Planting greens, treats, etc IN the run?

[happydog]

Is there some way to do this? I've got tons of seeds of lettuce and brassicas and other greens, as well as some special "chicken treat mix" seed that I'd like to plant right in the run. I thought about maybe making a low chicken wire tunnel to grow them under, maybe 4 inches or so high, so when they grew up out of it the birds could eat them but not down to the ground.

I was also thinking that'd be a great place to plant my "weedy" plants like lambs quarters, nettles, and comfrey, as well as some grains like quinoa and amaranth.

Does anybody do this or any kind of variation on this? What if I divide the run in half and rotate sides? My run is 6'x 100'.

Or do I just have to plant the stuff in my garden and cut it every day for them? I'd like to find a way to make it more self serve, lol.

Thanks.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

You could make some bottomless frames, rectangles of 2X4s, and attach chicken wire in an arc over them. You could first put thin PVC bent over to support the chicken wire. Then place them in your run & plant the seeds inside. You could start a new one every few weeks so there would always be fresh stuff growing up. And when the plants in one frame were pecked down you could just lift up the frame & let the chickens have fun plowing it up & finishing it off.

I have long troughs along the outside of the runs in which I plant stuff for the chickens to eat. I have to put wire across the top to keep them from digging it up when they're out to free-range. But they enjoy pecking at it through the wire of their run.

To a chicken, the whole world is their salad bowl, and under that is their dust bath tub.

 

[happydog]

That's a great idea! I thought about planting on the outside of the run but one side has an electric fence wire and DH nixed planting anything there, and the other side is my garden. Any idea how to keep them from standing and pooping on the hoops all day? lol. aha, maybe stretch a wire across it!

Thanks for the welcome. I've learned a ton from reading here.