Plants and chickens

[cptkracker]

I am going to make my chickens a fairly large run(50'x15'?) which is currently being used as a garden and i wanted to plant some chicken friendly plants in it. I figured i would get another stalk of bamboo when i get it for other places. I figured it would provide shade as well as nesting oppurtunities while hiding the ugly excuse of a coop. First i wanted ot know if bamboo is poisinous to chickens.

I would also like some other ideas for plants that chickens would like. I live in southern oregon so the temperature goes from 0-100F consistantly and get on average 15" of rain. Thanks for any imput!

 

[tasymo]

First of all, anything a chicken LIKES, will be eaten. That being said, I have lemon balm, sun flowers and Malva growing in my large run, that my six girls do not eat. There are also several shrubs which I believe are honeysuckle. They really appreciate being able to disappear into the foliage. All this stuff was already established when we built the run around it (the sun flowers were about three feet tall. I also have a section of the run temporarily fence off, where a patch of comfrey grows. I'll periodically take the fence down, and allow the girls to chow on the comfrey, then put the fence back up to let the plants recover from it's "pruning".

 

[Tropical Chook]

No, bamboo will not do your chickens any harm at all.

 

[cptkracker]

Yay! I love the tuff and I figured that with it's water retaining abilities and shade opurtunities it would keep my birds cool during the summer

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I would highly recommend grapes for covering your coop/run. They will also do well in your climate. You can buy them from any reputable nursery when they are about 4-5' tall and that will generally be tall enough to keep your chooks from nipping off the top leaves. Any leaves that grow within jumping height will be eaten.

Here's a pic of my run this spring before the grapes leafed-out:

Here's a recent pic of my grape covered run:

 

[cptkracker]

Grapes would work and it would give them something to eat

 

[Sweetpeaswan]

Wow!!! what a nice set up....thats one lucky chicken. My neighbor planted Jasmine around her coop, it makes
it smell nice, so you don't get complaints...and it makes a nice cover.Happy planting