Flower garden annuals that chickens like or don't like?

[wordgirl]

My Mom is going to replant her garden soon, and asked me to ask all my wonderful friends here at BYC if there were any flowers that chickens especially do or don't like? In particular we were wondering about:

Impatiens
Petunias
Moss Rose
Pansies
Snapdragons
Tulips
Morning Glories

We learned last year that they love begonias.

Does anyone else have any advice to share with us?

P.S. I do hope I put this in the right place.

 

[Bat Cave Silkies]

I'm an avid flower gardener~~our whole yard is a flower garden~~but then I fell in love with Silkies. Since we live in the mountains, and most of our land is sloped (which the Silkies can't manage), some of the flowerbeds got fenced in and became Silkie Land. I didn't have time to transplant everything; they WILL NOT eat:roses, daylilys, daffodils, azaleas, camellias; they WILL EAT : astillbe, Jacobs ladder, tear drops. Hope thats some help...

 

[wordgirl]

Quote:
Thank you! That is very good to know.

 

[cybercat]

Mine free range so my front they have access too. That is the so called cottage garden. What they have left alone is daylillyes, daffodills, blue flags lilys, rosemary, lavander, roses and my autum ferns. What they have hit my painted ferns, hostas before they came up, catnip and pineapple mint and my sages. They also ate late in season my common plantain. I am still wainting on my laces to come in to see if they go after those. Next year we will be putting a 2 to 3 foot fence up around hostas and fern to protect from early foraging. They hit them so hard i was not sure they would come up but they did. Hostas are amasing for destructive animals. Last year my dog kept digging them up and they came right back. Nothing seems to fase them, neither eating their tops off or uprooting alot.

 

[wordgirl]

I wonder why ours haven't hit the hostas. They like to dig in the garden, but as far as I've noticed, they haven't bothered the hostas.

Maybe ours taste bad.

Thanks very much, both of you! Does anyone else have any experience to share?

 

[KingSpeck]

Mine haven't touched my lilacs, chrysanthemums, iris, or butterfly bushes, However, anything that is newly planted needs to be protected or it will just be dug up. I stick a few rocks or bricks around the base of anything I plant till it's rooted in really well.

 

[wordgirl]

Thank you! Do you know of any annuals that the chickens particularly love or don't like?

 

[BoerneChickens]

Does anyone know about how geraniums and jasmine might fare? I planted some near my coop - along with a bean - just to have something climb up the coop - bu the bean got mowed to the ground in one day! So far they haven't venured over to ther geranium/jasmine side but I am wondering if I should try to protect them before the girls find them?

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Mine won't eat lantana, elephant ears, mexican petunia, petunias, bacopa, roses, but they do pick on the indian hawthorne bushes.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

I think I have read geraniums are not tasty to anything.

They can be very destructive just by choosing to build a dust bath in your flowers or garden. I am battling 3 escapee hens who prefer to dig up my landscaping at every opportunity.