Plants for Chickens
Consider growing some of the following herbs and plants for your chickens (and yourself!). They can all be easily grown in pots near the coop or on your windowsill if you don't have garden space to grow them. One thing I have noticed with my bantams is that they usually prefer their herbs and greens chopped up. Cheeky chickens! I place their herbs and treats into shallow containers for feeding. It is better to do this than chucking their food on the ground where it can quickly become contaminated.
1. Mint- will grow in slightly damp and shaded places. 2. Parsley- once it takes hold and seeds itself, it will continue to come back year after year. My curly parsley grows like crazy and survives the Canberran winter if its sheltered from the frost. 3. Oregano 4. Sage 5. Lavender- I don't feed this to my chickens with do add the leaves and flowers to the nest box and after a coop clean I'll add it in to the new pine shavings. If at anytime I can't get to cleaning out the coop, I'll add crushed leaves and flowers to the coops as well to deodorise it. Apparently lavender keeps away bugs and flies. 6. Nasturium- my chickens like the leaves when chopped up and avoid the flowers. You'll find a lot of chicken folk feed leaves and flowers to their chickens. Nasturium flowers are perfectly edible for people too- a real peppery flavour hit to any dish. 7. Basil 8. Coriander leaves 9. Mustard and Cress- these are really easy to grow. Just sprinkle seeds and lightly cover with soil. Keep damp and enjoy seeing them shoot in 3-5 days. I grow them near the coop and if I don't keep them covered, my chickens will decimate the crop even before I've had a chance to cut and feed them these tasty greens. 10. Sunflowers- kids will love growing these as they are big and bright. Just keep them covered otherwise the native birds might devour the seeds before your chickens get any (as I discovered in my first year!). Check out the Hobby Farms, Fresh Eggs Daily and Natural Chicken Keeping blogs/websites for great advice on herbs and plants for chickens. |