emmat Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Hello everyone I am having my garden landscaped to include a 4ft fence to keep my chickens in the area around their Cube, plus some free ranging space. I'd like to add some shrubs/plants in their area so they can shade them and just to make it look nice. Any ideas of what they won't peck to death?! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margaret Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Plastic plants !!! Sorry, M x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BocBoc Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I was wondering the same thing this morning whilst sweeping up neverending chicken poo! Ours like sitting under rhubarb leaves- this was fine until they got a taste for the leaves and now my plant is looking very sorry for itself!! Think I'll be fencing it off next year. I'll go with M's suggestion of plastic plants!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmat Posted June 17, 2009 Author Share Posted June 17, 2009 Ha ha! I have 2 bushes and some rosemary that they don't eat but would like a little variety. Maybe some one in the know will come along soon, or I'll google it! xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C&T Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Woody plants! Things like Azaleas, rhododendrons, heathers, roses (not miniature ones, they sit on them!) tall things, spirea's, camelias. My Lovage has survived, but the bottom has no leaves . But the chook always smell lovely when they have been playing underneath it! Things like Pinks they don't eat - but they pull them apart with their feet as they are too small. (I had some lovely Pinks too.... ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucky Mama Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Pretty much all of my well established plants have survived but they have a go at most of the new ones that go in. The little so and sos stripped my potato plants bare even though they wont touch and greenery that I put out for them like cabbage etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janty Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I've yet to find plants that mine won't eat. They stripped the lavender and rosemary as well as any branches of the fruit trees they could reach. Mind you, they can't reach them now! I love the walk in run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helly Welly Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Mine will eat anything, they've yet again stripped my lemon balm bare. They don't touch many plants i the beds but if i move plants into the run they get destroyed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgieB Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Hi Emmat, Found a list of plants that hens supposedly don't eat. Click on the link below to view- http://forums.thepoultrykeeper.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=8712&highlight=garden+plants Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helen&Lee Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 I must be quite lucky as they leave quite a bit alone. Penstemons, hollyhocks, scabious, poppies, lavender, rosemary, thyme, are all fine to name a few. I do find though they are vunerable when small - therefore tend to buy big established plants now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiggy Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 mine wont touch chickweed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helly Welly Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 I wish they'd eat bindweed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennifer+simon Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 i may be completely wrong but i always thaught rubarb leaves were poisonous...too humans anyway.... bu i maybe wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meezers Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 I've been adding to my shrub collection as everything else has been eaten and the garden was looking a little bare. Mine DON'T eat Mahonia, Holly, Osmanthus, Bush Fuschia ( well, they try , but they can only reach the lower leaves ) box, those brown leaved spiky things - cordyline ? mock orange,honeysuckle,hebe, flowering currant, hazel, buddelia,rosemary, and that furry leaved stuff I call rabbits' ears. Everything else is fair game, they HAVE eaten roses, mint ( nice fresh breath ! )hosta ( that was new today- 3 chooks ignored it so I thought it was safe to leave it in reach, 10 mins later, 5 half eaten leaves , so someone liked it ) I bought a hydrangea which I hate just because I read chooks don't eat it - mine did ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abbey Road Girl Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 I wish they'd eat bindweed I had a small garden full of it and they wiped it out! They also ate a number of things supposed to be poisonous, including ivy. My garden looks like a garden if you only observe it from about 2 or 3 feet above the ground. Hydrangea is supposed to be poisonous to them as are rhubarb leaves. I would be very cautious but you never know what they will get up to (and survive). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmat Posted June 19, 2009 Author Share Posted June 19, 2009 Thanks all - at least I have a few ideas now. I'll see if I can get bigger ones so they don't look so tasty to the critters... Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madchickenlady Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 A general rule of thumb is that they don't eat anything until it's beginning to look lovely, or anything that you're not that fond of. Everything else is a chicken buffet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
