I am starting a chicken garden!! What goes in it?

[peachlover]

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[KandJsmama]

The wind blew down part of the fence for my garden today and the girls seized the opportunity to eat ALL my carrot seedlings! They also munched the leaves of the watermelon and zucchini but seemed to leave the green beans and peas alone. If you were planting the garden just for the chickens you could squeeze a lot of carrots in a little space, especially if you aren't thinning them to allow them to grow. My girls just ate the tops and seemed to leave the roots alone.

 

[eastbaychicks]

My chickens love cucumbers, chard, spinach, beet greens and radish greens and even parsley. They ignore the chives though.

 

[eastbaychicks]

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It is a delicate subject... I think that as long as the girls are about the same size and have a short introduction period with somewhere to run off to for safety to get away from the older ladies while they're beginning to be integrated, they should be fine. Be sure to give treats from the younger girls to the older girls.... you know some bounce over to their side... that helps a LOT! Keep an eye on things while they're free ranging together and you'll know if they're to be trusted overnight. I'd let them free range together for a couple of days and just keep an eye on them to prevent any injuries. Also feed them treats when they're out together. They'll start to get along then. I also read that when you put them in the coop for the first time, barge in and make a lot of noise and they'll all run off together. Then they can bond while being chickens.

It will work out great!

 

[darkmatter]

Don't forget that chickens like fruit. Build a large run and plant Illinois everbearing Mulberries, apples, persimmons, etc. This will provide free food that drops til frost and the persimmons actully hang on and drop til November. Be sure to have your garden adjacient to the run and a door to let the chickens into the garden in the fall when you're done with it. The chickens will clean up your garden, add fertilizer, and practically till it for you too. I also plant tomatoes in a cage in the run that grows up and over a trellis dropping tomatoes for them. Any spoiled or surplus garden stuff gets tossed over the fence to the chickens. I use a bagger for my riding lawnmower and always dump several bags of clippings into the run, they love to scratch through clippings. Since I mow partly in the woods, there are a variety of weeds/seeds and plants for them to sort out. You can see some on this on my BYC page.

 

[tammyd57]

Swiss Chard! My chickens will mug me if I walk into their run with some leaves of Chard in my hand! They jump all over me, and these are chickens that don't like to be touched. I have to toss it over the fence to them.
I can grow that for them year-round here, so I always have a lot of it growing. My hubby and I both like it too.

 

[lemurchaser]

My chickens favorites are brocoli and lettuce. Those are the two things that get picked down to stalks if the chickens sneak into the garden. Mine also helped themselves to a large pumpkin (I didn't think they would and they had full access to it, discovered one day it was half gone). I grow cabbage for them, and they get the zucchini that are 2 feet long and not ideal for cooking with. Mine don't like tomatoes or any onion/garlic type plant. Oh and I plant sunflowers for them (and me).

 

[DianeB]

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They don't like tomatoes? I thought tomatoes were gourmet treats for them.

 

[schellie69]

mine love tomatoes and just about everything that does not bite them 1st

I have my garden fenced off and they still stick their little chicken heads in the garden to eat the leaves, I am growing my tomato plants at the back of the garden since I hear that tomatoe green/plants are bad for the chickens. I do throw them the weeds from my garden which they love I would love to plant some sunflowers but the stupid squirrels eat those so far my garden is going great.

 

[Chickiemama1010]

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Dont do it!Learn from MY mistake. I thought the same thing. I had a wicked cabbage worm problem in my garden. I dont like to use poison on things I plan to eat, so I set 3 girls in there to pick them off. ( my leafy things - broccoli, lettuce, brussels sprouts etc are fenced in to deter rabbits and groundhogs from eating it all)The chickens did great. but when the last worm was devoured, so was my broccoli. To the dirt. And the cabbage. After the season was over I let them go to town in there, and they did a terrific job fertilizing for me, and plucking any remaining weeds/veg scraps out, and turned the soil for me too. They also do a great job turning my compost pile for me. The only thing they didnt eat was my garlic, sweet potato vine and any fallen/buggy tomatoes. I put up a low tunnel hoop over my late carrots and parsnips and kept them out just in case....