4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[kategat]

i have had chickens for little while (trinny and suzannah )

they are extremely distructive are yours??

they love to eat my geraniums do you know any bedding plants that chickens dont eat

as i would like to have a pretty garden even with my destruvtive choooks

please help me

katy

[Dinkychick]

mine are only destructive if they can step on the plant or get between them, as i found out the other day after weeding! Before that they tended to stay out of the flower beds and just scratch around the edges.... but it seems that they cant resist a bit of mud

[Vivihen]

I am experimenting with prunings from a hazel hedge (they are quite bendy when freshly cut) by making little cages over low spready plants, I thought something natural would look better than chicken wire. It is working so far as the chickens are stepping or climbing over the cages and not trying to scratch them up. I am hoping the same idea will work in the spring when the bulbs are coming through.

[abwsco]

The only thing that has been safe in our garden were our well established shrubs. I'm saying were as our new girls have decided they are tasty and are eating the leaves! They've also discovered how to jump on the chicken wire around our container plants and eat them by balancing on the wire and hanging down into the plant

[Snowy]

I'm afraid you need to try guerilla warfare tactics if you really want a neat garden What they don't eat they will scratch up and dustbathe in the roots Fruit cage netting is quite effective as long as they can't get round it or under it - it's nearly invisible and they don't try to go over as it's too flimsy. Alternatively try hanging baskets. Good luck!

[Egluntyne]

Why not fence off the flowers with Omlet netting or similar?

[Henhathnofury]

Ummmm...a very tasty treat, geraniums. My girls love them. Impossible to train chickens not to do something. They will not eat Rosemary plants and in desperation - some plastic plants I was forced to use to make their area look more cheerful. They have a patio area and a dirt run under trees

 

They also freerange in the garden but that tends to be an orgy of digging up things...so they have to be 'scooted' all the time.

[sandyhas3chucks]

Ummmm...a very tasty treat, geraniums. My girls love them. Impossible to train chickens not to do something. They will not eat Rosemary plants and in desperation - some plastic plants I was forced to use to make their area look more cheerful. They have a patio area and a dirt run under trees

 

They also freerange in the garden but that tends to be an orgy of digging up things...so they have to be 'scooted' all the time.

Oh Lordy that was one of the things my girls DIDN'T eat. Was thinking more for next year was a good idea!

[Henhathnofury]

They are all different and one day they may to chose to eat something that they have ignored for ages.

 

Slippery little devils!

[Hen Watch]

Mine love to eat the perennian geraniums (the low spreading kind).

 

Established shrubs don't get eaten (too much) like Potentilla etc.

 

Have found some plants that don't get eaten (like Lavender) get jumped on so I have completely squashed lavender and completely nibbled fushia (or sticks actually all I have now).

 

To stop flattening/nibbling a few of my perennials have Guardman Conical Plant Supports which come in 3 sizes from local garden centre. But they are not cheap £5 each for medium one.

http://www.gardman.co.uk/asp/garden/plant-support-plastic-coated-wire-support-systems.asp

 

Completely off topic, whilst I was searching the internet for the plant support pics for this post, I found these, aren't they cute. Chicken topped garden stakes........ ahhh.....

 

http://www.shootsandroots.co.uk/acatalog/info_320.html

http://www.shootsandroots.co.uk/acatalog/Animal_Stakes.html