i somehow acquired 2 runaways and i have questions. please help

[pollipazzi]

Think of all the time you’ll save not gardening

i'm pretty sure they'll make sure i don't have a garden at all!

i would appreciate a couple of tomatoes though

 

[AntiqueB]

They will eat the tomatoes.

 

[pollipazzi]

They will eat the tomatoes.

i will definitely be keeping them out of the new greenhouse! can't grow them outside very well at all.
maybe i'll even get a lock on the door just in case

 

[AntiqueB]

I plant a small raised bed just for the girls. They get Swiss chard, lettuces, cucumbers, and some cherry tomatoes.

 

[pollipazzi]

I plant a small raised bed just for the girls. They get Swiss chard, lettuces, cucumbers, and some cherry tomatoes.

that’s so nice of you! these guys aren’t interested in a lot of things. i was wondering do they just not know what it is and get a taste for things when you give it to them? like i heard they like beet greens, but i had beets that overwintered and they just walked around looking for bugs in the bed and didn’t touch the greens.
the only thing i see them pecking at is fennel fronds
and they don’t eat the oregano or thyme, but they just roll around in it instead

 

[Perris]

these guys aren’t interested in a lot of things. i was wondering do they just not know what it is and get a taste for things when you give it to them?

that is my experience too; most garden plants are untroubled by passing chickens. Some perennials are nibbled when in new young growth - the comfrey, a centaurea, primroses, for example - but the nibbling stops when they get a big bigger and tougher. Most herbs here are ignored entirely most of the time, but may be eaten a little by one or another chicken occasionally; I suspect self-medicating is going on there. Some are visited as sources of insects or other minibugs, and if a bit of leaf is eaten it is then incidental rather than the aim.

So, just because I see a chicken walk past a plant without touching it on one occasion, it does not follow that they don't ever eat it, or something attracted to it. And a few plants appreciate a bit of protection when they're coming through, or they can be seriously weakened by chicken nibbling; japanese anemones here for example.

It is a delight to read how you are getting on with Thelma and Louise. They chose well.

 

[alinas2010]

I swear to you my knuckle heads chomp on stuff only when I don’t want them to, but when I give them free range of the spent garden in the fall, they turn into snobs all of sudden.

Here they try to enjoy virgnia creeper - they shouldn’t as I’m trying to grow it to cover their run, plus i read it can cause gi issues in birds, yet somehow they think it’s delicious.

Tried to give them the leftover cucumber plant and you’d think it was poisoned, yet they wanted it all summer long!

 

[pollipazzi]

that is my experience too; most garden plants are untroubled by passing chickens. Some perennials are nibbled when in new young growth - the comfrey, a centaurea, primroses, for example - but the nibbling stops when they get a big bigger and tougher. Most herbs here are ignored entirely most of the time, but may be eaten a little by one or another chicken occasionally; I suspect self-medicating is going on there. Some are visited as sources of insects or other minibugs, and if a bit of leaf is eaten it is then incidental rather than the aim.

So, just because I see a chicken walk past a plant without touching it on one occasion, it does not follow that they don't ever eat it, or something attracted to it. And a few plants appreciate a bit of protection when they're coming through, or they can be seriously weakened by chicken nibbling; japanese anemones here for example.

It is a delight to read how you are getting on with Thelma and Louise. They chose well.

thank you so much! i really appreciate that!

i don’t mind at all if they nibble! i was wondering about the self medicating since they do nibble the fennel pretty often. like maybe they got indigestion from the steak? only joking, but you know what i mean. and is it possible they are rolling in the herbs as a mite deterrent? i am always right up on them when they’re preening (since they won’t let me touch them), looking for any spots that might have crawleys. but there’s no sign of any.
i have a lot of plants protected already because of the crows and the wood pigeons (who are bigger and more destructive than the chickens, i think!) so i have the protection part pretty much down.

they have dug some holes, and scattered loads of compost out of the pots . they’ve scratched up some ground coverings i have. that’s the most damage they’ve done. but it’s ground covering. some of it will survive and come back for sure.

 

[pollipazzi]

I swear to you my knuckle heads chomp on stuff only when I don’t want them to, but when I give them free range of the spent garden in the fall, they turn into snobs all of sudden.

Here they try to enjoy virgnia creeper - they shouldn’t as I’m trying to grow it to cover their run, plus i read it can cause gi issues in birds, yet somehow they think it’s delicious.
View attachment 4102123

Tried to give them the leftover cucumber plant and you’d think it was poisoned, yet they wanted it all summer long!
View attachment 4102122

they always seem to want what they can’t have!
the have is not as good as the want

 

[pollipazzi]

Tried to give them the leftover cucumber plant and you’d think it was poisoned, yet they wanted it all summer long!

their faces!