Arborvitaes ok to plant next to run?

[Lady Chicken Keeper]

Thanks. I think I will do that then. I just planted Butterfly Bush in the run yesterday. And the chickens did not leave it alone. https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/upright-juniper-in-the-chicken-run.7904612/

 

[Lady Chicken Keeper]

Arborvitaes--cultivated eastern white cedars--actually do contain a poison known as thujone but it is only toxic in concentrated amounts. In mammals, it causes uterine muscles to contract. However, it is also rich in vitamin C, where the arborvitae (tree of life) gets its name. When French explorers landed in New England, the Indians told them to drink tea brewed from the needles to cure scurvy. It worked.

In my chicken run, they have an eastern white cedar in addition to an eastern hemlock but the chickens never eat the fallen greens from them. I line the coop with white pine needles and the chickens enjoy picking through them for seeds and bugs but they don't eat the evergreens themselves.

Arborvitaes can live up to 500 years so it will provide some cover for your hens for many generations to come.

Thanks for the info.!