Does anyone have a chicken garden?

[Vata Raven]

What a waste of time!!

look into how micro-greens are grown

if you do it right, it'll take then 7 days to get them sprouted to where they can be fed.

I think whole corn from the fed store can be sprouted

I'm trying the indoor growing thing. I'm new to it... but my plants aren't getting enough sun or something.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

look into how micro-greens are grown

if you do it right, it'll take then 7 days to get them sprouted to where they can be fed.

I think whole corn from the fed store can be sprouted

I'm trying the indoor growing thing. I'm new to it... but my plants aren't getting enough sun or something.

I just do sprouts in cheesecloth topped jars and they are very fast - especially alphalfa seed. soak over night, rinse, and then rinse a couple times a day. alfalfa starts sprouting within 24hrs not even on a windowsill.

 

[PachanPeeps]

This is a fun thread. Love the ideas and can't wait to see pictures after things warm up and wake up!

I built my coop in an area with an established juniper tree and lavender. They love hanging out under the tree, but I get nervous about the dust bath craters forming around it. They stomp around the lavender, and there used to be a spot they dust bathed right against it, but a comfrey volunteered itself there. They don't pick at any of it.

Things have been fine enough for the past 3 years, which makes me want more plants in that area! So far I'm planning:

• Some sort of tree, and I'll make a chicken wire or hardwire cloth skirt around it. Love the brick idea someone else had too
• Grazing box(es)
• Along the fence separating the run from my garden, on the actual garden side, I think It'll grow edible stuff along it, maybe borage, clover, or some herbs for pollinators. Hoping the chickens don't really want it, but if they put their faces through the wire and snack a bit, it shouldn't be a big deal.
• Hanging baskets of nasturtium -- if the vines get long enough for the chickens to reach, it won't matter if they eat 'em
• Window boxes along the coop -- maybe some sacrificial stuff? Wondering if I put little rosemaries or tiny evergreens, will they still jump in and dig up? Probably, but I kind of want to experiment.

Hope all the gardeners have a great season ahead and that this thread continues!

 

[Rurumo]

I've been setting up my "chicken garden" for the past two years in anticipation of finally starting my new flock (grew up raising them with my grandma.) I put in a couple of mulberry trees, elderberries, comfrey patch, goumis, and Russian quince. Those are all on their 3rd year, and this year I'm adding a couple of Siberian Pea Shrubs, a Jerusalem Artichoke patch, and I'm filling my beds with culinary and medicinal herbs AND I really want to try my hand at growing Foxtail Millet-they look so cool growing. This is all just meant to be either supplementary to a commercial layer diet, or for use in emergencies, but it's also mostly for enrichment/entertainment for them.

Does anyone have experience feeding them the Siberian Pea pods? I find Siberian Pea bushes (and apple trees) all over the Montana countryside in funny little random places, where someone had an old homestead, so they really must have been valued as a forage crop at one time-also, they are usually "coppiced" which makes me wonder if the homesteaders used to use the wood for some other purpose-it seems extremely strong. Anyone have issues feeding them to chickens raw, since they are a legume? When I did a search here, I found that one guy asked the same question in 2010 and got no reply LOL....I should check if he's still active here...

 

[City farm]

Yes we have 2 plants growing inside their run. One is a Mexican elderberry and Arabian lilac. Both grow, fast, don't mind our soil and grow great here in Arizona. They do not eat these, plus they give great deep shade cover, which is needed in the heat of the summer. Stop by our new thread about our Free Plant N garden Stands.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/free-plant-n-garden-stands-org.1575758/

 

[SmiYa0126]

 

[SmiYa0126]

My chicken friendly garden, I had to rebury some things but I left enough of chicken friendly plants that they're not completely destroying things.

 

[HollyWoozle]

Our family flock lives in what we call the orchard, as it has some fruit trees. Primarily it’s long grass and fruit trees of various ages… they love to eat the grass seeds now the grass is long! And the shade from the trees is important to them in the hot summer months.

Here’s Lagertha and Gunnhild wading in the longer patches: https://streamable.com/ctr1fd

We are in the U.K.