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

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I bought two plants for putting into a bare area of the girls' freerange area - a lavender bush and a lovely heather, both fairly established large plants.

 

I put them both in their pots in the area just to check they wouldn't get eaten. The lavender was deemed delicious so it got removed. The heather was ignored.

 

That is, until I planted it in the ground at the weekend. Then Poppy and Penny decided it was rather tasty after all . Little varmints were scratching and pecking at it very enthusiastically .

 

Oh well, back to the drawing board . I wonder if the garden centre would take them back and swop them ?

[Redwing]

Take them back and tell them that their plants arent chicken proof

[laurmurf]

I've been astonished as to what a chook thinks delicious:

Kerria, ornamental grasses (well they are grasses, after all), beech leaves - entertaining to hop up for; ivy is just fab as far as they're concerned... the list is quite literally endless.

 

now tell me - what WON'T chickens eat?

[BHC]

now tell me - what WON'T chickens eat?

 

Don't know, got me stumped with that one!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Take them back and tell them that their plants arent chicken proof

 

If I can find the receipt, I might just try that .

[Redwing]

now tell me - what WON'T chickens eat?

 

Don't know, got me stumped with that one!

 

Mahonia, they dont like them

[laurmurf]

*rushes down to the garden centre to buy mahonia*

 

 

[Ain't Nobody Here]

*rushes off to Google to find out what Mahonia looks like*

[smokiechicken1969]

i can just imagine you walking back into the garden centre with something that looks like the discarded stalk of a bunch of grapes when all the grapes have gone, and say to the manager 'ive bought this plant back, we didnt think it went in the garden very well, could we have our money back'.

 

when mine stole all the herbs from the shed my OH said not to worry as the chickens would be really tasty when they went in the oven!!!

 

He'll be in the oven before they will

 

they are little minxes but i bet you didnt stay cross for long

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I'm going out to inspect them tomorrow and if the damage isn't too bad I might try my luck with the lavender ("bought it for my mother, she changed her mind" ) . I don't imagine they'll take the heather back seeing as it's in the ground .

[smokiechicken1969]

haha i can just imagine you taking it out of the bag and a chicken still hanging off it

[Ain't Nobody Here]

[smokiechicken1969]

i just spoke to my chickens and they said that they have compiled a list of plants that you can plant for your girls and they promise not to touch them.

 

lettuce seedlings

strawberry plants

corn on the cobs

runner beans

spinach

tomato plants (preferably with little tiny tasty toms hanging off at head height)

 

 

they have promised me that if you plant these there is NO way your girls would go near them. no sir. hm hmm. chickens oath.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Oh well, if they promise . I'll get planting right away .

 

Tell your chickens thank you very much for their advice. Extra mealworms for them today, please .

 

 

 

 

 

(My chickens say thank you very much too .)

[Egluntyne]

Heliotrope and cotoneaster and Poached Egg Plant ( ! ) grow happily in the chicken area in my garden.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I'll make a note of them, thanks .

 

(No offence, Smokie's chickens .)

[Jules.]

My hens don't eat ivy

[laurmurf]

like little lambs.... mine eat ivy. Boy do they EAT IVY!

 

And cotoneaster... isn't that the pretty shrub that usually has such delicious looking red berries on it?

[Gelbel]

The only plants mine really seem to attack are my hardy geraniums.

 

They seem to dig and scratch amongst the rest and pull up all the weeds for me - I go out and pick them up every now and again. The girls then go potty thinking I am removing food.

 

They do try to bed down with my rosemary that I have in a big pot on the patio. A bit of chicken wire round the top of the pot soon ended that bit of fun.

[Chucky Mama]

I planted 4 ferns and made nifty little netting cloche type things around each some months ago to protect them. I took them off last week as they were well grown and strong. They didn't eat them but scratched the bits of soil that they had been denied access to (wicked mum) so heavily that they buried them and tramped them under foot.....back to the drawing board

[chick wiggle]

It has been said on here before that they wont eat lemon balm.......... Dont You Believe It!!!!!!!!!! However my Torbay palm which is in the WIR is still untouched ,

[Patricia W]

Roses, fig tree, rhododendrun, magnolia, olive tree, are all ignored, and some other tough leaved plants I can't remember the name of.

 

One good thing is that the chicken area is also nettle and bindweed free! There's a control are where they aren't allowed and its full of both!

 

Tricia

[chickenNutter]

Well I spent all spring and summer before I became a chicken mummy keeping the slugs off my hostas. Gardener's World recommended a garlic spray which worked quite well, although the little holes made by the remaining few detracted slightly.

 

Fast forward 3 months - there isn't a hosta left in the garden! There are one or two stalks left here and there, but the rest look like they have been nuked. I think the girls really appreciated the garlic dressing. Amazingly I suddenly don't care anymore.

 

Have you noticed how chickend are like naughty toddlers, if they are waiting for their evening treat bowl and you are not coming out, they do something deliberately naughty (like strip the hostas) right next to the kitchen window just to get your attention. Being told off is better than no attention at all!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I decided in the end that the little varmints can just have bare soil . (They very much appreciate the hole left by the heather plant though .)

 

I have bought 4 large containers (half price at Klondyke - £6 each & they're huge ) so the shrubs are in 2 of them and I'll find something else to put in the other two.

 

It's the last time I do anything nice for them .

[bigmommasally]

Hellebores; Hibiscus; Ceanothus; Buddleia; some purple leaf shrub (don't know what its called) and a cornus with beautiful red stems have all survived quite happily in the chickens half of our garden.