Flowers Chickens won't eat

[revolutionmama]

I would like to plant a flower garden and I would like to know what flowers chickens don't like. Or are toxic - on instict do they stay away from the toxic ones?

 

[mygroomshop]

it is not so much that my chickens eat my garden they just rearange it alot. They scratch and mess everything up!

 

[CMV]

This has been a long going discussion on this forum. There are lists of plants chickens won't eat around here somewhere. A search through the archives should yield some results. I will say that if you have free-range chickens your gardens will be a little tatty from their attentions. It's not so much that chickens eat your plants but that they scratch and scratch and scratch around and through your plants until your plants just give up the fight. Good fences make good gardens when there are chickens around.

And to answer your second question- chickens will generally avoid toxic plants. This is not an absolute guarantee because who knows why chickens do the crazy things they do, but they tend to avoid the stuff that's bad for them.

 

[flockof4]

I agree with CMV, this topic comes up quite a bit and there are varying view points. The chickens will scratch anywhere they go, tossing mulch aside like a rag doll. They will also nibble on certain plants out of curiosity and for a little fun. So if you want a healthy, beautiful flower garden, better keep the chickens out, at least to start. I also agree with CMV that chickens will generally avoid stuff they shouldn't eat. That being said, the list of toxic plants is at the bottom of the Treat Chart.

 

[PatS]

I have some raised boxes that the chickens loved to dirtbathe in. When I planted them (peas and carrots), I set the small branches and thin rain sprouts we cut off our trees around and in the boxes. (These are all maybe 1/4 inch in diameter, give or take half that much.) The chickens have been staying out for a few weeks now.
I am hoping the peas will safely climb the trellises protected by these branches and the chickens will continue to ignore them.

I'm thinking of doing the same thing with my strawberries... Just overlay some branches so the chickens can't walk through them...