Plants In The Chicken Run! A Mini Forest For Chickens!

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

I thought I would create a thread to share some plants with you all that thrive and survive in my chicken run/yard! You can also post pictures or tell us what plants you have in your chicken run/yard! Right now the run is 24'x24' with 13 chickens (44 sq ft each with 6 of them being tiny bantams). I will be expanding it another 32 feet, so the new total run will be 24'x56'. I wanted more room to plant fruit trees and other edible shrubs, and of course more chickens! I do not free range because in my area I have nesting hawks and eagles, roaming large dogs, and daytime coyotes. I didn't want my chickens to live in a barren run all of their lives so I made it my mission to give them the free range experience in a protected yard. I do the deep litter system in the run with wood chips, straw, leaves, pine needles and other organic matter. This system creates healthy soil for the plants and attracts insects for the chickens. I also thought it would be a good idea to grow all of my berries in the run since it's much easier to protect them from chickens rather than trying to battle the birds, squirrels, rabbits, deer and other critters for them. This has worked out great! My plants are still very young, only planted a few months ago. However, I have used some of these same plants and tips in my old chicken run and they got very large and healthy! I will definitely update this thread with more pictures once the plants get even bigger. I also have some grazing boxes for my chickens to get some greens, and I grow some in my garden for them. Even if they free ranged there would be no greens for them, I pretty much live in the high desert which is void of grass and actually good weeds that aren't goatheads or toxic.
I love this article that also lists some plants that do good in chicken runs! https://treatsforchickens.com/blogs...nts-that-thrive-and-survive-in-my-chicken-run

Some tips to ensure the survival of plants in the run:
Protect plants with a wire cage until they are about 2-3 feet tall
Cover the base of the plant with large rocks to protect the roots
Plant very densely, 10 plants will do much better with chickens than one lone plant
Have enough sq ft per chicken
Plant different kinds of things like herbs, native shrubs, small trees, vining/climbing plants, etc

Some plants that I find do really really well are California natives (being that I live in California) and other drought tolerant plants. Natives from your home state should do very well in a run too (just make sure they're not toxic).

Natives and non-native drought tolerant plants I have in the run:
Big sagebrush (I planted about 10 of these)
Eve case coffee berry
Hummingbird sage
Compact texas sage (Plants in the sage family tend to do well in chicken runs)
California mountain lilac
California wild rose
Butterfly bush (buddelia)

Non-native edible plants I have in the run:
4 blueberry bushes
2 bush style rosemary’s
English lavender
Lots of mint
Apple tree (a second one will be added in the run extension)
Dwarf nectarine

My wall of berries... I have boysenberries, blackberries, fall gold raspberries, and red raspberries

I plan to add a couple more fruit trees to the run once it's extended. I also want to add some grapes to climb up the inside of the walls. Climbing roses would also be cool because they're pretty and the chickens can eat the rose hips that come from them. I'll edit this to add some pictures once I get around to taking some more! If you have any plants that I didn't mention that thrive in your chicken run/yard, then please share them below!

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

Great job. I would love to see the progression.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Great job. I would love to see the progression.

Thank you. I'll definitely be updating the thread with some more pictures of the plants as they grow and any additional ones that I add.

 

[JubileeFarmer]

I have a 50'x50' run with 8 hens and 9 chicks. I didn't intentionally plant anything in the run and it looked pretty bare over the winter. When spring came the weeds started growing and because most of them were not edible the chickens left them alone. Most of them were wild daisies and pretty soon it looked like a meadow in the run. I have been trying to remove anything prickly (thistles and teasel) but they keep coming back.

Last summer I picked some oregano from my herb box and put it in the run to see if the chickens would eat it. They didn't but it dropped seeds which came up in several places in the run this year and are now producing pretty purple flowers.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

I have a 50'x50' run with 8 hens and 9 chicks. I didn't intentionally plant anything in the run and it looked pretty bare over the winter. When spring came the weeds started growing and because most of them were not edible the chickens left them alone. Most of them were wild daisies and pretty soon it looked like a meadow in the run. I have been trying to remove anything prickly (thistles and teasel) but they keep coming back.

Last summer I picked some oregano from my herb box and put it in the run to see if the chickens would eat it. They didn't but it dropped seeds which came up in several places in the run this year and are now producing pretty purple flowers.

