Help Me Plant a Chicken Garden!

[johny]

I am too far north for perennials.

Brocolli grows great here. By putting in transplants I can get two crops a year on the same patch of ground.
Very efficient. We eat the brocolli heads. I pull the plants out and put them in the run. The birds eat the leaves and leave nothing but the stem for compost.
Same goes for cauliflower.

Spinach is too easy to grow. But it goes to seed when summer gets to hot so all the left overs go to chickens.

They love big zucchinis and cucumbers. Just slice them lengthwise.

Carrot tops, swiss chard, beet tops are good.
Mine also loved with green leftover tops of bok choi and the miniature choi types that we grow.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Loving this idea!

Last year we had tons of Cherry Tomatoes, and huge Zuchini ( sp? ) so the girls got alot of that fresh. We also got a large amount of corn and they got all the cobs once we had gotten most of the kernels off of them. They had a blast picking them clean.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I plant Swiss chard early in the season, as it takes cool weather so well. It grows through the hot humid summers and into the early winter here. Instead of planting and harvesting multiple crops, I only plant it once. I harvest only the larger outside leaves and let the center leaves continue to grow. It's one long harvest that way.

 

[CluckyJay]

EDIT: I am pretty sure this is leaf lettuce that reseeded from the garden, LOL.

Is this a type of Hypochoeris "cat weed"?

I'm trying to I.D the weeds in my yard, lol. Some of the leaves show a purple tinge.

I did a little nibble test and it tasted like yummy, strong leaf lettuce.

rolffamily: My chickens will be angels and never eat a plant I tell them not to!

Cass: With their roots (feet) in the ground of course!

Sunny: Ohh strawberries! That is what we need to plant. I ho0pe I can remember all these plant ideas, LOL.

What zone are you in Johny? I planted some carrot seeds and were hoping they take off. I forget the name--they are the short-rooted ones that do well in clay. Very yummy!

Fluffy: Hubby wants to plant corn for the deer so I will probably steal from his patch!

I'll try and remember to do that WoodlandWoman. I wonder how well it would grow under a canopy of trees? I started clearing an area out in our back woods to have a sitting area. Maybe I can grow some of the cool crops longer in the shade?

 

[flowerchild59]

I want to plant "cuccuzi" gourd which is a rampant italian gourd that gets mammoth in its porpotions. It is edible when small, when bigger, you can toss it to pigs or chickens and they peck at it. I remember as a very young girl picking it and throwing it to my grandpas pigs. They loved it.
I may see if it will climb over a fence by the chicken yard. It grows like 40 feet in a summer.

 

[CluckyJay]

Cuccuzi are awesome-looking! That's a big plant! I'll see if we can find seeds around here.

I was thinking about pureeing excess veggies and garden waste up and making dehydrated feed. I've already started on my recipe and cannot wait to try it out!

 

[michelle43]

Last year was a first for me for both gardens and chickens. One day while walking outside I saw my chickens in the garden jumping up and down. They looked like the were doing calisthenics. It was really funny. When I got closer, I realized that my chickens were jumping to reach corn kernels on my corn stalks. They had already decimated the lower corn cobs and were working on the ones higher up. Needless to say, I will have two gardens this year. One for them and one for me. I can't wait to get started, but here in Vermont it will be the end of May before anything gets planted outside.

 

[Cebarmlds]

My chickens jumped up and down like that picking raspberries! they love them

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Mine jump up in the air to pick berries, too. They're so cute when they do that. I have gardens just for me, just for the chickens and some areas that we share. We have a lot of space. They're always so happy when they're busy foraging, so I like to have "pick your own" areas. Some things need to be protected. Other things can be shared, if you grow larger amounts and there's a lot of forage available.

 

[CluckyJay]

Jumping chickens Batman! lol It would be neat to hang food up sometimes so they have to jump to get it, LOL.

Do you guys know the plant spacing on dandelions? One, two or four per square foot? I want to make a tidy, thick patch of them for us and the chickens.