Flowering vines that are safe for Chickens

[Lesa]

Moabite- your yard looks fabulous!! I have trumpet vine near my chickens, too. It was there, before the chickens. They don't really bother it. Here in zone 4, nothing much is invasive!

 

[midget_farms]

Honeysuckle - but you said its toxic? news to me - they say apples are toxic to dogs too! Because the seeds contain arsnic. I can't imagine how many pounds of apples a dog would need to eat to ge arsnic poisoning. Honestly its tough to know what is safe & what isn't.

 

[dianaross77]

There are roses that climb. Also, there are berries that climb. Blackberries and raspberries, I think. Our puppy got into raisins once and threw up all night. I took her to the vet early the next morning and the vet said "The raisins aren't this dog's problem!" Apparently she had hookworms. Our rabbit eats apples whole all the time. He'd have to eat a lot to poison himself.

 

[Moabite]

Quote:
Thank you. Green is so pretty this time of year.

 

[SoulCircusInc]

A fun article of the Top Ten Climbing Roses... I plan to try a few myself.

http://www.rose-gardening-made-easy.com/top-10-climbing-roses.html

 

[crazyhen]

I just had to jump in here. we had a collie that lived to a very old age. Every fall when the scuppernoge grapes got ripe and fell off she would sit and pop them for hours getting guite fat. She never got sick. I really think the danger is over stated. If you want grapes build the arbor outside the run not over it on the sunny side of the run to shade the run in the evenings.
About the vines around chicken coops or on runs. They will cause your runs to say wet and smelly if they do not drain extremely well and get enough sun. I tried vines. Better are some scrubs set at a distance from the run that will offer shade part of the day and will allow some ventilation. I like the althea bushes( rose -of-sharons) . They tolerate some drought, do not require a lot of water and bloom well in lots of climates. They are deciduous and give sun in the winter. You can trim them to shape to. good luck with your search. Gloria Jean

 

[redring]

ever find anything? I was thinking of morning glories for a side of my coop that will be a walk path with a shed on the other side. So not worried about covering that side. But that looks like a no. Wonder what other choices there are? Black eyed susan, clematis?

 

[Karen Glatz]

In Oregon, trumpet vines are very invasive. And they have invaded. My 4 to 12 week chicks ate them to the ground this spring and didn't seem to have any issues. They eat grape leaves all season and grapes when they are ripe. As well as also invasive Himalayan blackberries. The only thing green left in their current pasture (we have NO rain from the end of June through the middle of October) is English ivy and some weed I can't name. They may have tasted it the first day they were in this area, but it's all still there, untouched and the rest of the area is dirt. They do seem to know what's not good for them.

Sunflowers are great. I plant them really heavily from a bag of black oil seeds. I thin the new plants and tie the stalks to the fence. Chickies love the leaves and in the fall I save the seeds to feed them for the rest of the year.

My dog also very gently picks blackberries (only the ripe ones) and eats them. He will also pick apples from the low branches. He ate a bunch of plums that fell this year - that was one big mess to clean up the next morning - and darned if he didn't find a few more the next day. So far he hasn't touched the grapes, though they are on the other side of the fence.