Will chickens keep blackberry bushes down?

[JennsPeeps]

I have a narrow area between our garage and our neighbor's. It's about 4 1/2 feet wide. The neighbor is a non-yard savvy renter who let the blackberries on her side get away from her and the bushes completely filled in this narrow area. Yesterday I spent 5 hours clearing out the prickly mess in the hopes that I can use the 4.5 x ~15 foot area as a secondary chicken run (we already have one that's about 5 x 7 feet). We have to get permission from the landloard to enclose the area since it's about 1 foot into their property.

My question: Will the chickens keep the blackberry sprouts from the existing root systems at bay? I'd love to use that as a reason for their landlord to let us enclose that completely unused area as a chicken run.

 

[Weewanona]

I went surfing and found this here:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/weeds/msg121654211733.html

The answer is yes, at least to the destroying the viability of eaten seeds part, according to UCDavis edu....Can't speak for how nutritious they might be for your chicks, but blackberry seed compounds are available in health food stores for us human types.
"Chickens, surprisingly enough, are known to effectively digest and destroy all weed seeds passing through their crops and can thoroughly graze back vegetation in areas of up to one acre. Releasing chickens into an area after mature blackberry plants are removed allows them to scratch and peck out weed seeds and effectively reduce the seed bank in the soil"

 

[FarmGirl01]

I have a blackberry patch right next to my chicken yard. The chickens didn't do any damage to berry sprouts. Now the goats are another story. They would clean out the brambles if they could. The chickens like to hide in them when they can. So far the chickens have not impacted the berries one bit. Getting ready to make a pie soon. Can't wait.
Maybe I'm not understanding the question....

 

[JennsPeeps]

You answered just great.

The question was: when blackberry bushes sprout leaves off the root balls, will the chickens eat/kill them? Apparently the answer is likely not, so I'll have to keep an eye on those.

Wonder if I could squeeze a goat in a run that's 4.5 x 15, gets little to no direct sun, and is 1 foot into the neighbor's yard? LOL

 

[dangerouschicken]

depends on the goat, though. Some won't touch blackberries

You can rely on any PIG, though!

 

[SterlingAcres]

I'm not sure. I'll let you know in 2 months, since there's berry bushes inside our new chicken run. I figure if they don't kill the bushes completely, maybe they can have a growing snack in there.

 

[FarmGirl01]

OK. The way I controll my bushes is with the lawn mower. The birds don't touch the sprouts. But they do have an acre to roam in. Now if they were enclosed in close confinement they might bother them. Either by pecking them our walking on them.

 

[can you hear me now?]

I pick and feed em to my hens. They love em.

 

[elliechooks]

I have blackberries growing in my chicken run, they have removed some of the new growth it mostly don't touch them. There are some berries just starting to ripen, will be interesting to see how long they leave them to ripen!

 

[gypsy767]

I pick and feed em to my hens. They love em.

My wife picks them and feeds them to.....ME...! in the form of BB jam and cobbler. We do feed the chooks excess blueberries though and they love them.