Plants safe for and FROM chickens

[Fru-Fru]

Oh Wise Ones, tell me: What plants chickens do not like eating?

I'm trying to find plants that chickens are not crazy about eating, to plant in my garden beds, where chickens can occasionally visit. I don't have a way to fence off the area completely.

I want to avoid poisonous plants, and am wondering what plants chickens simply do not like to it. I have spoiled Silkies and a d'Uccle. Please share your knowledge!

Safe but not eaten, to my knowledge:
- lavender
- sage (at least the hardy, woody type)
- marigold (only read about it)
- some succulents (they ate my aloe though)
- an ugly, red leaf begonia
- naked lady lilies
- mint
- periwinkle (this one may be toxic, but they just don't eat it)
- rosemary

They are crazy about:
- honeysuckle, potatoes bushes, fuchsias, any wildflowers I tried, anything leafy, really, without a strong scent.

Thank you!

 

[CluckerFamily]

Mine seem to not eat my hollyhocks, coneflowers, daylilies, iris, astilbe, some hostas, monarda.

 

[alwaystj9]

Nothing is safe at my house. My garden is fenced but viewed by the chickens as "The Garden Of Earthly Delights". If they can't eat it or peck holes in it, they scratch it out of the ground and leave the plant carcass to wither and die.
If it has big, over-arching leaves, they try to lay eggs under it...(daylillies, cast iron plants, grape holly, four o'clocks)
They do not bother my mint (in an earth box planter). The lavender was scraped out just so they could dig in the pot.
They never went after the aloe but they tore the cactus out of the ground just to spite me.
The rosemary has been safe so far but they murdered two young blueberries next to it.
They jump straight up and poke holes in young figs (and any vegetables). They do not like the kumquats.
They are especially hard on my greens this year, I am not sure if they are on a health kick or after the little caterpillars that are also in love with my collards/kale/chard/romaine.
And this is all despite the fact that they free range 3 acres and I have a 4 foot garden fence inside a 4 1/2 foot fenced yard.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Wish I could offer suggestions here, but I solve this issue by keeping my garden far FAR away from anywhere the chickens free range or protected by LGD which they dare not cross....

I did try to create some wire covered grow frames so that I could reseed parts of their run. I bought some Chicken Forage on etsy and seeded it in the frame. Worked wonderfully. Allowed the plants to grow several inches before the birds could reach them to eat it. Then I moved the frame to a new location to try to seed another spot. The girls DECIMATED the initial spot of ALL greenery within 10 minutes. So yeah....I figure nothing worth eating is going to survive in their pen unless it is covered by wire.

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

My solution that seeeems to be working so far is to plant things that are *slightly* poisonous to chickens. So no to digitalis, but oakleaf hydrangea - yes!

My thought process is that a chicken might take a nibble, but since almost all poisonous plants taste bad they are unlikely to do more than that. And a nibble shouldn't cause much of a problem if any. I haven't had issues so far. My yard came with ivy and other plants they shouldn't eat, and they've left those alone. That's what gave me the idea. But do your own research...I am not an expert by any means.

My chickens have mostly left the marigolds intact, but I have seen them nibble the flowers a bit. I think that's the only edible plant I have out there unprotected. Oh! There is also a super sad rosemary bush that was half dead when we moved in...and is still hanging in there.

I have found that large plants seem to do better, or you need to fence off your flower beds. The chickens were trampling the marigolds until we added a 12" tall decorative wire fence so they'd stop walking/scratching around them. They also knocked over a gladiolus the same way. Didn't try to eat it, but it still wasn't "safe" from them.