Help - What don't they eat?

[Muppet]

We got our first chickens in Dec from BHWT. We movedd in here at the end of Sept and the garden was and is essentially a blank canvas.
Veggie patch is now dug and fenced. Fruit trees and bushes semi protected and the strawberries are 3 foot off the ground in wall baskets - Thank You £1 shop.
But........
Flowers would be nice. I know they don't eat many of my herbs although the Red Sorrel was a mistake.
So what's pretty and chicken proof - does such a flower exist that will survive our rampaging mob.
Please help
Sue.

[snakeshack]

The hen "tractor" will eat or scratch up anything in the search for food they are truly omnivorous in that they eat everything,you will need to fence in either your flowers or your hens.Failing that plastic flowers are frequently on offer in the local £1 store and they will probably peck them too just in case they are edible

[Nicos]

I have pinched these lists from other chook sites- they are easy to find

Rose of Sharon
Most shrubs and bushes
Blackcurrants (although they will take the fruits)
Rosemary
Lavender
Hardy Geraniums
Hardy Fuschias
Foxgloves
Pelargoniums
Oriental Grasses & Bamboos once established.
Clematis
Roses
Honeysuckle (once established)
Perennial Sweetpeas
Wormwood
Petunias (mixed reports, some say they will eat them)
Ophiopogan planiscapus ' Nigrescens' (Black lilyturf)
Purple Fringed Loosestrife (Lysimachia ciliata) 'Purpurea'
Lupins

Some may eat:

Pyrethrum Daisies
Lillies
Primroses


horseradish
plants in the mint family (salvias, sages, and mints)
chive
roses
daisies
honeysuckle
tansy
hosta
virginia creeper
autumn clematis
zinnas
creeping phlox

that may give you some ideas to start with????

as snakeshack says though...they may well scratch them up!

...and also- there are always exceptions to the rule!

[Muppet]

Thank you both - the plant list is very interesting. They are such cute s..ds but I could happily begin to eat meat again as I watch them munch my field poppies.
Sue

[Nicos]

^^^^...ouch!

[chris]

There's about 5 on that list that mine don't eat!! But that's probablybbecausenthey can't get to them


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[Nicos]

had a thought...some of those are mildly toxic!
probably why they don't tend to nibble them???

[elizajay]

No, mine eat rhubarb leaves and potato leaves, so the toxins don't seem to bother them. I find it best to buy reasonably big plants and surround them with sticks until the chooks lose interest in digging around them. I used to have perennial geraniums in a flower bed. Been there for years and big plants. They sorted them one spring eating the leaves and leaving a network of stems. Mine don't eat mintand quite a lot of other plants. I think tastes vary so I try not to spend much money on plants and buy one at a time so that I don't lose a group of plants. If they don't eat them I can go back and buy more.

[Muppet]

They are little terrors arn't they. We found out they don't like daffodils.
Thank you all for the advice. Up hifh or not at all seems to be our only options for now.
Sue
p.s ours eat the rhubarb leaves when I forgot to put the bucket back on top..

[Feral007]

You put buckets on your rhubarb? I had to put chicken wire over mine. They decimated them every time they broke into the garden. Toxic - not likely!

My chooks have a mulch gene. If you don't touch the garden they often won't either. But mulch something? It's a race to get there and demulch and dig for china!

They also got under a tarped compost pile and sort that out smartly.

[Scarlet]

They also love newly planted up veg beds....

[Muppet]

Pretty flowers V roast chicken? hmmmmmmm! Just as well we don't eat meat. How can something so small be so cute but so piggin destructive?
Sue

[Bill HH]

I used to find nettles, docks and thistles did very well in the chicken runs, if you can learn to love them you will have it sorted.

[jessmorris]

mine are excavating an APPLE TREE at the moment.....

little darlings.

[Floyd]

Between the chickens and my lunatic Border collie, I now have half of my garden covered in astro turf purloined from work.......they haven't found a way of eating plastic grass yet!