Plants for my chickens

[lavender pekins]

I didn't know were to put this so i shoved it in here!

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So anyway i wanted to know if there is any plants that chickens won't eat but aren't poisonous to them I would like a tree or two and a few bushes! This is for my elders pen! I use this pen for my special chickens that get two old for laying but are my favorites!

Any helps appreciated!

Thanks
James

 

[Hokum Coco]

If your birds are like mine I would suggest metal, heavy rubber, and be careful of any artificial plants. Mine eat those as well especially if housed in Styrofoam (Yes I feed my birds just in case you were wondering LOL).

 

[lavender pekins]

Thankyou you would think that I didn't feed mine we had a piece of insulation blow in and they went mad over it!!!!!!! Anyway any one got Any plants that aren't rubber or metal?!?!?

Thank you
James

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

James, it would be easier to make suggestions if we knew what zone you lived in. I live in zone 9b and the plants that do well here may or may not do well where you live. I have grape vines planted in the run and suitable varieties are available for most zones. The vines are tall enough to escape the reach of the chickens but also provide something for them to eat for much of the year here. If I had more room in the run I'd consider planting fruit trees like pomegranate, figs, citrus etc. My birds enjoy lazing around under the fruit trees in the yard while free-ranging and don't bother the leaves. Whatever you plant in the run, you'll likely need to protect it until it gets established well enough to withstand the abuse the birds will dole out. A ring of 2' tall hardware cloth works well enough against my fully-grown birds.

 

[Chikenbutwut]

Yes, it would help to know what zone you're in, but here's some info. for the time being...

There's a safe plant list here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/safe-plants Though that doesn't mean the chickens won't eat them. If you want to prevent them from being eaten, as was stated, it would be advisable to surround the bottoms of them with hardware cloth so that the chickens can't get to them.

I've been pondering the same thing though. I was thinking about doing Nasturtiums and Black Eyed Susan vines to cover the outside of the run, but they're annuals and I was wanting a perennial in case I didn't have time to fool with replanting (as I don't know how well these plants resow/reseed themselves...I'm still gonna give it a try and see though...if they do that's great, as I heard that Nasturtium can be good eating for us, as it adds a peppery taste to salads...sounds yummy!). I was thinking as far as a perennial, I may do a climbing rose on the outside of the run to cover it, make it pretty and provide shade, but would need one that could take the heat here in western KY, is resistant to black spot and I would like a rebloomer. I'm still searching through types for that. Right now I have my eyes on the Star roses and plants/Condard-Pyle website. They have the Knock Out Rose, which is the only rose I've got that hasn't been ravaged by black spot (out of my other roses, one has a little, one I'm battling it with, and another succumbed to it). There's a gorgeous white rose on that website that I really like...it looks much like an English rose. It's called Cloud 10 (Rosa 'Radclean'). 3 1/2" diameter blooms, very vigorous vegetation, a loose climber, 7-8 ft. tall and 5 ft. wide, abundant and continuous flowering, resistant to black spot and excellent for rust and mildew. Sounds like the rose for me! Here's the website if you want to check it out: http://www.conard-pyle.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/home.home/index.htm

As far as inside the run, I was thinking of doing a butterfly bush. Many do not get more than 6 ft. tall with a 4-6 spread, so that sounds great, as my run is 6 ft. tall. The ones that appealed to me most was the BiColor, Purple Emperor, Royal Red, and Nahano Purple. I think I like the BiColor the best. They usually bloom from July - Sept. and the ones I picked grow fast and are widely adaptable in terms of moisture. I got the info on them from this site (and there are more to chose from than what I listed): http://www.naturehills.com/bushes-and-shrubs/butterfly-bushes?limit=36 I would surround the bush with hardware cloth so that the chickens couldn't get to it.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts on what I'm thinking of doing, as, like I said, we don't know what zone you're in.

 

[lavender pekins]

Thankyou

I live in Cornwall, England where it is usally freezing cold but at summer it suddenly cooks you like today the temperature is meant to be 34 degrees! I like the idea of the rose and my mum has one she wants moved so that could work well! I googled butterfly bush and am loving the bicolor and black night and will probably get some of those! I also went to my friends house and found he uses fruit bushes like strawberries and blackberries etc. He surrounds them in netting and and picks the fruit in the summer when its ripe and the sun is scorching and freezes them in a container filled with water and feeds it to them! which i quite like the idea of!

Anymore!

Thanks
James

 

[lavender pekins]

Anymore at all?!?!?!

Thanks
james

 

[robbrown]

Hey James,

I know what you mean about the weather. We can now add bad thunderstorms to the 34 degrees. lol

Nice tip about the strawberries and blackberries. I will definitely be using that idea

Rob

 

[lavender pekins]

Thanks
weather here today was horible we started off with wind then we had sunshine until 3 now weve had rain and more rain with thunderstorms forecast! grrrrrrrrrrrr

Thank everyone

James