilled on the ground and some loss is expected. They  need to be on game bird starter with above 25 % if they dont freerange as younsters. They need the added protein.
And we had somewhat of a garden but they never bothered it like the chickens did..

If you want guineas in your yard, raise them on your neighbor's property.

Agreed on all.  YOu will need to make plans to replenish your stock of guineas because they are HORRIBLE mothers.  They pick the worst nesting sites in the universe, and they take the chicks off the nest way too young, leaving behind some still hatching/coming out of the eggs as soon as they get two or three on the ground.  

That said, no better tick control in the universe.  When I had guineas at the place I lived before, I had up to 13 dogs (we were breeding at the time) and never had to use artificial tick control.

kitties

edit: spelling

My chickens even eat watermelon. They'll pick a split watermelon down to the green-rind and all-in an afternoon.
They are however a great way to "till" in green manure/cover crops in the spring,and useful for ripping up old garden foliage. Put 'em under a chicken tractor and let them go hog wild. They'll fertilize the garden while they're at it,and if placed in a garden after real tilling in spring,they'll go nuts on any grubs exposed to the air.

Guineas = WIN!