Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: shiatsusu on February 11, 2009, 13:55
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I want to plant some shrubs in the chicken patch for shade etc and wondered if anyone knew any I should steer clear of for health implications with chooks? Obviously they won't be baby plants - the girls would dig them out straight away ??? Any thoughts would be most welcome :blink:
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Elderberry as long as you don't mind purple poo for a couple of months every year. They also love Pyracantha (Firethorn berries). Depending on what breeds you are keeping you will always be trying to keep them off some parts of the garden, some are more destructive than others. Fruit trees are ideal as they provide good cover. Chickens are omniverous and will eat almost anything. They will free range and seem to have an instinct for what is good or bad for them. They seldom get poisoned.
Allan
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Thanks Allan thats really useful. They are in a designated patch which is a bit bare at the mo hence the interest in making it more interesting for them. The pyracantha sounds interesting. It would be good to put something in they can get more than shade from. :)
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PS Just looked up pyracantha, people rave about it for wildlife but warn it can be smelly- any experience of that yourself?
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Hi,
I have found after having my chucks since last July, the only plants left in the garden are trees, a rosemary bush and a purple sage. Everything else they have eaten :ohmy: Yes EVERYTHING! Although they seemed not to like the geraniums at first, when they had devoured everything else, they ate them too. Actually I dont think they ate the chives, (but they would be no good for shelter anyway).
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Ah yes, perhaps I am being rather hopeful that they would appreciate my kind intentions and NOT destroy all the fruits of my labours!! There's always plastic plants I suppose... :tongue2: I'll let you know whether mine do the same! ::)
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This is Pyracantha. There is no smell.
(http://plantwhateverbringsyoujoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/pyracantha475.jpg)
Allan
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i have just ordered my first hens and built a fixed pen in the garden, the pen goes round a winter jasmine a honeysuckle and an ivy growing around a tree, does anyone know if the hens will be ok with the berries from the ivy and honeysuckle, i think the ivy will be ok as the blackbirds love them in the winter
martyn
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Hi everyone, now it's night time I've got a bit more time ::) and have just done a google search on poisonous plants for chooks which I thought you might find interesting. Here's the link to omlet's piece on the subject http://wiki.omlet.co.uk/index.php/List_of_plants_that_are_poisonous_or_harmful_to_chickens
Interestingly it notes elderberry as poisonous, but Rhode Runner's girls seem to be fine with it. It also notes ivy as poisonous to chooks (see grumpdad's msg). Apparently yellow sage is not great for chooks which may explain why the purple version was one of the few plants left standing in crazyMayonnaisy's garden!
I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of chooks eating the plants on this list with no ill effects? It does seem to throw doubt onto what they are suggesting which, come to think of it, doesn't make it that useful a list after all... :blush: !
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My Geese love buttercups yet I see they are mentioned.
The daffodil I think it's the bulb rather than the flower that's poisonous ??? My chickens leave the leaves alone then peck to pieces the flowers - no ill effects :)
I have in my run Hydrangeas, Californian Lilac, Escallonia(sp), Hebe, Pheasant Berry and Fusias (big variety) and all are still standing :D
Admittedly these were already established before hand and the area I'm taking about is quite big, maybe in a smaller area they would eat them ???
Sarah :D
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I'm wondering whether the best thing is just to stick some things in and let instinct take over? Maybe we all worry too much?? :unsure:
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The daffodil I think it's the bulb rather than the flower that's poisonous ??? My chickens leave the leaves alone then peck to pieces the flowers - no ill effects :)
that's right : they don't eat the things generally, but just @@$%@@ dig them up! :mad:
I'm not expecting much in the way of a great daff display if last year is anything to go by (a much reduced display even though by then we'd only had them 2 months - they still managed to dig about half of them up and they've been in the patch all year this time round!)
:(
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i have just ordered my first hens and built a fixed pen in the garden, the pen goes round a winter jasmine a honeysuckle and an ivy growing around a tree, does anyone know if the hens will be ok with the berries from the ivy and honeysuckle, i think the ivy will be ok as the blackbirds love them in the winter
martyn
I'd worry about honeysuckle and ivy berries. However, hens often don't eat stuff that would be bad for them. Some instinct? Someone else might have direct experience.
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i have just ordered my first hens and built a fixed pen in the garden, the pen goes round a winter jasmine a honeysuckle and an ivy growing around a tree, does anyone know if the hens will be ok with the berries from the ivy and honeysuckle, i think the ivy will be ok as the blackbirds love them in the winter
martyn
I'd worry about honeysuckle and ivy berries. However, hens often don't eat stuff that would be bad for them. Some instinct? Someone else might have direct experience.
All chickens are directly descended from wild jungle fowl. These birds free ranged in forests crammed with poisonous and dangerous fruits and berries. They had nobody to decide which was good or bad for them to eat, yet they have survived to the present day and continue to thrive in our inhospitable and dangerous climate. I think many more free range birds die through predator attacks than self inflicted poisonings.
Think of the birds that thrive on the island at Bungay.
Allan
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thanks for the advice, i am going to put them in and see what happens....watch this space..lol.. hope they will be ok, dont want a tragedy on my first outing....whilst on about poisons, does anyone use creosote for their hen houses or just the new fence paints ?
martyn
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Just because your hens do not keel over after eating certain plants does not mean they are not being affected. Many of the toxins are slow acting - this is probably true of the buttercups, which are poisonous to horses but they have to eat a lot over a long period . Beware!
I do not know if eating poisonous plants would affect the eggs and have a knock on affect to those that ate the eggs. Sorry to be negative.
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I think your point about eggs is an important one and worth considering, also the potential for slow build toxins in the chooks themselves. I'm wondering whether the chicken lifespan of 6-8 years means they die of old age before toxins reach a level that could carry them off? I've just had to give my girls antibiotics and was warned not to eat the eggs for 14 days so it is logical to argue plant toxins could also find their way into the eggs. I guess the best advice if you're starting from a bare patch is to only put in plants from a "safe for chooks" list. :wub: When did hen keeping become so complicated?! ::)
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Ive had my chickens now for six weeks they dig alot but at the moment they are leaving all my shrubs alone they seem to have a peck dont like it so move on.ive got alot of shrubs in my garden so i hope this list will help you to decide what to get.
choisya
ceanothus
chaenomeles
camellia
buddleja
berberis
cotoneaster
escallonia
erysimum-bowies mauve
lavatera
hypericum
hellebores
mahonia
winter jasmine
rhododendron
azalea
potentilla
pieris
roses
rosemary
When i plant more shrubs i will put bricks around so the chickens cannot dig them up until they they get established its trail and error at the moment, ive dug up alot of my perennial plants as i know they will have them. :)
RC
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Hi RC, thank you for the list. What's coming through loud and clear from this is that many of the plants on the poisonous lists people seem to have in their gardens with no visible or immediate problems to the chooks - hypericum and rhodies are both supposedly poisionous to chooks according to one list I found. I'm lucky to have a bare patch and start from scratch so think the safest thing is probably to put in plants from the safe list and see what happens ??? Good tip re the bricks, I'll try that one too ::)
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People always say that rhubarb is poisonous to hens as well but mine gets eaten and the old wives tale will tell you that the hens use it as a natural wormer