Planting Vegies in the run?

[Animalian]

Ah the climb in a cage woul work really well! great idea! I think I might try with some beans or something!

 

[chookhead]

Quote:
what plants are they they sorta look like zuchini

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
what plants are they they sorta look like zuchini

They are various varieties of squash and tomatoes. I use old truck tires that I cut the sidewall out of one side and place the cut out side down. Fill with compost and make a cylinder cage around it out of concrete remesh. I use the same remesh to connect the cylinder cages at the top to form a trellis across all the cages. After I plant the seeds/starts I have to use a smaller mesh to keep the chickens out of the cages (which I can pull back to weed or replant as needed). The chickens naturally prune back any plant tendrils’ that they can reach----that just makes the plant sprout more on top of the trellis. I found out by accident that this is a superior method to my regular squash gardening, seems the chicken run squash/tomatoes grow vigorously all the way to a killing frost in the fall while the regular garden plants wither and die earlier----apparently the chickens act as "Moat Monsters" to insects and they are unaffected by squash bugs etc. while the regular garden plants get infected with killer viruses from the squash bugs no matter how diligent I am at preventing them.

 

[darkmatter]

You can also plant fruit trees, I planted the Illinois Everbearing Mulberries the year before I built the chicken coop/run. They drop mulberries for 10 to 12 weeks vs the native kind which drops berries for only two weeks. I've since planted Apple and Persimmon trees to extend the free food dropping season. When everything's done, I expect to have food dropping for 9 months out of the year. (Persimmons hold fruit well into winter to drop)