Are there any plants that chickens WON'T eat?

4Chickens

Hi, I have four chickens and I like to let them out in the garden for a few hours a day and have discovered that they will eat any plants that I've put in so far. I have put some stuff in hanging baskets but I would like some more plants at ground level. Any suggestions or is my garden going to be like the hanging gardens of babylon for the life expectancy of my chickens. Cheers

ukbill69

I think they will eat anything in site.

lostinrates

They will eat, even stuff thats not good for them. An option might be to have some temporary chicken netting to stick out, to protect your borders.

dogcat_2

I've hear that Rhubarb is very poisonous for chickens.....

Ginger_Snap

I keep 3 chickens freely roaming the garden all day and have had absolutely no problems so far with them eating harmful plants, they seen sensible enough to avoid them so far. If you are looking for chicken-proof plants, then hellebores are great. Perhaps they taste a bit bitter, I don't know, but my chickens leave them well alone. The chooks also seem to leave most shrubby plants and trees alone, although they are a pain when they scratch around their bases and dig up the roots! (I resort to bricks in strategic places to stop this with new plants, but its not very pretty in the border!)

When we first got chickens I had lots of pretty perennials, but the chickens just walked/scratched all over them and so in the end I replanted most of them with sturdier shrubs.

If your chickens have plenty of grass to eat (which they love) they probably won't do much harm to most of your plants TBH, although avoid hosta (far too delicious!) and very succulent looking fast growing leaved plants. And of course, if they get in the vegetable patch you will have problems! They are great for getting rid of slugs and pests, but also eat all your lettuce!

Good luck, let me know if there's anything else chicken-related I can help with.

lostinrates

Ginger_Snap wrote: »

I keep 3 chickens freely roaming the garden all day and have had absolutely no problems so far with them eating harmful plants, they seen sensible enough to avoid them so far. If you are looking for chicken-proof plants, then hellebores are great. Perhaps they taste a bit bitter, I don't know, but my chickens leave them well alone. The chooks also seem to leave most shrubby plants and trees alone, although they are a pain when they scratch around their bases and dig up the roots! (I resort to bricks in strategic places to stop this with new plants, but its not very pretty in the border!)

When we first got chickens I had lots of pretty perennials, but the chickens just walked/scratched all over them and so in the end I replanted most of them with sturdier shrubs.

If your chickens have plenty of grass to eat (which they love) they probably won't do much harm to most of your plants TBH, although avoid hosta (far too delicious!) and very succulent looking fast growing leaved plants. And of course, if they get in the vegetable patch you will have problems! They are great for getting rid of slugs and pests, but also eat all your lettuce!

Good luck, let me know if there's anything else chicken-related I can help with.

I've had exactly the opposite experience! While most of what they pick at isn't harm ful, mine can't be trusted around things that would harm them. we had netting to stop them, its not a risk I'd take. Last year, for example, we had half a dozen with 1/2 an acre to free range on..grass, fruits....but they wanted the rhubarb (which they had to wriggle under a fence too.). That they also had all the raspberries wasn't a problem, they were fine with them

Ginger_Snap

Isn't that strange?! We have rhubarb in our garden and our chickens have never touched it.
I suppose every chicken is different. I must thank my lucky stars that mine so far have been fairly sensible girls!

lostinrates

Ginger_Snap wrote: »

Isn't that strange?! We have rhubarb in our garden and our chickens have never touched it.
I suppose every chicken is different. I must thank my lucky stars that mine so far have been fairly sensible girls!

we have a couple of rounds of wire for things now. Other things we use are that orange plastic netting as they use for fencing of roadworks and a 50 metre length of goat/chicken electric (which we don't electrify). Its no insurmountable but I personally would let mine have access to things that are unsafe for them to eat now.

Lotus-eater

I've found chickens will sometimes eat the young leaves of rhubarb right at the start of the season, but when they mature a bit, they leave them alone.
Never hurt any of mine.

Chickens and gardens don't mix very well, despite what the glossy tv shows, show you.
Especially veg patches, don't let them anywhere near it.
Keeping them penned in, with stuff that you do want them to eat, is by far the best way to be. if you move the run over a weed infested area, they will clear it in no time and manure at the same time!

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Chickens and gardens don't mix very well, despite what the glossy tv shows, show you.
Especially veg patches, don't let them anywhere near it.

This. Apart from the fact that I do feel that having the chooks in for a run about brings a garden to life somewhat. My eye moves across and enjoys the garden in a different way with the birds about.

It does make potering around barefoot ore treacherous too though. And they invariably prefer the garden to their own patch, so ....

we brought ours in last year primarily because of problems with foxes and buzzards.

izzwizz_2

It depends on how much space they have. Given a large area, they will eat what's most delicious and leave the less tasty things, but in a smaller garden they will eat the tasty stuff first, then eat everything else too! In our previous small garden the only things they left were: gooseberry & blackcurrant bushes, hardy geraniums, dicentra, periwinkle, and anything high enough to be out of reach (like roses & clematis & most trees). We have a much bigger garden here and the hens haven't gone for anything in our herb garden this year, and have even left all the annual flowers in pots (so far )