Vines on a Chicken Run or Coop--suggestions, please

[robtaylorart]

Does anybody have any recommendations from their own experience of what vines are successful when planted near a chicken run? I'm concerned that they are going to peck anything I plant to shreds. I'm thinking that honeysuckle or wisteria are my best options. Any other thoughts?

 

[enola]

Scratch that bad advice.......

Sorry

 

[lazy gardener]

I believe that morning glories are toxic. Are you planting for beauty, or for the chicken's tasting pleasure?

 

[TLWR]

I had morning glories growing and my ducks and chickens basically leave them alone. Rip the leaves off the bottom every now and then, but never saw anybody eat them. Mine reseed themselves.
The ducks and chickens are free range so maybe if they were penned, they might try eating.

 

[enola]

I didn't want to admit I grew them for shade for my chickens after some one posted they were toxic. But mine grew up a string not where the chickens could reach them. They made wonderful shade and were very pretty. I planted moon flowrrs with them. Morning glory blooms in the day time and moonflower blooms at night.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I didn't want to admit I grew them for shade for my chickens after some one posted they were toxic. But mine grew up a string not where the chickens could reach them. They made wonderful shade and were very pretty. I planted moon flowrrs with them. Morning glory blooms in the day time and moonflower blooms at night.

That sounds lovely.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I have grapevines that grow up an over my run. The chickens love the leaves and grapes they can reach and they provide fantastic shade from our blistering sun. I built the run around the already established vines so by that time the vines were long enough to be out of the reach of the birds. You should be able to get vines that are long enough from your local nursery to be out of chicken-jumping height.

Here is the coop in early spring before the vines grow out:



By the beginning of June the vines completely cover the run:



These pics are nearly four years old. Now the vines have gotten so prolific they completely cover the coop as well as the run.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

My plan is to grow pole beans to cover the run this summer. They've eaten both leaves and beans without ill effect so no worries about them being toxic. I'll have to rig climbing guide-wire for the beans that is a few inches away from the run to keep them from destroying the stem of each runner but that should be easy enough to do with chicken wire.

Pole beans are easy and are quick growers and can provide a good bit of shade. And what the girls don't get will go in my dinner pot!

 

[lazy gardener]

Gallo, how rugged is your fence? No damage from the grape vines? I hadn't given grapes much thought. They are often used as a trap crop for Japanese beetles, and had not wanted to plant them for fear that they would attract even more of the pests into my yard. But... if the grapes are planted where the chickens can get at them... the leaves, and the fruit... and the beetles would make quite the chicken meal, I would think!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Gallo, how rugged is your fence? No damage from the grape vines? I hadn't given grapes much thought. They are often used as a trap crop for Japanese beetles, and had not wanted to plant them for fear that they would attract even more of the pests into my yard. But... if the grapes are planted where the chickens can get at them... the leaves, and the fruit... and the beetles would make quite the chicken meal, I would think!

It's surprisingly strong. It's made of 14 gauge 1" X 2" welded wire. After 4+ years it still looks as good as the day I put it up. This is impressive given the torquing on it that occurs when I'm pulling the vines off in the fall. There are spots over the main vine canes that have had vines get wider than 1" which deformed the opening, but I can bend them back in place after the vine is removed. I've not yet seen Japanese beetles on the vines. Our two main problems are grape leaf skeletonizers and variegated leaf hoppers. I have to keep up with treatments of Bt for the skeletonizers and green lacewing larvae for the leafhoppers. Oh, now that I think of it we do have fig-eater beetles (which look a lot like japanese beetles) that get on them in the early summer. They don't do too much damage to the grape vines but the chickens like them. Perhaps that's because they're so busy eating the figs. They're the size of my thumb and slow and low fliers, it's fun to watch the chickens chase them.