Planting around coop

[seedcorn]

grape vines can survive chickens as horseradish inside the pen will as well. Makes shade in summer, tastes good in spring.

Chicken manure is good for garden just don't make piles of it or it can kill the ground for a while.

To my knowledge NO grass will survive chickens. Corn/millet would be your best bet but even they won't survive inside pen.

 

[MTchick]

Barg-

Chicken poop is a very very intense nitrogen fertilizer. Lots of plants, if they get too much nitrogen, will change their "strategy" and do something unexpected... like onions making only flowers, or tomatoes growing into shade trees. The key is to keep the fertilizing light and occasional. So you don't want to mix 1 part poop to 1 part soil, for instance. That would probably kill the plants outright from the pH change, anyway.

I found some books at the library about composting that had good info on properly mixing and aging chicken poo to make the best fertilizer and compost. I hope to put that knowledge to use soon- my chickens poop a lot!

-MTchick

 

[Frozen Feathers]

Quote:
Do your chickens eat the leaves and or fruit?? My hubby wants grapes, of course the only thing that would grow around here are concords but they're his favorite, not mine, too sour for me! I think they'd look really pretty climbing up the side of our run, just don't want the chickens to eat them all.

 

[chickenwoods]

I think you should plant trees,if all your wanting is shade from them..Trees will produce more shade and grow alot bigger than plants that will just die down to the ground or fall over in the fall. If your planting new trees you probably should put chicken wire around them because the chickens will eat the leaves and kill it. It will take awhile for the trees to get growing but in the long run you will be better off.
Ignore me if im not helping you any LOL

 

[ChickaChickaBoomBoom]

Quote:
So they won't eat these at all, or they just won't eat enough to worry about? I'm thinking of getting some plantings going quickly for the summer (oh, as soon as the coop and run are actually finished LOL), and maybe a vine of some sort that would gradually fill in over the next year or two.

Anyways, all great ideas.

-Dave

 

[kstaven]

Hops vines grow quickly and will provide sun shelter for the chickens.

 

[seedcorn]

Don't think they like horseradish (aquired taste) and it can stand up to manure. My grape vine is on outside of pen and if they eat any of the leaves not enough to notice.

 

[kritrkz]

I had tried an evergreen bush arborvite (sp?), around the pen & lost several & the others on side are brown around bottom so I assumed it was heavy nitrogen load as these plants are on a downhill side from the runs for my coops & the nitrogen runs off during rains onto these plants.

I love all the suggestions group members have come up with & will be trying some of them.

Also, when we clean our coops, we take the manure over to our compost piles where we put all the materials out of our horse stalls. After the pile has been turned enough it becomes fantastic soil which we broadcast on the fields or garden areas. I was told that chicken manure was too 'hot' to use immediately.

 

[ChickaChickaBoomBoom]

Quote:
Thank you!

-Dave

 

[silkiechicken]

Zucchini's... I make a hole in the poo layer, pop one in, and boy are there monster Zuchini's. They do very well in high nitrogen content.

Edit: Peas and beans are another crop that are nitrogen fixers that are all leaves if nitrogen is too high. They do best in lower nitrogen soils.