Gardens for your run and chickens

[maizy'smom]

Since mine arrived in May 2011, I can tell you that they will eat (and love) lilies of the valley, bleeding hearts, lamium, ginkgo tree bomb seeds, day lilies, chocolate mint and privet hedge. They are not as crazy about liriope or periwinkle. And, they do not care at all for snake weed. They loved the mixed lettuces I gave them once the lettuces had bolted, and the lower levels of the cherry tomatoes have been plucked clean up to a certain height. So, now my pre-existing shade to partial shade garden looks pretty sad, and I am in the market for some other less-attractive-to-
chickens shade plants. I just wish they would do a more thorough job of cleaning the ginkgo bomb seedlings out of the privet hedge. That would make my job a little easier. But they don't read English, and their writing is just chicken scratch, so our to-do lists can't be shared.

I do keep a compost bin for garden clippings, fallen leaves, and the litter from the coop, which regularly contains quite a bit of spilled organic layer feed. And we have worked out quite a mutually beneficial system, in that I don't have to "turn" the compost all that much because the girls scratch it all out into the yard, looking for forgotten goodies, and then I just rake it back up and put it back in on top.

What I am really interested in finding is a fast growing, shade tolerant grass seed, that the girls won't eat up before it is finished sprouting....? Hopeless, I know.

mm

 

[Sallysec]

. But they don't read English, and their writing is just chicken scratch, so our to-do lists can't be shared.


mm

lol

this morning I was thinking of maybe hanging a topsy turvy planter from the eve of their coop so that when tomatoes grow they would have them hanging right there or I could just pick them and toss them in as treats. We grow so many tomatoes though and never can seem to use them all. Maybe an ornamental pepper plant or something. Anyone feed peppers to their chickens? I know our birds always loved them, not sure about chickens. I have a really shady garden in the front that all I really keep there are a few shade tolerant plants, one of which is a ground cover that grows like weed....I debated planting that all around the coop, but I dont expect anything to grow over there. Like I said we have some Ivy that grows there now. I plan to net off the top of the veggie garden so that the girls can free range in the yard but leave the veggie garden alone until I let them in there or give them things from it. what about bulbs...tulips and daffodils? I know some animals find those flowers poisonous.

 

[mickey328]

I would worry about the girls being able to eat the tomato foliage...it's toxic although the tomatoes are perfectly good (as we all know...yum!) I don't know that they would eat the leaves or if they did that it would harm them, but it's something I'd research. Maybe I will...ours love, love love the little grape tomatoes...if they had arms we'd have to wrestle over who gets them, LOL. At present I just pick them and toss them in their run, but if the plant itself would be okay, might plant one where we can move their run to it from time to time and let them pick 'em themselves!

 

[kellypepperk]

what about a small branch with a few off-shoots stuck into the ground and "skewer" the cherry tomatoes on it? I have just the branch and my camera is ready... now I just have to distract the hubby so I can steal a few cherry tomatoes (I can't eat them anymore - they make my tongue swell). If I'm able to pull this off I'll post pictures!
Are green tomatoes okay?

 

[Amy PT]

Since mine arrived in May 2011, I can tell you that they will eat (and love) lilies of the valley, bleeding hearts, lamium,

mm

Lily of the valley is on the "toxic to chickens" list. I'm sure they must have to eat a LOT of it to get sick, but be careful.
http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html

 

[Weenlavs]

Do not recomend free ranging your garden till u have harvested
every thing u plan to! Then i move my coop right over the garden for
the winter!

 

[maizy'smom]

Lily of the valley is on the "toxic to chickens" list. I'm sure they must have to eat a LOT of it to get sick, but be careful.
http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html

It's all gone now, not that there was really that much of it to start with. And, I think they mostly just scratched it to death. The lilies of the valley, lamium, periwinkle, liriope, etc, are (were) all under the ginkgo tree, and it is the dried ginkgo seeds that they go mad for. They dry up and look like a round pistachio nut, and the girls go nuts for them.

mm

 

[mickey328]

I was thinking Kelly...why not hang that branch over but strip the leaves off it? The leaves on the other parts of the plant they can't reach would keep it going just fine, but they could snap up the tomatoes in reach. You could always try green tomatoes with them...ours are finicky and won't eat them...I think part of the appeal is the bright red, LOL

 

[kellypepperk]

our chickers are nowhere near our garden, but I like that idea!
On another note, my hubby actually came up with the same idea as I did... I was floored!

Mickey, what are some of your picky chickens' favorite treats?

 

[mickey328]

They go mad for yogurt and any kind of cheese, greens of almost any sort...chard and spinach are ultra faves, as well as dandelions (yay!) They love the oats I planted this spring for herbal tea, and the clover I put in for the same purpose. I cook pinto beans for them and they scarf 'em down right quick. Throw in a fresh cob of corn, and stand back! Cantelope...the seeds are more exciting than the flesh, but that gets eaten as well...same with cucumbers and zucchini.

Those are their most favorites so far. There haven't been a lot of things they wouldn't eat...potato peelings, carrots either cooked or raw, strawberries. And I was floored...I pulled a dandelion and tossed it in there. One of them picked at it and an earwig crawled out. Silly bird pecked at it and flung it away! Sheesh! LOL