I recently discovered that hedges are excellent sources of forage and cover for chickens, so I thought I would share the best of what I have learned. The principal source is John Wright, A natural history of the hedgerow, Profile books, 2016. Those who are keen to improve their land and forage for their free ranging chickens' benefit might want to consider planting a hedge or two somewhere.
Hedges have many functions but the primary purpose is as a barrier. Initially - and that means in the bronze age or possibly even the mesolithic - they seem to have been created as a way of controlling and sheltering livestock. They also worked early to keep grazing animals (wild or domesticated) off farmed land. They offer protection from weather: a hedge can slow the wind for a distance of five times the height of the hedge, and offer shade when the days are hot. They are a source of shelter, wood, food, and medicine for people and animals. They also inhibit soil erosion on slopes. They demarcate private property. In modern suburban Britain, hedges protect gardens from thieves and prying eyes, and are also a very important habitat / refuge for wildlife.
Typically a hedge is a 2 metre / 6 foot wide row of shrubs, and if it is punctuated by standard trees it is called a hedgerow. Its natural inclination is to become a wood, and if it is neglected for a very long time, a hedgerow will eventually turn into a row of trees with intervening patches of scrub, thus
A modestly neglected hedge will turn into a linear coppice with gaps between hazel stools or standard small trees.
A successful hedge is a living linear boundary managed in such a way as to keep it functioning as a boundary, and over time it will become a home for many species of flora, fauna and funga; generally speaking, the longer it exists, the more species will be found living in it.
Precisely what species arrive depends on the soil, the soil pH, moisture levels, climate, which species were planted as saplings, and whether or not it includes a ditch and bank. (Some hedges, especially where drainage can be an issue, are planted atop banks created by digging a ditch, which not only drains it but makes it even harder for livestock or wild animals to pass.) In any case, the species that thrive will be those found naturally at the edges of woodland in that region, as a hedge is, in a sense, just or all woodland edge. As edge habitat, a hedge provides a vantage point for birds, sunlit protection for plants, cover for fauna including chickens, and a larder for many animals. Many trees only fruit reliably in edge habitats, where their blossom is accessible to insects and their berries to birds. The verge either side of the hedge, which is not cultivated, is part of the hedge habitat, and most species that live in it will use more than one part. For example, a yellowhammer feeds in the verge, nests in the hedge bottom, hides from predators in the shrubs, and uses the trees as somewhere to perch and to sing. Hedgerows with standard trees included are significantly more species-rich than hedges without trees. An old hedge will support wood-rotting funga, and many insect species rely on rotten wood for their existence. This, for example, was exposed during the rejuvenation; I think it is Alder scalycap, and it is evidently being eaten by something
R. Wolton (British Wildlife 26 (2015) 306-317 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282237797_Life_in_a_hedge ) studied 90 metres of an old Devon hedgerow over 2 years to see what species might live in it and on it. Microscopic and soil organisms were excluded. Probably a lot of parasites were missed because they were dwelling inside the bodies of other things. Nevertheless, 2,070 different species of plant, animal, and fungus were found. Insects predominated with 1,718 species; nearly a hundred other invertebrates such as spiders and slugs followed. There were 125 plants, 80 funga (besides who knows how many mildews, rusts and smuts, which were ignored), and 50 vertebrates, including birds.
A survey of only the flora in similar accessible stretches of two different hedges in neighbouring valleys of a neighbouring county (Dorset) found only 17 plants in common (of 99 identified in one and 61 in the other). Why so little overlap? Because the soil on which they were growing was quite different. The 17 are accommodating, resilient plants that grow practically everywhere across this country. The point is that hedges vary hugely, even in neighbouring valleys in the same county. There is not a particular mix of species at issue; there is no single hedge ecosystem as such.
The trees that form the basis of the hedge, to wit saplings (aka whips) which are usually planted in two staggered rows at the outset, could be any species, but historically in Britain three have been preferred consistently: hawthorn, blackthorn, and hazel. These three species of tree all possess two essential attributes for a hedge: they are easy to lay, and they are impenetrable once grown.
Hawthorn (crataegus monogyna) produces a dense hedge quickly. It is host to numerous other species - 25 species of moth rely on it, for example - and it forms a rich ecosystem of its own. It is hardy and disease resistant, though fire blight can disfigure it if not kill it. It has pretty white blossom in spring and edible berries in autumn that have long been used as a remedy for digestive and other disorders.
