What is everyone planting in and around your chicken run/coop?
Are you planting it for your chickens’ health?
Are you planting it for the nutrient rich chicken soil?
Are they guarding your precious crops from unruly pests?
Clean up crew for excess fruit drop?
Please post pics!
I just planted peaches in my run. They are allegedly pest magnets in our area. I’m hoping my chickens will help me manage all of these unwelcome little critters. I’m also hoping that as the trees grow they will provide some camouflage and a safe haven from hawks. Will it work? Who knows?
I’m concerned about the dreaded spotted wing drosophila (SWD) as well. I’d love to get a mulberry tree (variety suggestions welcome) but I’m worried all the fallen and uneaten fruit will attract these little bastards. Should I recruit my little egg-layers as orchard custodians to combat SWD? And will their yokes turn purple ?
I regularly contemplate planting chickens to help with both bug and excess small fruit clean up. The nesting boxes would conveniently hang into the neighbor’s yard so they could harvest the cacklefruit when they walked their dogs. I don’t eat many eggs, but they do.
However, I have lots of small trees/bushes still; coyotes and hawks are never far off; and, most importantly, I am not a morning person while the little buggers generally are crack of dawn monsters.
I will likely one day succumb to the temptation, but I have not planned for their eventual presence in plotting where things have been planted.
Everything in there is chicken friendly since they will try to eat anything and everything green in there.
I have bamboo and mulberry growing in the middle of the run. The leaves of both are edible and they provide shade in the summer. The bamboo has to be maintained meticulously to keep it from going out of control. I’m in the process of transitioning from running bamboo to the clumping ones.
On the south and west side of my run I have grapevines that I trellis up and over the run with. They give shade in the summer and then I prune them back before the snow starts flying. The leaves are edible and obviously some of the fruit falls and makes it to the birds for a treat. I also grow tall ornamental grasses and sunflowers along the rest of the southern portion of the run to provide more shade in the summer.
I am trying to get clover fully established in my little backyard so I can enclose the whole thing for the chickens. I also plant Malabar spinach and may pops to cover the coop. Been thinking of sticking one of my potted mulberry nearby for feeding them also, but I’m not keen on sharing those.
Im building a chicken mansion right now… Its mostly from leftover building materials. I am connecting it to a large block that i have fenced in which is probably 300X300 which is my primary hobby orchard. I am adding a 15X8 run that will be separate from their entrance into the hobby orchard. The small run will be dumped and spread woodchips and compost things will be tossed into that run… So instead of compost piles like i have been doing… those things will go into that small run.
The cleanings out of that run will then go onto growing things for me and the chickens…
Things to be planted are sunflowers and watermelons… Sunflowers will benefit pollinators, then some small birds…then the heads tossed into the run after being stored. Watermelons will be enjoyed by me and watching the chickens have watermelon parties with my leftovers.
They will be allowed entrance into the main orchard mostly on the weekends…to allow the orchard to rest and replenish whatever they scavage.
During the fall they will be allowed longer time in the orchard for cleanup of spoils.
I also feed birds via bird feeders… the spent sunflower shells here attract and multiply worms under the feeders by the thousands… so cleanup once a month will net harvests of worms for the chickens.
My main goal is to have zero ‘waste’… as everything will either be fed to…or composted into things that keep the cycle going.
Eggs- What myself and my family dont eat… i am up to 5 dogs so there will be no problem with old eggs… Eggs are also good bartering tools if one of my neighbors is growing something that i dont. I provide several neighbors with berries in trade for things… i think Eggs work well as payment also.
I also plan on growing marigolds for myself and the chickens… i get alot of enjoyment out of a couple of bucks… i think they will too.
going to plant a 15’ x 30’ mixed patch of barley, oats, amaranth ,flax and b.o.s.s on the south side of my runs to supplement my birds. already have a few Siberian pea shrub and everbearing mulberries planted against both runs. the pea shrubs are starting to produce good crops now. the wild birds benefit from what falls outside the runs. also have 3 elders planted there as well. should get some fruit this summer from them. i dont let them free range to protect my plantings but will let them out to feed on the ripe grains when ready.
Not so beautiful right now… as i just finished the outside and things of the ‘mansion’… i have been working on it here and there for a couple of weeks… will post some preview pics tomorrow i hope.
My chickens clear out every and anything that can get their beaks on. There is a 1 inch strip of barren soil around the entire enclosure they have. I have conceded that land to the flock and just feed them the Biden’s Alba and other weeds that pop in the yard. They also love hibiscus.
Roof is from an old carport that i had years ago. Windows are from a neighbor that remodeled and those were discards. Door is a heavy closet door from the 80s. Siding is old roofing from a shed that was on my property.
The only thing that is new is the gutter which the downspout will go into a barrel for rainwater.
I had to buy some 2X4s and 4X4s along with alot of screws for the metal work.
It is way too big and way overbuilt for chickens but i enjoy the look and the oddness of it.
No doorknob or latch… so i just made some from scraps.
The run will be done soon along with gates and the interior will be done.
This was all done off the grid as i have no electric at the building location… generator was used.
I reckon it could be a ‘tiny house’… im no carpenter… but i wanted to use the junk i had and this is what happened.
The phone/pictures make it look lopsided but its square and true. There is no floor…i dug holes and it is on 4X4 beams in ground. Floor will be woodchips.
I debated on a floor but those i have seen or visited were much harder to maintain i think… plus they rot. Not to mention i want to harvest the poop and litter.
My number 1 priority was being dog and varmint proof…so thats why i went this route…as its several hundred yards from my home.
love the look. i find it wasteful to build a coop out of brand-new wood. my 2 coops are made from repurposed materials also. 1 was a kids playhouse i picked up for $50. repainted it and threw some roosts in there. 8 birds that call it home. sign on the door says chick inn.
Im not really into picture taking… but i dont mind to when its inspiring… as this forum has inspired me to do things and grow things i probably wouldnt otherwise. I try to give as much as I take…on here and in life.
Anyways that would be off subject which i have already done… but…
Upcoming is a thread of The Impossible Orchard Project… Where i am growing and will grow more things than i can possibly manage let alone harvest and maintain. I will push the envelope of the word dissuade.
my thought process never works out for me… the original plan was to just buy one of the old style ‘sheds’ and convert it to my liking… I like to show my work…so now that it hasnt happened this was my thinking.
But i ran out of skills…and ended up with what i built.
I have enough skills to pull off the above… but not for chickens. I think it would be a wonderful potting shed/nursery if i put clear roofing on… or maybe just to store all of my pots and mowers and things at some point. I have some old roofing from the 1920s that i have no idea what im going to do with… maybe this.
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