Mama Chicken,
Thanks for the sweet pea info. In the past the chickens have left my sweet pea vines alone, but as someone suggested, boredom may be the problem with them being confined this year, rather than free-ranging. I've just had too many close encounters of the wrong kind with dogs (a Husky and 2 yappies) recently that have scared me silly, plus now that I have a pet rooster who might peck visiting children, there are too many potential problems with letting them out. So if the peas are the only greenery in site, other than the leafy greens I hand feed them, they may be tempted to eat them.
They have eaten the grape hyacinths that were growing in the area the new run was built around, and those are supposed to be poisonous to chickens, but they show no ill effects from eating them. They've also mowed my garlic chives that are in the area. I'd like to plant them a huge garden in this run, but I'm afraid nothing would make it to maturity. Any ideas on what I could plant that wouldn't be too expensive to resow that they would really enjoy? Someone suggested oat grass, the kinds that cats like that is often labeled as cat grass in stores. They said it grows fast.
Did I tell you the chickens ate the lilac buds off one of my 2 lilac bushes? Luckily, the other one was harder for them to get to. Last year they ate my beautiful white irises, which are also supposed to be poisonous.
They have destroyed at least 3 baby Roses of Sharon that I had set out by their run for shade, before we expanded the run, which gave the chickens easier access to the ROS starts.