Blackthorn (prunus spinosa) is slightly smaller than hawthorn, produces the sloes of which gin is made, and is nearly indestructible. Its long and fierce thorns
are armed with bacteria-laden bark to cause inflammation and discomfort to any person or animal foolish enough to try to push through it. They can penetrate modern shoe soles and thick leather gardening gloves. Possibly good enough to deter if not stop bears?
Hazel (corylus avellana) grows naturally in coppiced form, so a single tree can fill about 20 feet if the stems are laid in opposite directions, as here.
It makes an excellent wildlife habitat, including with funga that in turn support numerous insect species, which in turn are food for birds.
Whatever wood is chosen, the saplings are left to grow for about 10 years, then, ideally in late winter, laid, i.e. chopped or sawn about halfway through, on the diagonal, close to the ground; the sapling is pulled down almost horizontal while still attached at the base (the cut exposed, the continuous and now bent bark on the lower side). There it is pinned or tied or woven in with others to hold it down. Parts will fuse in due course, helped along by a fungus that glues stems together - here, hazel and bramble.
Single stems left upright and cut to about 4 feet high can be used as living posts on which to hook or tie laid stems; some are visible on the right in the prior photo with chickens among newly laid stems. New side shoots will appear along the length of a laid sapling in spring. It will get denser each year, and with judicious trimming. It will then form a stock proof barrier for decades. Eventually gaps will open up, and it can be rejuvenated (repeatedly) by being re-laid. Standard trees may be pollarded, adding to their usefulness by becoming a living factory, growing wooden posts/ fencing material/ fuel going forward. Some hedges are well over 1,000 years old.
Wild roses, honeysuckles, bindweeds, black bryony, ivies, hops, brambles, currants, gooseberries, privet, and clematis are among the shrubs and climbers that will colonise the hedge more or less quickly in the UK. Alexanders, wild angelica, arums, bedstraws, bluebells, lesser burdock, buttercups, wild carrot, celandines, cow parsley, daisies, docks, dog's mercury, foxglove, common fumitory, garlic mustard, germander speedwell, hogweed, hemlock, hemp agrimony, meadowsweet, mugwort, nettles, nightshades, peas, plantains, ramsons, red campion, snowdrops, greater stitchwort, sweet cicely, willowherbs, wood avens, and grasses will probably arrive on the banks and verges of a hedge in the UK.
Most UK mammals make use of hedges as a home or temporary refuge (this home for something(s) in a hollow trunk was exposed during rejuvenation of the hedge; original picture replaced when more of it was exposed).
Some, such as badgers or rabbits, are unwelcome to whoever is managing the hedge, as they may damage it, but small mammals, such as mice, voles and shrews, are far more common residents. Mammals in turn are home to quite a range of invertebrates: small rodents in Britain endure 16 species of flea, 2 flukes, 7 tapeworms and 9 nematode worms, amongst other things. The hedgehog carries countless parasites inside and out. These 'pests' are features of everyday life for wild animals, who may scratch them, and then just get on with their day. They are food for other species, including birds in many cases. In one survey, 1 km of overgrown hedge was found to be supporting 34 breeding birds of 19 different bird species, while the same length of well trimmed hedge supported just 9 breeders of 7 different species; for birds, a big and untidy hedge is much better than a neat homogeneous one.
My flock has access to several hedges of different types, and they use all of them for forage and cover. One is a neat-ish homogenous beech hedge above bank and ditch that supports some wildlife, but is relatively poor in the diversity stakes (at right in the photo; on the other hand, it is much richer than the brown metal fence going left).
The chickens daily forage its base and the bank beyond it; hedge sparrows, dunnocks, blackbirds, thrushes, wrens and others live in and around it, and also find thereabouts enough forage to thrive.
Another hedge has half its length based on hazel (photo 2 above), the other half on alder, above a bank and ditch that had got very overgrown (and whose rejuvenation prompted this article).
It will be interesting to see what species (re)emerge now that more light and air gets through to the base.
Another two are more remnants than hedges now, the standard oaks in them having long since grown far too big for pollarding, and here the shrubs in the understorey struggle for moisture in the summer. The spring flowers that appear on the south side before new oak leaves appear are many and various, and fungi thrive year round, but it doesn't look much like a hedge (photo 1). The chickens forage the north side (pictured) a lot, but I do not know what they are finding to eat there. A seasonal stream runs in the ditch, so invertebrates are likely, as well as the many insects surely there in one or another stage of their life cycles.
