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

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Happy spring everyone! I've been a bit silent here since I haven't done too much to the run since it's been very cold this winter. This has been the coldest winter here in over 50 years!
Now that the weather is finally warming up i'm planning for some more plants that I want to add to my run... my run has been extended another 33 feet, making my run officially around 25'x58'. I haven't added much to the new section besides transplanting around 15 of the native big sage brush plants since its gotten too cold at night to add anything else right now. I ended up moving my climbing berry plants to the outside wall of the run because I wanted to let them get bigger out there rather than have them behind a smaller fence actually inside of the run. All of the plants look very bare right now so I can't wait until they start getting their leaves.
Some plants that I am hoping to add this season so far are:
- Apple tree to pollinate my other apple tree in the run
- A couple of other dwarf fruit trees
- 2 more butterfly bushes
- Some more natives (I'll check out our local nursery soon)
- Climbing roses
- Grapevines
- Other plants that I'll think of lol

I will be sure to update this thread with pictures of the new plants and of the growth progress of the ones I have now once they start leafing out... sadly this winter my Eves case coffee berry plant did not make it because I unknowingly chose the least cold hardy variety and we dipped down into single digits a couple nights in a row which is not normal at all for here.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Coffeeberry has caffeine. Have you had issues from your chickens eating the fruit?

Despite the name the California coffeeberry doesn't contain caffeine!

 

[igorsMistress]

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!

Wow, I’m only on the first post and it’s beautiful!

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Wow, I’m only on the first post and it’s beautiful!

Thank you! Very excited for this growing season, planning to add lots more plants especially since I have the run extension done... Everything looks so sad and bare but all of this rain we had this past winter and early spring so far is probably going to be very good for them! Just hoping some of the plants that die back over winter come back this spring... I'm a little more nervous this year since we had such an abnormal cold snap.

 

[igorsMistress]

Ironically it wasn’t particularly cold here, but the cooler temps lasted much longer than usual. Not that I’m complaining!

This is how I keep my chickens away from plants. Some of the cages I leave forever because when the chickens eat the plants they can’t eat it down to nothing. This is a Carolina jessamine

I use blocks around the fruit trees to keep the chickens from dust bathing. Of course the rooster decided he needed to be in the pic

I have a lemon tree, two plum trees, an apricot, two Vitex, a Willow Acacia, an olive, and an Arabian lilac. There are emu bushes, Mexican bird of paradise, pride of Barbados, yellow bells and bells of fire. They ate the lemongrass lol. I have some white sage I’m going to plant over the weekend and I grow grass in a grass frame as well.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Ironically it wasn’t particularly cold here, but the cooler temps lasted much longer than usual. Not that I’m complaining!

This is how I keep my chickens away from plants. Some of the cages I leave forever because when the chickens eat the plants they can’t eat it down to nothing. This is a Carolina jessamine
View attachment 3448422

I use blocks around the fruit trees to keep the chickens from dust bathing. Of course the rooster decided he needed to be in the pic
View attachment 3448427

I have a lemon tree, two plum trees, an apricot, two Vitex, a Willow Acacia, an olive, and an Arabian lilac. There are emu bushes, Mexican bird of paradise, pride of Barbados, yellow bells and bells of fire. They ate the lemongrass lol. I have some white sage I’m going to plant over the weekend and I grow grass in a grass frame as well.

Awesome assortment of plants! Something I definitely miss about living in the valley was the ability to grow citrus, olive trees, lemongrass, and the other warm climate plants/trees. Olive trees are so pretty
We’re now zone 7-8, just a few thousand feet higher than the valley so the nights get well below freezing, around 15-20 on the usual coldest winter nights, daytime temps are around 40 most of the winter (except this very weird cold year where it hit single digits a couple nights).

 

[igorsMistress]

Awesome assortment of plants! Something I definitely miss about living in the valley was the ability to grow citrus, olive trees, lemongrass, and the other warm climate plants/trees. Olive trees are so pretty
We’re now zone 7-8, just a few thousand feet higher than the valley so the nights get well below freezing, around 15-20 on the usual coldest winter nights, daytime temps are around 40 most of the winter (except this very weird cold year where it hit single digits a couple nights).

I’m actually in AZ now, the Phoenix area, but lived in So Cal for a very long time. Mostly the Inland Empire, but I ran around all over the pace from beaches to deserts to mountains while I lived there. I imagine it has changed considerably, it has been a while since I’ve been back.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

I’m actually in AZ now, the Phoenix area, but lived in So Cal for a very long time. Mostly the Inland Empire, but I ran around all over the pace from beaches to deserts to mountains while I lived there. I imagine it has changed considerably, it has been a while since I’ve been back.

I’m born and raised in the Inland empire! I just moved from the Temecula valley area to the San Bernardino mountains. Moved up here because the valley areas are getting very overcrowded and expensive, you couldn’t get the size of property we have down there without paying well over a million.

 

[igorsMistress]

I’m born and raised in the Inland empire! I just moved from the Temecula valley area to the San Bernardino mountains. Moved up here because the valley areas are getting very overcrowded and expensive, you couldn’t get the size of property we have down there without paying well over a million.

I know what you mean, we left Cali about 20 years ago for similar reasons. Hubs has visited a few times recently, but I haven’t been in probably ten years so I have no idea what it looks like there now.

We last lived in Hemet, can’t say I miss that, but I miss seeing the mountains every day. And the variety of outdoor activities. Beach, mountains, desert…it’s all there.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Some new additions to the run… I’m slowly starting to fill out the extended section of the run! Here’s some things I added so far…

I added some more of these sage brush to the run since they do so well. I lined all of the edges of the run area with these plants….

That sad looking plant behind it is called a brittlebush…. I took some small ones from the middle of the desert when I went and transplanted them here… all of the old growth pretty much died but I see new stuff popping up. It should look like this once bigger.

I added another apple tree in the run to pollinate the Fuji apple that is in the first section. This is a pink lady apple.

Around the apple tree are these native wildflowers called Lobeleaf groundsel… I found them on my grandparents property, took them home and planted them and they are doing surprisingly fantastic from being transplanted. Around the tree is a gopher basket to prevents gophers from eating the roots and rocks to protect the shallow roots from naughty chickens.

Already in the run extension area is this tree…. Not sure what it is, it’s not leafed out yet to tell so I’ll post another picture once it starts to leaf out.

I also added a lilac bush… this should get nice and tall so it’s provide some nice shade for the girls. I also loveee the smell of lilacs!

I also added a climbing rose to the outside wall of the run area. This will look pretty and hopefully provide some nice shade in the summer as well. I’m also hoping it’ll produce rose hips that the chickens could enjoy.

This is the new berry wall. The berries are just barely starting to grow so you can’t see them yet. They’re spaced in between the rocks and the go along the whole 24’ section of the wall.

That’s it for now and I’ll update on how the plants are doing and any more I add to the run.