View attachment 3201265View attachment 3201266

Love it! It does look like a pretty meadow in there! What a great space you have as well, I wish I could build a run that large but with material prices right now it would cost me more than 3 grand to do that.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Here’s some pictures of the plants I have

Dwarf nectarine

Eve case coffeeberry (just planted, it should get 5ft tall and bushy)

English lavender

Compact Texas sage, a bit bare due to late spring frosts

Apple tree

Rosemary

Hummingbird sage

Butterfly bush

Blueberry’s (these should get to 6ft+ tall, I’d expect the chickens to pick the bottom 2 ft clean)

Baby California mountain lilac

It should grow to look like this

A bunch of sagebrush from the property

 

[aart]

Here’s some pictures of the plants I have

How long have these plants been living with the chickens?

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

How long have these plants been living with the chickens?

Some were just planted and others have been there for 4 months or so, planted right as I moved in the new house. In my old run at my old house I had plants that started out tiny and got huge with chickens over 2 years!

 

[ValarieF]

I thought I would create a thread to share some plants with you all that thrive and survive in my chicken run/yard! You can also post pictures or tell us what plants you have in your chicken run/yard! Right now the run is 24'x24' with 13 chickens (44 sq ft each with 6 of them being tiny bantams). I will be expanding it another 32 feet, so the new total run will be 24'x56'. I wanted more room to plant fruit trees and other edible shrubs, and of course more chickens! I do not free range because in my area I have nesting hawks and eagles, roaming large dogs, and daytime coyotes. I didn't want my chickens to live in a barren run all of their lives so I made it my mission to give them the free range experience in a protected yard. I do the deep litter system in the run with wood chips, straw, leaves, pine needles and other organic matter. This system creates healthy soil for the plants and attracts insects for the chickens. I also thought it would be a good idea to grow all of my berries in the run since it's much easier to protect them from chickens rather than trying to battle the birds, squirrels, rabbits, deer and other critters for them. This has worked out great! My plants are still very young, only planted a few months ago. However, I have used some of these same plants and tips in my old chicken run and they got very large and healthy! I will definitely update this thread with more pictures once the plants get even bigger. I also have some grazing boxes for my chickens to get some greens, and I grow some in my garden for them. Even if they free ranged there would be no greens for them, I pretty much live in the high desert which is void of grass and actually good weeds that aren't goatheads or toxic.
I love this article that also lists some plants that do good in chicken runs! https://treatsforchickens.com/blogs...nts-that-thrive-and-survive-in-my-chicken-run

Some tips to ensure the survival of plants in the run:
Protect plants with a wire cage until they are about 2-3 feet tall
Cover the base of the plant with large rocks to protect the roots
Plant very densely, 10 plants will do much better with chickens than one lone plant
Have enough sq ft per chicken
Plant different kinds of things like herbs, native shrubs, small trees, vining/climbing plants, etc

Some plants that I find do really really well are California natives (being that I live in California) and other drought tolerant plants. Natives from your home state should do very well in a run too (just make sure they're not toxic).

Natives and non-native drought tolerant plants I have in the run:
Big sagebrush (I planted about 10 of these)
Eve case coffee berry
Hummingbird sage
Compact texas sage (Plants in the sage family tend to do well in chicken runs)
California mountain lilac
California wild rose
Butterfly bush (buddelia)

Non-native edible plants I have in the run:
4 blueberry bushes
2 bush style rosemary’s
English lavender
Lots of mint
Apple tree (a second one will be added in the run extension)
Dwarf nectarine

My wall of berries... I have boysenberries, blackberries, fall gold raspberries, and red raspberries
View attachment 3201089

I plan to add a couple more fruit trees to the run once it's extended. I also want to add some grapes to climb up the inside of the walls. Climbing roses would also be cool because they're pretty and the chickens can eat the rose hips that come from them. I'll edit this to add some pictures once I get around to taking some more! If you have any plants that I didn't mention that thrive in your chicken run/yard, then please share them below!

Im starting greens in my run and wanted to try this so this is very helpful thank you so much! Look forward to updates.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Wow, I want to be a chicken in your run. That is a beautiful place to live. Lucky girls!