If you want to read more about hedgerows, the People's Trust for Endangered Species has a great page here with some lovely infographics on the principal species to be found in hedgerows, and some of the foods that may be available for your chickens to forage by season, plus many other resources about hedges to share freely.
Hedges have many functions but the primary purpose is as a barrier. Initially - and that means in the bronze age or possibly even the mesolithic - they seem to have been created as a way of controlling and sheltering livestock. They also worked early to keep grazing animals (wild or domesticated) off farmed land. They offer protection from weather: a hedge can slow the wind for a distance of five times the height of the hedge, and offer shade when the days are hot. They are a source of shelter, wood, food, and medicine for people and animals. They also inhibit soil erosion on slopes. They demarcate private property. In modern suburban Britain, hedges protect gardens from thieves and prying eyes, and are also a very important habitat / refuge for wildlife.
Typically a hedge is a 2 metre / 6 foot wide row of shrubs, and if it is punctuated by standard trees it is called a hedgerow. Its natural inclination is to become a wood, and if it is neglected for a very long time, a hedgerow will eventually turn into a row of trees with intervening patches of scrub, thus
A successful hedge is a living linear boundary managed in such a way as to keep it functioning as a boundary, and over time it will become a home for many species of flora, fauna and funga; generally speaking, the longer it exists, the more species will be found living in it.
Precisely what species arrive depends on the soil, the soil pH, moisture levels, climate, which species were planted as saplings, and whether or not it includes a ditch and bank. (Some hedges, especially where drainage can be an issue, are planted atop banks created by digging a ditch, which not only drains it but makes it even harder for livestock or wild animals to pass.) In any case, the species that thrive will be those found naturally at the edges of woodland in that region, as a hedge is, in a sense, just or all woodland edge. As edge habitat, a hedge provides a vantage point for birds, sunlit protection for plants, cover for fauna including chickens, and a larder for many animals. Many trees only fruit reliably in edge habitats, where their blossom is accessible to insects and their berries to birds. The verge either side of the hedge, which is not cultivated, is part of the hedge habitat, and most species that live in it will use more than one part. For example, a yellowhammer feeds in the verge, nests in the hedge bottom, hides from predators in the shrubs, and uses the trees as somewhere to perch and to sing. Hedgerows with standard trees included are significantly more species-rich than hedges without trees. An old hedge will support wood-rotting funga, and many insect species rely on rotten wood for their existence. This, for example, was exposed during the rejuvenation; I think it is Alder scalycap, and it is evidently being eaten by something
R. Wolton (British Wildlife 26 (2015) 306-317 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282237797_Life_in_a_hedge ) studied 90 metres of an old Devon hedgerow over 2 years to see what species might live in it and on it. Microscopic and soil organisms were excluded. Probably a lot of parasites were missed because they were dwelling inside the bodies of other things. Nevertheless, 2,070 different species of plant, animal, and fungus were found. Insects predominated with 1,718 species; nearly a hundred other invertebrates such as spiders and slugs followed. There were 125 plants, 80 funga (besides who knows how many mildews, rusts and smuts, which were ignored), and 50 vertebrates, including birds.
A survey of only the flora in similar accessible stretches of two different hedges in neighbouring valleys of a neighbouring county (Dorset) found only 17 plants in common (of 99 identified in one and 61 in the other). Why so little overlap? Because the soil on which they were growing was quite different. The 17 are accommodating, resilient plants that grow practically everywhere across this country. The point is that hedges vary hugely, even in neighbouring valleys in the same county. There is not a particular mix of species at issue; there is no single hedge ecosystem as such.
The trees that form the basis of the hedge, to wit saplings (aka whips) which are usually planted in two staggered rows at the outset, could be any species, but historically in Britain three have been preferred consistently: hawthorn, blackthorn, and hazel. These three species of tree all possess two essential attributes for a hedge: they are easy to lay, and they are impenetrable once grown.
Hawthorn (crataegus monogyna) produces a dense hedge quickly. It is host to numerous other species - 25 species of moth rely on it, for example - and it forms a rich ecosystem of its own. It is hardy and disease resistant, though fire blight can disfigure it if not kill it. It has pretty white blossom in spring and edible berries in autumn that have long been used as a remedy for digestive and other disorders.
Blackthorn (prunus spinosa) is slightly smaller than hawthorn, produces the sloes of which gin is made, and is nearly indestructible. Its long and fierce thorns
are armed with bacteria-laden bark to cause inflammation and discomfort to any person or animal foolish enough to try to push through it. They can penetrate modern shoe soles and thick leather gardening gloves. Possibly good enough to deter if not stop bears?
