Vines over the run...

[grullablue]

And Gallo, your coop is gorgeous with those vines!!!

 

[kappelmd]

Gallo de Cielo those are some nice looking grape vines! : ) That is the kind of natural coverage/shade that I am looking for. Did you put the grape cuttings in water when you put them in the fridge? I know it is too early for planting here, but I am trying to plan ahead. Do the chickens eat the grape leaves? We free range quite a bit, and the chickens will have access to all sides of the plants. Did you protect the plants at all during the spring when they are starting out? I think I can see after looking at the pic again that you have a "planting strip" just outisde of the coop run.

 

[bj taylor]

gallo that is so beautiful. i don't think of grapes as growing "fast". it looks like you have a strip dedicated to them. is that just outside the run? i think i want to combine shade cloth w/vines growing through it. i have to figure out the support mechanism.
i'm in Texas & gosh the heat is monstrous sometimes.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Thanks for the compliments! I planted my grape vines well before I built the run (they predate the run by about three years). I built the run right around the vines so that they come up directly through the center and out over the top of the run. I bought mine from a local nursery, but as Linn Bee said, it is very easy to take cuttings to propagate more. You can plant them inside or outside the run. If inside, protect them with wire around the bottom for the first year. At the end of the first growing season you trim the central cane(s) to the height that you want them (in my case about 5' up) and growth the next year emerges from near that last cut--a height well up out of the reach of snapping beaks. So, you really only have to protect the vine until it gets a woody bark and the tip of the vine gets out of chicken jumping range. The "trunk" (cane) gets thicker every year and the Thompson seedless are now about 4" in diameter. The great thing about vines is that they will go anywhere you train them, so it would be very easy to plant them on the outside of your run and still have them cover it all. The chickens just love the grape leaves, it is one of their very favorite things to eat. The vines give them continuous forage for much of the year here. I consider them fast growing (at least here in Tucson) and they get faster every year. I suspect this is due, in part, to the great amount of nitrogen they get from the soil in the run. I now have a trellis that suspends vines up above the coop and the vines cover it entirely by June, after having been completely cut back the previous winter. Directly outside the run I have a wire "flower box" that I plant various things in (snow pea pods in winter, sunflowers in summer, etc.) and it protects them from the chickens.

Overall, I can't say enough good things about having a vine to cover your run. I wouldn't be able to keep chickens where the run is situated otherwise because there is no shade at all there--they wouldn't last a single day in our kind of heat. When the vines cover everything they create their own microclimate that keeps it so cool underneath that it is their favorite place to hang out, even when given free choice to be anywhere in our yard.

 

[kmenchicks]

How do you keep the chickens from eating the plant as it's growing? I woul love to plant around the run, but they can fit their heads through the fence so I'm afraid that they would eat anything I plant before it did much of anything.

 

[Ole rooster]

I'm planning on the same thing. But I would be considerate of anything I couldn't control. Honey suckle is one. That stuff is invasive as all get out. Grapes can be trimmed and control so that's good. Confederate Jasmine is an other spreading vine. We have that on our chimney and it too has to be cut back. But it is a heavy growing vine with lots a cover. My younger chicks come up to the house now and get under it. But with the grapes wine drinkers would have something going for them right out at the chicken coop.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

How do you keep the chickens from eating the plant as it's growing? I woul love to plant around the run, but they can fit their heads through the fence so I'm afraid that they would eat anything I plant before it did much of anything.

Once a grapevine gets beyond a few feet tall (which happens very quickly), it is essentially out of the chicken's reach and safe. For about any plant that needs protecting from chickens, I have open-ended wire cylinders made from 1/2" hardware cloth (2' high X ~2'-3' dia.) that I put around them. For example, I currently have them protecting the new shoots on the perennial oregano plants in the yard. The chickens love the fresh oregano leaves, but are less crazy for it once it grows a bit. In a month the plants will be much larger and I'll remove the wire cylinders and use them to protect some other plant. I have another one protecting the new Monukka seedless grapevine I've planted on the north end of the coop. Currently, the vine resembles 12" tall stick with one tiny green bud. In a month or two it will be 4' tall or more and I'll remove the surrounding wire. These wire cylinders have proven completely effective at keeping out my less than athletic LF birds. You can vary the diameter and height to suit your needs.

 

[wekiva bird]

x2

I've been looking into planting Malabar Spinach. It's not a "true" spinach but is spinach like in flavor, etc. It's a vining plant, with pretty blooms on it, is edible AND tolorates heat extremely well.

 

[grullablue]

Thanks for all of the replies, I believe I have decided to go with grapes, just because we already have some on teh property, that could use a thinning out! My plants will be planted on the outside of the run....and figure I may have to protect them a little while they grow...maybe put some plywood or something in between... but it would be beautiful to have them there, and also very nice for the chickens to have them to snack on. And if they can't reach 'em, it will be fun plucking grapes to throw in to them! Hold on...and I'll dig up a pic of my coop.

Ok, here it is... I grow cannas on each side of the door...I'm sure I'll be planting them there again this year. Being in WI, I have to hack them down and dig up the tubers before winter... You can see the road on the left side of the pic, and my house is on the right of this pic (I'm standing in the driveway in this pic, about half way between teh road and my garage door.) So you see why I'd like things to look nice...considering teh chicken coop is usually the first thing people see.

 

[grullablue]

And here's a pic from a little farther away...