chickens and flowers

[muddipuppy]

my chickens think it's super fun to take all young, planted flowers (particularly annuals) and turn them upside down. suggestions?

 

[Redhead Hen]

Chase 'em out! Hahaha! I usually have supervised yard time. If I was not out there to keep them out of my gardens ... I'd have no flowers at all!

 

[redhen]

Nope... i cant have flowers in my back yard... the chickens eat or kill them all...
the little....

 

[Daidohead]

Plant them upside down, let the chickens right them

 

[Redhead Hen]

 

[rancher hicks]

Are there any flowers NOT to plant near chickens other than Foxglove or the like? I'd like to plant Morning glories, but the self sow and drop seeds.

 

[ginbart]

I lay chicken wire down on the ground then they can't scrach in the ground. They go other places I want them to dig.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

You can fence the flowers in or the chickens out.

A freshly tilled garden, especially if you put mulch on it, is just too hard for a bird to resist!

.....Alan.

 

[cobrien]

That problem sounds very familiar

.

I have found that the chickens tend to leave "deer resistant" flowers alone once they are established. The plants were vulnerable when small / first planted because the chickens of course will sample them. Sometimes I fence new plantings off with a little chicken wire, other times I just plant and see what survives. You should make sure the deer resistant plant is not toxic:
http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxic1.html

Note: this technique did not work at all for me with chickens < ~8 months - they will sample and sample and sample again until the plant is dead or near dead - took them a while to learn what didn't taste good! Now that all my hens are all about a year old or more, they are leaving my deer resistant plants alone. Not true for my veggie garden, which I have to fence off.

Now, how do I get them from spraying my mulch everywhere?!?!?

 

[Daidohead]

I seriously think I have the smartest, fastest chickens around. They always know the price of the plants I have planted ( they go for the most expensive first ) and they can outrun me. 1 hen will make the " it's good" cluck and 6 others will sprint the yard and have the plant gone before I get there. I finaly convinced them that the view of the sunset was much better from the other side of the fence and haven't had a problem since.