Hazel (corylus avellana) grows naturally in coppiced form, so a single tree can fill about 20 feet if the stems are laid in opposite directions, as here.
It makes an excellent wildlife habitat, including with funga that in turn support numerous insect species, which in turn are food for birds.
Whatever wood is chosen, the saplings are left to grow for about 10 years, then, ideally in late winter, laid, i.e. chopped or sawn about halfway through, on the diagonal, close to the ground; the sapling is pulled down almost horizontal while still attached at the base (the cut exposed, the continuous and now bent bark on the lower side). There it is pinned or tied or woven in with others to hold it down. Parts will fuse in due course, helped along by a fungus that glues stems together - here, hazel and bramble.
Single stems left upright and cut to about 4 feet high can be used as living posts on which to hook or tie laid stems; some are visible on the right in the prior photo with chickens among newly laid stems. New side shoots will appear along the length of a laid sapling in spring. It will get denser each year, and with judicious trimming. It will then form a stock proof barrier for decades. Eventually gaps will open up, and it can be rejuvenated (repeatedly) by being re-laid. Standard trees may be pollarded, adding to their usefulness by becoming a living factory, growing wooden posts/ fencing material/ fuel going forward. Some hedges are well over 1,000 years old.
Wild roses, honeysuckles, bindweeds, black bryony, ivies, hops, brambles, currants, gooseberries, privet, and clematis are among the shrubs and climbers that will colonise the hedge more or less quickly in the UK. Alexanders, wild angelica, arums, bedstraws, bluebells, lesser burdock, buttercups, wild carrot, celandines, cow parsley, daisies, docks, dog's mercury, foxglove, common fumitory, garlic mustard, germander speedwell, hogweed, hemlock, hemp agrimony, meadowsweet, mugwort, nettles, nightshades, peas, plantains, ramsons, red campion, snowdrops, greater stitchwort, sweet cicely, willowherbs, wood avens, and grasses will probably arrive on the banks and verges of a hedge in the UK.
Most UK mammals make use of hedges as a home or temporary refuge (this home for something(s) in a hollow trunk was exposed during rejuvenation of the hedge; original picture replaced when more of it was exposed).
Some, such as badgers or rabbits, are unwelcome to whoever is managing the hedge, as they may damage it, but small mammals, such as mice, voles and shrews, are far more common residents. Mammals in turn are home to quite a range of invertebrates: small rodents in Britain endure 16 species of flea, 2 flukes, 7 tapeworms and 9 nematode worms, amongst other things. The hedgehog carries countless parasites inside and out. These 'pests' are features of everyday life for wild animals, who may scratch them, and then just get on with their day. They are food for other species, including birds in many cases. In one survey, 1 km of overgrown hedge was found to be supporting 34 breeding birds of 19 different bird species, while the same length of well trimmed hedge supported just 9 breeders of 7 different species; for birds, a big and untidy hedge is much better than a neat homogeneous one.
My flock has access to several hedges of different types, and they use all of them for forage and cover. One is a neat-ish homogenous beech hedge above bank and ditch that supports some wildlife, but is relatively poor in the diversity stakes (at right in the photo; on the other hand, it is much richer than the brown metal fence going left).
The chickens daily forage its base and the bank beyond it; hedge sparrows, dunnocks, blackbirds, thrushes, wrens and others live in and around it, and also find thereabouts enough forage to thrive.
Another hedge has half its length based on hazel (photo 2 above), the other half on alder, above a bank and ditch that had got very overgrown (and whose rejuvenation prompted this article).
It will be interesting to see what species (re)emerge now that more light and air gets through to the base.
Another two are more remnants than hedges now, the standard oaks in them having long since grown far too big for pollarding, and here the shrubs in the understorey struggle for moisture in the summer. The spring flowers that appear on the south side before new oak leaves appear are many and various, and fungi thrive year round, but it doesn't look much like a hedge (photo 1). The chickens forage the north side (pictured) a lot, but I do not know what they are finding to eat there. A seasonal stream runs in the ditch, so invertebrates are likely, as well as the many insects surely there in one or another stage of their life cycles.
If you want to read more about hedgerows, the People's Trust for Endangered Species has a great page here with some lovely infographics on the principal species to be found in hedgerows, and some of the foods that may be available for your chickens to forage by season, plus many other resources about hedges to share freely.
