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

[Sally PB]

Now that I know the chicken coop/run are staying up near the house permanently, I may think about training some useful or pretty vines to grow on the west side.

Hmmmm... Something to think about over next winter.

 

[gtaus]

This morning, I just checked the progress of my pole beans I planted outside my chicken run fencing. The beans have started to hold on to the fencing and have started climbing up. I was expecting this to happen weeks ago, but we have little to no rain at all where I live, so the best I can do it to hit it with a sprinkler every so often. The pole beans are not growing very fast, but they are growing. Will be nice to see if they run all the way up the fence and spread out to make the back wall all green.

As an aside, all the pole beans I planted in my main garden were eaten down to the ground by deer. Nothing left but stubs of the plants. One day, everything was looking really good, then the next day, stubs....

 

[mapurcel]

It’s possible! I grew the plant to the top of my wooden garden pole and then moved it to my run. Bean plants!

 

[gtaus]

Just a quick update... my pole beans have been climbing the chicken run fence and some are even higher than 6 feet tall. But it has not really filled in very well so I might not realize the green wall I had envisioned. I only have a few vines here and there taking off and climbing good. Maybe the others will start soon. I hope so. No beans on the vines yet, so probably still lots of time to grow up and fill out. It's been a drought year here this year and many of my plants are suffering. So maybe in a normal year my experiment would have been more successful. Will post a picture or two if I have any success.

 

[lauraschicks]

How many beans plants did you plant? Usually you plant 1-2 seeds every 6 inches...but then my garden is overcrowded

 

[gtaus]

How many beans plants did you plant? Usually you plant 1-2 seeds every 6 inches...but then my garden is overcrowded

Yes, I planted my bean seeds every 6 inches. In theory, they should grow up and fill out the fencing. But this is a terrible drought year and plants are working hard to survive, let alone thrive.

 

[lauraschicks]

Yes, I planted my bean seeds every 6 inches. In theory, they should grow up and fill out the fencing. But this is a terrible drought year and plants are working hard to survive, let alone thrive.

I think we are getting ready for the drought to reach us. We have been trying to move pens and extend our cooprun area, but it has been raining at least every 2-3 days and sometimes daily. Total mess. But I'm not complaining too much. As soon as my mouth opens I see a news report that closes it right back up. My birds are panting and are periodically wet, but they have food, water, and shelter, and BSF with chicken crack...scratch
, so they are happy anyway.

 

[gtaus]

OK, here are a few pictures of my attempt to make a "green zone" for my chickens in their chicken run. My idea was to make the new section of the chicken run into a grassy area with pole beans climbing up the back fence to provide shade, look good, and maybe even get some beans to enjoy for Dear Wife and myself.

The idea was good and thanks to many suggestions I have received to this thread, I think I can call my attempt a success - well limited success anyway because this year we have had a terrible drought and almost everything in the yard is dead. For example, I normally have to mow the lawn at least twice a week in the summer, but this year, I have not mowed the lawn in almost 2 months! I think if we would have had a normal year with average rainfall, the pole beans on the fence would have really taken off and filled up the back wall.

Anyway, here are some pics.... This first picture shows the back fencing where I planted the pole beans. You can see I had some success, but I was hoping that the beans would have filled the entire fence with leaves and beans. There are a few vines that are doing well, but others that are just not thriving, and some that tried to grow and are already dead.

The vines that are doing good are producing some beans that are about ready to pick. I would estimate that only about 10% of my plants got to this point.

More beans from another vine, so I think my beans on the chicken run fence idea was a good one, but the drought we had this year negatively affected all our plants. You can see that there is really nothing growing next to this vine, despite having planted my beans about 2 inches apart. The beans just did not grow well this year.

I expanded my chicken run another two 12X12 foot sections this year. This is a picture of my attempted "green zone" for the chicken run. You can see the grass growing in this section of the chicken run and there were a few chickens enjoying the grass when I took this picture. Along the back fence wall, where I planted the pole beans, I also put down a 4X12 grazing frame. Even if the chickens scratch up all the grass in this last section, there still should be a nice green patch of grass under the grazing frame. Off to the right you can see part of my chicken run compost system. The other two sections of the run are filled with wood chips, leaves, and grass clippings. It is making great compost for the garden and I can go in there and shovel out bags of compost anytime I need some more. I am really a big fan of the chicken run compost idea because I never have any smell from the chicken droppings and the compost the chickens are making is probably more valuable to me as a gardener than the eggs I get from them.

So there you have it. I think my idea to plant pole beans along the back wall of the chicken run fencing was a success even though the drought this year prevented me from achieving everything I had hoped for. I will plant pole beans in the back fence again next year and hope for better rainfall. Thanks to all who offered suggestions and guidance.

 

[45lk9p459gm-w]

Just a thought .... could the runoff/close proximity to all that fresh, hot, chicken poop be causing the plants to suffer? I have thought about planting on my run fence too and have wondered if it would work. Chickens being chickens and all.

 

[gtaus]

Just a thought .... could the runoff/close proximity to all that fresh, hot, chicken poop be causing the plants to suffer? I have thought about planting on my run fence too and have wondered if it would work. Chickens being chickens and all.

That's an important thought. Thank you.

I don't think there is any possibility that runoff/close proximity to the chicken poo in the compost area of the chicken run has negatively affected the bean plants. First of all, there has been no rainfall this drought year, so there would be no runoff. Secondly, there is not much chicken poo in the compost area as most of the chicken droppings appear to be at night while roosting in their coop.

When I clean out the deep litter in the coop, I place it into the chicken run but in the section farthest away from this "green zone". By the time that chicken coop deep litter gets anywhere near the last "green zone" of the chicken run, it will be about 1 year sitting outside. By then, I would think it would help the bean plants to grow better if there were any runoff. That is the same area where I shovel up the compost to sift for use in the garden. So, the compost should be ready to use anywhere at that point.