what to plant for shade for chickens?

[sdshoars]

i am thinking about firethorn vine, unless someone knows they are toxic. they are evergreen and produce little red berries for snacks. they also have big long thorns, and they are woody, so maybe that will deter any munching.... but i did read that sometimes birds will fly erratically after eating the berries, i dunno if that means they got drunk or something, or if i should not plant this, because if the chickens ate enough of it they would get sick???

 

[sdshoars]

ok but then i found this about the firethorn

They are also a good shrub for a wildlife garden, providing dense cover for roosting and nesting birds, summer flowers for bees and an abundance of berries as a food source. Pyracantha berries are not poisonous as commonly thought; although they are very bitter, they are edible when cooked and are sometimes made into jelly.

 

[Chicabee19]

I'm planning to train my Wisteria up and over the covered run and coop roof. If you keep the lower trunks trimmed of branches, the birds can't reach the leaves, which are toxic.

 

[hoosier]

Mine love being under the grape vines and elderberry.

 

[sdshoars]

my goats inhale grape vine. i swear their tongues are like giraffes, they stripped a vine more than a foot away from their fence.... and the run will be adjoining the goat pen... i dont think they would make it, and our soil is SUPER alkaline, like an 8.5 on the ph scale, i thought they like more acidic soil?

 

[Lesa]

I planted lilac bushes in my chicken yard -before it became that...
I was fully expecting them to be devoured. Low and behold they never touched a leaf! I had some volunteer calendula come up in their area. They never touched that either... This being said, they have a large area to range about. Maybe these plants wouldn't have faired so well, in a smaller area. I saw someone plant hops around his run in Vt. That looked nice and provided shade.