[lou-b-lou]

Hi,

I would really like to plant some largish shrubs in my garden, but don't want to pay out loads of money just for my chickens to eat them all!!  Does anyone know of anything that their chickens will not touch?   I was thinking about things like rhodedendron, euronymous, conifers etc.  Anybody got any ideas??

Ta muchly  x

[Tigerwren]

Lol!  Plants that chickens won't touch... there was a thread about purple flowering plants where people seemed to say that they remained untouched.  I am not sure what else, mint?  Good luck and I shall watch this with interest!

[diffeyj]

your probably ok with any of the options you put down my chickens tend not to go for the larger tougher leaves and i've never seen them after any evergreens they much prefer soft succulent new growth. if you are worried try putting some wire up arond the plants for the first few weeks as often the chickens will have a peck at anything new. also biggest problem i've found is them scratching at the freshly turned soil and digging up the new plants so again either use wire as temporary protection or i've found keeping the ground wet works to some degree as they tend not to like getting their feet dirty. good luck

[viettaclark]

Mine leave the shrubs alone. Actually, during their first year, they tried eating EVERYTHING and I chicken wired the precious plants off. They now ignore quite alot because I've given them a big area full of leaf litter to scratch in so the ugly wire has come down.
Shrubs are good because they're above the scratching but any mulch doesn't last long!
I try to plant lower stuff right under shrubs because they can't get in to scratch. If the plant can get a good rootball it will survive scratching and I've found it grows back stronger.
Must be the poo!

[themagicaltoad1]

They haven't touched my rhodedendrum or fatsia, and oddly enough they've not touched the new growth of crocosmia that's coming through, they do like to dig up anything newly planted though! Last year I planted a row of onions and unbeknown to me they were following behind digging them straight back out

[gladis]

i got my chickens last year and they ate everything now they have their own area and off my veg patch

[ManicMum]

It might be worth spending a bit more to get plants which are older & bigger & therefore tougher.  Even if the girls don't eat them, there could be some digging around the roots and the bigger the plant, the better it will withstand disturbance.

And possibly draping chicken wire around each plant for a couple of weeks while they start growing again?

[lou-b-lou]

Thanks for your replies - very helpful.  I am going to invest in some 'tough leaved' older shrubs and have bought green chicken wire so that it looks a bit more 'gardeny' than the usual silver stuff.

Have just read that rhododendrons may be poisonous to chickens so am a bit wary of getting one of these - does anyone have any experience of chickens and rhododendrons?

Ta  x