Chickens and Flower beds

[tasymo]

I have six hens that I allow to freerange for about an hour or two a day, with supervision. I also have lots of flower beds spread out around my large yard and the girls love foraging for goodies in them. I don't follow them around, I just keep an eye on them from a moderate distance and shoo them back within bounds when necessary. I decided to clean up some of my beds today by removing the old dead growth to expose the new, and was pleasantly surprise to discover tidy bundles of old daylilly leaves scattered throughout the beds. The newly emerging plants were neatly exposed and unharmed by the Girl's scratching. It was a simple matter to pick up the bundles with no raking involved. Yea Chickens! For those of you who struggle with garden destroying chickens, give daylillies a try!

 

[chocolate m'scovy]

It's probably because lilies' leaves are much broader than grass. We have blooming crocuses and the hens will scratch in the same bed but leave the young flowers undisturbed!

 

[Bridget399]

Mine haven't disturbed any of my flowers yet, but I will be adding rock instead of mulch! They love to dust bathe in the mulch!

 

[tasymo]

They really don't bother my flowers much, except for petunias. Those they will eat down to the last blossom.