Chicken-feeding plants zone 4

[seuferer]

Hello! I would like recommendations for plants to grow around my chicken run. It is quite large - 12'x25' and fully enclosed with hardware cloth including the top. It is on the south side of the building that houses the chickens, so it gets too much sun and too hot. I would like to 'vine' things that will grow up in and out and around the hardware cloth for shade. I'd like to find something that provides both shade and snack options! I would prefer to free-range the chickens, but we have an ever - growing population of bald eagles near us (gorgeous!) and I've had to curtail that a lot due to losses. Since they're more cooped up, I want to try to increase their dietary selection.

I have several 'grazing frames' on the ground inside the run, and I plant a 'chicken fodder' mix inside the frames so they always have something green and growing that they can't scratch up to bits, even when the rest of the run is just dirt and compost.

We live in Zone 4. My husband has a wine-making hobby that currently only involves store-bought fruits or juices. I thought it might be fun to try grapes, - what grows 'inside' the structure for the chickens and outside for us. Another friend suggested honeysuckle due to being fast-growing and the blossoms attracting lots of bugs which the chickens also enjoy - but would it get too buggy?

What other choices are 'out there'? Have you any cautionary tales are welcome as well - I'd hate to plant something completely noxious that we would struggle to be rid of!

Thank you for your advice!

 

[sourland]

Grapes sounds like a great choice to me.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Before reading the entire post, I was thinking “Hops”, but that’d require hubby to take up beer brewing. If he’s already making wine, grapes might be perfect.

 

[Acre4Me]

We grow gourds on the south side of the run for shade, and good for snacking by birds. In zone 4, you may not get much in the way of gourds bc the like it hot and need a long season, but the plant grows up and have big leaves with a lot of coverage. They seam to like decent soil, with some nutrients, so we have had best luck when we have used some balanced fertilizer. Regular Burpee (or similar brand) birdhouse gourd has always given us great results. We’ve tried other gourds, but the birdhouse ones have had the best germination and growth rate.

This year, we will try some vining annual flowers on the south side. Hopefully we get some good coverage.

 

[JedJackson]

Honeysuckle is supposed to be mildly poisonous to chickens, so I would skip that if they can reach it. I think grapes would be great. Or you could go with an annual vine like scarlet runner beans, which are very easy to grow.

 

[AGeese]

I could have swore I read to keep them away from grapes, but maybe that's just dogs.

 

[Nigel27]

Cucumbers and pumpkins, I’ve thought of growing the seed pumpkins for my chickens, the seeds are smaller without a hard covering.

 

[Boppo]

I don't know if you could train pumpkin vines up, though cukes could be tied up great. You might also try some short season tomato plants, which are really viney. If you choose ones with small cherry or what they call currant size tomatoes that produce clusters of tiny tomatoes. I like the bean idea, and scarlet runner beans have beautiful flowers, so you get the beans and flowers to enjoy.

You might like to add some tall bushes, like blueberry or elderberry that would give shade and also provide some fruit for you and the hens. Sunflowers grow nice and tall, as well, though they come in a wider variety of sizes - short to super tall. Herbs like basil and rosemary, thyme, mint, oregano and CHICKWEED! are all good but grow lower. You probably want to mix some tall and some shorter things.

If you want to go really old school, you could go with the 3 sisters, and plant bean plants with a sunflower or corn plant and a squash or pumpkin plant. All nice things for chickens to eat, and they grow together so nicely. Add a marigold and nasturtium or two, and you have a really nice garden, that is pleasant for you and happy for the chickens, too.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Pumpkin vines (winter squash) definitely like to grow up. I often grow them up a fence, and even if I don't intend for them to do that they go ahead and go up anyway. I would plant varieties that have small pumpkins though as they can get pretty heavy and cause strain to the structure. Also summer squash might work like zucchini although they don't twine up like cucumbers or pumpkins do.

You can also grow peas which do fine in colder weather. I wouldn't grow beans unless you made sure you got them off as green beans as uncooked dried beans are not good for chickens (or people).

Grapes and hops seem like excellent choices, you could also grow thornless blackberry or raspberry. Benefits of these plants is they are perennial so you would only have to plant them once, then just prune them.

Trees that are happy to be kept as shrubs like an aggressively pruned hazelnut could be cool too, you could even grow it inside their run.

 

[Noreaster Egger]

I’m considering honeyberries in my run this year, but I can’t seem to find any information on whether the leaves are safe for them or not. They will easily grow in your z4.