PLANTS AROUND THE RUN

Welcome!
Your easiest plan would be to use deep litter in the runs, because the total run space that you have per chicken really won't allow rotational grazing without overcrowding the two pens while the third regrows. Bagged shavings, wood chips (not all black walnut or cedar), grass clippings, hay, straw, weeds, whatever, will be loved by them, as they dive for bugs and worms, and turn it all into compost.
Plantings around the outside can be shrubs for more summer shade, and as mentioned, most of the herbs aren't eaten, and that includes catnip. I think that trying to protect edible plants inside these runs will take more effort than it's worth, and all that manure on dirt, plus rain, won't be so nice over time.
Your run area does drain well, I hope! Mud will be awful!
Mary
Does deep litter require a roof to be pleasant? Not a moldy mess
 
I have 3 screens with grass growing underneath. I'm going to make some wire fence rings and start growing some stuff in those so I can pull them up and move them over a bit to allow them to scratch around a bit without them killing all of it.
 
My chickens are obsessed with chives. I'm growing it in pots to rotate drive m since they'll eat them to the dirt. Bonus: they propagate via division and seeds, so it spreads very easily.
 
My chickens are obsessed with chives. I'm growing it in pots to rotate drive m since they'll eat them to the dirt. Bonus: they propagate via division and seeds, so it spreads very easily.

I always heard from my grandmother and my neighbors that we shouldn't let our chickens eat chives or wild garlic because it would flavor the eggs. As a child, I earned 5 cents a bucket to pull wild chives and garlic out of my neighbor's field (they raised laying hens). That was a lot of money for a kid in the 1960s!

Now, I have my own laying hens, and there are still wild chives in our fields, but I don't notice a difference in egg flavor when they are eating wild garlic/chives or not. I would be interested to hear any opinions on whether wild garlic or chives affect egg flavor.
 
Probably it's a matter of % of their total diet, not just eating an occasional leaf. the same with fish meal, or any strong tasting ingredient.
Also, is it actually true, or more 'old wives' tales'?
Mary
 

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