Plants for my chickens

[JmeV]

If you want them just to make the run looks nicer, you could plant marigolds in a floating box outside of the run. Marigolds are good for them to eat and help their egg yolks become more orange

Oh yeah I had some for them over the summer. They didn't last long

 

[CluckerFamily]

You could plant herbs too. They will eat them, but you could do some sort of hanging baskets of herbs so that you can rotate them from hanging to sitting on the ground.

 

[TooCheep]

You might want some plants specifically to eat. Check into "fodder for chickens". Basically it is sprouting a bunch of seeds into young plants for them to eat. Super simple and given their environment, I'm sure a welcome change from standard pellet feed.

Sprouting Grains for Chickens

 

[ladybrasa]

I had a little bit of success with plants in the chicken run, but it gets lots of sun. They didn’t touch lavender or sage, but did have to put a layer of chicken wire over the dirt around the plants. Had decent success with tall sunflowers after temporarily fencing them off til they got tall enough. Same with corn. Also they didn’t touch a potted scented geranium (not regular geranium!). Also hanging baskets of things, though they dried out way too fast in the heat and didn’t grow as poofy as I wanted. Had morning glories and datura - both weeds - go nuts to the point they had a mini jungle. Both are poisonous but the chickens won’t touch them, so they provided shade at least. Also Mexican sour gherkins/cucamelons - mine aren’t touching it and neither did the squash bugs! After a long long wait it finally vined everywhere. Unfortunately all those require full sun. I also have some small grass boxes. That might be the way to go. You could potentially place large potted established shrubs in there, just protect the dirt with something.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I would just bring "green" in to them - toss in weeds that you've pulled, garden trimmings, leftover veggies, short grass clippings, dried leaves, etc.

 

[3KillerBs]

Had decent success with tall sunflowers after temporarily fencing them off til they got tall enough.

This interests me. I had thought of using sunflowers to help shade my new run next summer until I can get some landscaping established.

 

[ladybrasa]

Well, I had to replant seeds like 3 times - temp fencing not good enough or one corner fell etc. Also it was the old hens 5+ years old! But yeah, that was my thought too, for shade. The lower part of the stalks don’t have a ton of leaves so you might want to space Them tighter together than recommended. I also planted them in a line along one side of the run fence, so I feel like the soil around them weren’t as exposed to digging feet. I think they only scratched up one or two after I removed the fence. They also realized there were seeds in the flower head of one that was top heavy and leaned way over Same with corn - didn’t bother them much after they were tall enough, but one hen discovered the lower down ears and pecked them to nubs. That okay, mostly went to them anyway!

 

[kerbotx]

I've had success putting wire cages around plants, whether potted or in the ground; I don't have a photo of anything, but think of a tomato cage but made out of 2x4 welded wire (since that's what I had on hand!) Snip the end line of wire off, to make stakes that stick into the ground. Once the plant is established, I usually switch to a smaller cage, just to protect the main stalk & roots; then the plant grows through the wire, and you don't really notice it anymore! Plants include roses, lavender, salvia, various types of mint, caladiums, sunflowers, cleome, and loofah vines. Have fun with it!

 

[aart]

think of a tomato cage but made out of 2x4 welded wire

They can get their heads about 6" thru 2x4" wire,
so make it big enough around that they can't reach.

 

[JmeV]

You could plant herbs too. They will eat them, but you could do some sort of hanging baskets of herbs so that you can rotate them from hanging to sitting on the ground.

I really like this idea. I thought about hanging some plants on the rafters anyway to brighten it up in there and provide some shade in the summers.