Good bushes to plant for chickens

[laurie9503]

Can you please give me some suggestions for some good bushes to plant in a chicken run. I'd like the girls to be able to sit underneath them. See picture of chicken run.

 

[stcroixusvi]

Here's mine - II, those are some great examples.

 

[ll]

Nice run you have there.
Instead of bushes inside the run maybe plant some ornamental grasses around the outside of the run at the posts for interest and instead give them things to climb on inside of the run. Cement blocks, concrete pavers, bricks, large cut wood pieces, those large wooden spools that hold industrial wire, a boulder or two. Maybe an old ladder for them to climb around on? A swing/perch?

I saw and saved these photos:

Good luck!

 

[zazouse]

Here is the Texas lilac bush.
I started with this size from seeds i planted 2 years ago.

here they are now.

this is what it looks like under them.

here's the pretty smelling blooms that make tons of seed that the birds just love and they are easy to grow from seeds also.

I have had chickens roost in them ,dust bathe around them ,they have been flooded with water from the chicken water, the 100 plus degree temps here does not kill them, and they grow alone or close to other lilac bushes and they still grow with no problems at all.

I planed this one last year, i though sure the young chickens all but killed it trying to roost in it but this spring it put out new growth and is doing great.

 

[K0k0shka]

Everything I've ever read says the chemical is in all of the plant & it's fruit. Potatoes have it too.

My own experience was cleaning the garden out and letting them have at the excess of tomatoes and for weeks after i noticed way fewer eggs. It wasn't due to molt or fewer hrs of light. I still give them some tomatoes but very limited amounts.

The chemical is called solanine and its concentrations are high in the green parts of the plant - stems, leaves, and unripened tomatoes. The ripening process decreases the solanine levels significantly, and a fully ripe tomato has very little left - not enough to be toxic. There is no clear evidence that your drop in egg production is at all related to the tomatoes. Correlation doesn't equal causation. Ripe tomatoes are fine.

 

[laurie9503]

Thanks for all your great suggestions. Well, I'm trying a toy for now, and plan to plant tall ornamental grasses along the south side of the run in the fall. Here's a photo of the new toy. They sure like it. And it has a great secondary purpose of a place to go to get away from mr. rooster if the hens want. He can get up, but not as fast and doesn't really want to make the effort. This toy is constructed of two sawhorses, one old wood ladder, and a couple tree limbs.

 

[gale65]

DH is going to find me a small mulberry tree (they grow wild all over the place) so I can transplant it in the run. I'll put a barrier of some kind around it until it's big enough that they won't kill it.

 

[Chickassan]

This is an old thread but I can't get over nobody recommending blueberry bushes or scotch broom .

 

[zazouse]

Texas lilacs work great for birds and they love the seeds but do not eat the bush, they grow very fast and spread out wide but not overly tall like a tree.
My birds poop does not hurt them ,the snow we got did not kill them and the birds love the seeds they produce and they bloom beautiful sweet smelling purple flowers spikes from spring untill the first frost.

I will go take some photos of mine and post them.

 

[Sue Hawley]

You could also try putting in potted plants for a week at a time, bring them out for recovery and switch some new ones in. I did this for my first year chicken coop.
If you plant things you will have to cover them up to protect from digging and dust bathing.