Using Chicken Run fence as a trellis for climbing food plants?

[gtaus]

I think this is a lovely idea but also want to point out that I’ve read in numerous sources that even small quantities of raw beans are toxic to chickens. I haven’t had experience with this and it seems like others here haven’t had an issue with it, but it still seems important to bring up.

I plan on having the beans grow up and over their heads. That is what the 2 foot chicken wire as a lean to on the outside would accomplish. But I was thinking that only because I want to eat the beans, I had not considered raw beans might to harmful to the chickens.

 

[SueT]

Mine won’t eat the beans, even if you open the pods and take the seeds out. As I said, I grow pole beans up the side of the run every year. They’ve had every opportunity to get poisoned by them.....and so I plan to plant more this year. Probably tomorrow.

 

[gtaus]

Mine won’t eat the beans, even if you open the pods and take the seeds out. As I said, I grow pole beans up the side of the run every year. They’ve had every opportunity to get poisoned by them.....and so I plan to plant more this year. Probably tomorrow.

Thanks, @SueT, I was hoping you would chime in on this issue. I was thinking about your previous post and that you have not had any problems.

Yes, I know there are things that can be harmful to chickens, in theory, but they first have to eat them. I have watched a number of YouTube videos where people get waste food from restaurants and they are questioned about items that we would not normally feed to our chickens. The guy said that his chickens pretty much will not eat food that is bad for them, preferring to eat all the other food that is good for them. His belief was that if given a choice of food scraps, the chickens were smart enough to know what not to eat.

At any rate, I picked up some pole bean and pea seeds at the store today. I have the 2 foot chicken wire to make a lean to on the outside of the fencing. I figure by the time the vines make it to the chicken run fence, it will be above the chickens head and not of much interest.

@SueT, As far as planting the seeds, I was thinking of digging a narrow (4 inches wide), shallow (maybe 6 inches deep) trench about 4 inches away from the fence, backfilling it with a soil/compost mix, and planting the seeds in the trench. For the chicken wire lean to, I thought I could just put the wire down into the trench before I backfill it with the soil/compost mix. I'm planning on just using some zip ties to attach the top of the chicken wire to the run fence. So, the chicken wire is attached at the top and buried into the trench on the bottom. I think that will work. If you have any thoughts, or would like to share how you grow your beans along the fence line, please let me know. Thanks.

 

[Peas4Ducks]

I’m relieved to hear that’s been your experience, @SueT — I think recently I’ve been putting too much weight on researching and worrying about which plants are toxic to chickens and I forget that they often won’t eat those plants anyway.

 

[kerbotx]

Less edible but still fun - I had 4 loufffa vines growing on my run last year, and it worked great. Chickens didn't bother the plants, also were not interested in the gourds at all. They did provide great shade though! This year, I'm doing 2 louffa vines, and 2 bottle gourd vines. *Fingers crossed* that all this late-season rain we're getting doesn't drown them out!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I had a similar question regarding planting near the chicken run and around fencing...but my purpose was to give the chickens more variety to eat from when in the run on rainy days since they won't get to roam the yard all day.
Has anyone tried this,had experience with this or could point me in direction for information on this topic?

 

[Sally PB]

@laneaj. check out this thread on grazing frames.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...s-sprouts-for-chickens.1426817/#post-23485946

The idea is to grow grass or other greens inside the run, but protected with hardware cloth on a frame. The chickens can eat what they can reach through the HC, and not rip out the entire plant.

 

[gtaus]

UPDATE: 2021-06-07 I planted pole beans along the outside of the chicken run fence over a week ago. I have about half of the seeds poking up through the soil so I'm off to a good start. I planted the bean seeds about 6 inches away from the fence, thinking that by the time the plant is big enough to reach the fence, the chickens might not be so anxious to eat the tender plant. Backup plan is to place some chicken wire on the outside of the fence, at an angle from the beans to the fence, making the bean plants climb about 2 feet high before they reach the chicken run fence.

Thinking about it now, however, I'll have to protect the young bean plants from the rabbits in the yard. So, I'll have to set up some chicken wire around the outside of the beans. Better get that done tonight.

Also, I put a 4X12 foot grazing frame down on the new section of chicken run I just added. I used 1/2 X 1/2 inch hardware cloth on the frame. I looked at grazing frame today and noticed that the thin grass is starting to poke through the HC, but unfortunately I also have lots of broader leaf grass (weeds) that are being stopped by the HC and that may lead to a mess under the HC. I think I should have used bigger HC, like maybe 1 X 1 inch HC, if such exists. I'm still experimenting on the grazing frame, but can see some potential problems with the type of grass (and weeds) that make up my lawn.

 

[gtaus]

Here are a few pics of my project. To bring people up to date, I added 2 more 12X12 feet sections to my chicken run. Here is a pic of the last section, furthest from the chicken coop itself.

My first section of the chicken run was turned into a compost system, where I dump in all my leaves, grass clippings, and wood chips and just let it sit and compost. That has worked out well for me and I have harvested many feed bags full of chicken run compost which I use in my garden and raised beds.

When I added the 2 new sections to the chicken run, it only took a short week for the chickens to scratch the chicken run compost into the 2nd section of the run, covering all the natural grass in no time. Only the 3rd section, which you see in this picture, still has any grass in it. So, I decided to try to extend the life of the natural grass in that section.

On the left of the picture, you can see that I put up a temporary chicken wire fence inside the chicken run to block off that last section. I am using a sprinkler to water that section to see if I can get the natural grass to grow back - before it's all dead.

On the far end of the section, you can see I put down a 4X12 foot grazing frame. So far, I will have to say that my grazing frame has not worked out as well as I had hoped. Anyway, on the other side of the grazing frame, I planted a row of pole beans along the outside of the chicken run fence.

Here is a close up picture of that grazing frame and the row of pole beans I planted about 2 weeks ago. You can see the beans are starting to come in good, and that I put a chicken wire fence around the outside of the beans to protect them from the rabbits we have running around in the yard. From experience, our wild rabbits seem to love the tender young bean plants and will eat them down to the ground. So the beans need to be protected with wire.

Here is a closeup of the grazing frame. After almost a week of watering the grazing frame, I am starting to see some growth of the grass poking up above the hardware cloth. However, my backyard grass has a lot of broad leaf type grass (weeds) that are not poking through the 1/2 x 1/2 inch hardware cloth. and it might lead to a mess under the HC if those broad leaf plants mat up under the wire. I think I should have used larger wire on the grazing frame, like maybe just chicken wire. I thought HC would be stronger and be able to support the weight of the chickens, but next time I make a grazing frame I am going to try 1 inch chicken wire with larger openings.

It's a work in progress. If things work out, this 3rd section of the chicken run will be my green zone, with some natural grass, a grazing frame, and the back fence filled with a wall of pole beans climbing up the chicken run fence as a trellis.

 

[lauraschicks]

I have grown beans on a trellis out in the garden for a few years. I don't have much problem removing the old vines of the beans variety I grew out in the garden. What I cannot break off my hand, I'll snip off with a pair of garden shears. If I grow beans on the chicken run fence, I might just leave the dead vines on the fencing for partial cover/shade for the run.

I'm trying for shade ...