Chicken Gardens: What might they like?

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

I have about 1/3 of an acre devoted to the chickens and a big greenhouse for starting plants. I have been thinking of growing a chicken garden.
I know they'll eat kale and lettuce and tomatoes, but what kind of herbs would they like?
I have loads of fennel seeds, and a nice assortment of other things too. I would like to plant things that are fairly drought tolerant and otherwise sturdy for them, since I will be devoting most of my gardening attention to MY food.

 

[ralleia]

Herbs: Parsley, borage (the flowers taste like cucumber!), mustard greens, cilantro, purslane,

Weeds: lambs quarter, dock, crabgrass, prickly lettuce, dandelion, pennycress, chickweed, wild mustard, black medic, crownvetch.

Flowers: Nasturtiums (lightly spicy leaves and petals, good for you to put a few on your salads, too)

Reasonably drought-tolerant:

I couldn't recommend swiss chard enough! It produces all summer and fall long until killed off by a true hard freeze. You just harvest the outer leaves and it keeps going.

Miscellaneous: buckwheat, turnip greens, arugula, cucumbers

 

[kla37]

I can tell you what my "chicken garden" looks like. Completely stripped bare and with chicken holes everywhere!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't grow anything specifically for chickens. You might consider New Zealand Spinach as a drought resistant plant. It is basically a weed and will grow through a real hot dry summer.

Mine get the leftovers. They love rejected tomatoes and red peppers. Take over-ripe cucumbers or squash, split them, then toss them in the run.

I'll warn you about uncooked beans. It is not that they will fall over and die the instant they eat an uncooked bean, but uncooked beans contain a substance that can harm them if they eat enough of them. Just don't give them a lot to eat at one time.

Another thing that can hurt them (you too) is green potato peelings. Regular potato peelings are fine but the green ones contain a substance that can harm them. Again, they are not going to fall over dead the instant they peck a green potato peel, but this is something I actively try to avoid giving them.

Other than that, I can't think of anything I don't feed them.