Snack Garden around chicken run

[ACluckAboveTheRest]

Found a use for all the hardware cloth scraps I had piled up and also for all the rocks and boulders laying around our property. Little snack garden for the ladies. Let’s see if I can keep it alive and the ladies away from it for awhile to let them grow a bit before they start snacking.

 

[nuthatched]

They're going to eat it down to the dirt the first time they're allowed in. A fodder system might be easier.

 

[ACluckAboveTheRest]

They're going to eat it down to the dirt the first time they're allowed in. A fodder system might be easier.

I might have left it too wide in some sections but that’s okay I’ll adjust. They have a very large farm area to roam in so I’m not too worried. Mostly the boulders were for extra predator protection as there is a hardware cloth skirt as well. Just thought it would be fun to plant some goodies especially since I got these plantlings for free.

 

[aart]

Those sharpies sticking out in the gap in the first pic could wound a chicken.
Bend them under of cover them up.

 

[ACluckAboveTheRest]

What

Those sharpies sticking out in the gap in the first pic could wound a chicken.
Bend them under of cover them up.

thanks will do!

 

[linguini]

They're going to eat it down to the dirt the first time they're allowed in. A fodder system might be easier.

Exactly my experience last year!! I had a nice 6'x6' square of meadow flowers growing all season inside their run. Beautiful flowers, lush, 2-4 feet tall, they flattened the entire bed in two short hours after I removed the chicken wire.

 

[ACluckAboveTheRest]

Exactly my experience last year!! I had a nice 6'x6' square of meadow flowers growing all season inside their run. Beautiful flowers, lush, 2-4 feet tall, they flattened the entire bed in two short hours after I removed the chicken wire.

Great LOL I guess I will be prepared!

 

[Maddcatter]

I'm trying something kind of similar to you, but I permanently attached chicken wire to a box frame about a foot tall... So anything over a foot, the chickens will eat, but hopefully enough of the plant can grow that it won't die.

Time will tell if this works, but I'm stoked some one else is doing it.

 

[ACluckAboveTheRest]

I'm trying something kind of similar to you, but I permanently attached chicken wire to a box frame about a foot tall... So anything over a foot, the chickens will eat, but hopefully enough of the plant can grow that it won't die.

Time will tell if this works, but I'm stoked some one else is doing it.

Awesome! Yeah I didn't think it through because originally I was going to just do the boulders around the run. Then I came upon all these free plantlings so figured why not. However I think maybe larger shrubbery would work better. Maybe large Rosemary, Oregano, Sage, Lavender etc would be better suited with no hardware cloth. These plants are meant for them to eat not for us but I would like to give them a chance to grow.

 

[Maddcatter]

Awesome! Yeah I didn't think it through because originally I was going to just do the boulders around the run. Then I came upon all these free plantlings so figured why not. However I think maybe larger shrubbery would work better. Maybe large Rosemary, Oregano, Sage, Lavender etc would be better suited with no hardware cloth. These plants are meant for them to eat not for us but I would like to give them a chance to grow.

Oh, yeah. You definitely need to give them a chance to grow. You could just not remove the hardware cloth? Will the plants grow through it? (I don't know the size of the cloth or what plants you have)
I definitely want to make an herb garden for my birds... Lavender, comfrey, etc. But right now anything I don't want them to eat gets caged in, because they eat *everything*.
My lemon plants didn't have lemons last year and barely had leaves... Lol