Natural shade for the chicken run

[Chrisdis]

My wife and I were trying to come up with plants or a tree idea in front of our run to offer shade for our girls. We tried a few options and settled on muscadine vines. We purchased 2 of them from tractor supply for $10 each. It ended up being a very good decision. Not only does it provide awesome shade, it gives us plenty of muscadines. And the chickens love them when they fall in the run. This is the second year of growth and the vines are loaded with fruit. Very low maintenance vine. If you are looking for a natural, low maintenance shade option this might work for you

 

[My Bagurks]

How big were the plants when you purchased them? Did you have to fence them off to protect them at first? This is an awesome idea. And I am absolutely stealing it for my coop.

Where are you located? And how do the chickens fair in winter? They grow muscadines next door but I honestly can’t remember what the plants look like in winter.

 

[3KillerBs]

How big were the plants when you purchased them? Did you have to fence them off to protect them at first? This is an awesome idea. And I am absolutely stealing it for my coop.

Where are you located? And how do the chickens fair in winter? They grow muscadines next door but I honestly can’t remember what the plants look like in winter.

Like other grapes, muscadines drop their leaves in the winter.

They take a fair amount of pruning to keep them productive and, because they are so vigorous, they need STRONG support. But they're really easy to deal with.

 

[Shadrach]

My wife and I were trying to come up with plants or a tree idea in front of our run to offer shade for our girls. We tried a few options and settled on muscadine vines. We purchased 2 of them from tractor supply for $10 each. It ended up being a very good decision. Not only does it provide awesome shade, it gives us plenty of muscadines. And the chickens love them when they fall in the run. This is the second year of growth and the vines are loaded with fruit. Very low maintenance vine. If you are looking for a natural, low maintenance shade option this might work for youView attachment 3174599View attachment 3174600View attachment 3174601View attachment 3174602View attachment 3174603View attachment 3174604View attachment 3174605

I just adore this. If you've got to have a run this is a really great start.
We had wine grapes and the chickens loved them.
What would make this close to perfect is some small hardy bushes underneath the grape vine canopy.

 

[Chrisdis]

How big were the plants when you purchased them? Did you have to fence them off to protect them at first? This is an awesome idea. And I am absolutely stealing it for my coop.

Where are you located? And how do the chickens fair in winter? They grow muscadines next door but I honestly can’t remember what the plants look like in winter.

We're in south mississippi so we really don't have very harsh winters. The vines are 2 years old now and they were about 18" tall when we bought them. We did put a small fence around them until the vines were able to attach to the fence. In the winter about 50% of the leaves fall off but the vines don't die. 2 months later the leaves grow back and it keeps growing

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Oh I LOVE this!!!!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Better soil than mine. I bought my plants maybe 9" tall, also TSC. Set on 6 1/2" PT posts, with coated steel wire running across the top and earth anchors at either end. The 2' year old plants now run almost all 20'. Last year's plants (a thompson, and a flame seedless, from Lowes) are not muscadine varieties, and do not fair so well.

All the plants go dormant in winter, lose substantially all their leaves.

Pruning in early Spring definitely helps production. The roots of each grape should not be too close together - all that growth requires a lot of nutrients, you don't want them stunted due to excess competition. and yes, they get HEAVY. I'm using a shed tie down kit (was about $30 cheaper when I bought it) for every two vines. Vines are spaced 10' apart, with 20' of suispended cable on which to train their growth. Had I been smarter, I would have alternated vines left to right, right to left, to further reduce resource competition. Next spring, I may set posts between the existing posts, and set more grapes, headed in the opposite direction, so I can keep 10' between root balls.

Muscadine like acidic soils, even more so than some of the other grape varieties - keep that im mind when you deep litter - and the chicken droppings will definitely help provide needed nitrogen. Build strong and be patient.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I’m curious about underground root spread.
When I lived in a residential area in upper Michigan the neighborhood was overwhelmed by some wild type grape vines. Have you found this to be invasively spreading to unwanted areas?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I’m curious about underground root spread.
When I lived in a residential area in upper Michigan the neighborhood was overwhelmed by some wild type grape vines. Have you found this to be invasively spreading to unwanted areas?

UC Davis claims they can spread far and dig deep, to capture a surface area of about 100 sq meters (almost 1,100 sq ft) as a mature plant) - that's nearly 17' in every direction from the central trunk. I should perhaps move my Flame and Thompson seedless - that might explain (in part) why they have fared so poorly - too close to the better established muscadines.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

UC Davis claims they can spread far and dig deep, to capture a surface area of about 100 sq meters (almost 1,100 sq ft) as a mature plant) - that's nearly 17' in every direction from the central trunk. I should perhaps move my Flame and Thompson seedless - that might explain (in part) why they have fared so poorly - too close to the better established muscadines.

Well, that explains a lot in my (former) neighborhood. Thanks for the info and link.