How to Grow a Garden Buffet for Your Chickens

When it comes to feeding livestock, it doesn’t get any easier than chickens. Chickens are omnivores with a varied diet, and aside from eating a flexible menu, they can provide much of their own food if you let them free range. They love to peck and scratch in the grass, around bushes, and everywhere else, looking for tasty morsels and juicy bugs.

Now, if you’re willing to grow a garden of edible, nutritious foods just for your chickens, you can supercharge their health and keep them happy. It’s like letting them visit a buffet every day!

This will make for a more productive and healthier flock overall, plus it’ll make things easier for you because you won’t be responsible for bringing them their feed two or three times a day.

Keep reading, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know to grow your own free-range garden buffet for your birds.

Is This Really Worth It For Your Chickens?

Yes. But ask anyone who has ever gardened before, and they will tell you it’s hard work. On a different note, chickens can nominally get everything they need to survive and thrive from chicken feed. So why go to all of this extra work?

I’ll tell you why, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be extra work either. No matter how good it claims to be, processed foods aren’t as good for your birds as whole foods. It’s just the way it is.

And just like you can get sick of eating the same thing every day for every meal, day in and day out, the same thing can happen to your chickens.

Menu fatigue is definitely a thing, and boredom leads to stress. Stress leads to feather picking, fights, illness, and reduced production. I can guarantee you that your flock will be more energetic, more peaceful, and more productive when they get to roam and forage – at least some of the time.

Common garden plants also attract a wide variety of bugs and other creatures that your birds have, both garden pests and beneficial insects. This, naturally, can give your birds a big boost of protein and essential minerals.

In effect, your garden plantings will be a tiny ecosystem that your chickens can exploit. Ultimately, they’ll be getting exercise, stimulation, and excellent nutrition that you can, of course, supplement with feed on an as-needed basis.

Plus, if you are already a gardener, even on a small scale, you are already well on your way to implementing this strategy. If not, it’s easier than you think and totally worth the effort for the sake of your flock.

Never Grow These Toxic Plants for Chickens!

Before we go any further, a matter of safety. Yes, chickens do eat an incredibly varied diet and, like pigs, there’s almost nothing that they can’t eat. However, as expected, there are plants that are quite toxic, even deadly, for them. Worryingly, some staple garden veggies are included!

Never, ever grow the following plants for your birds, and even if you’re growing them for yourself, you must take pains to keep your chickens away from them.

• ✘ Tomatoes: These nightshade-family plants contain toxic solanine in vines, leaves, and green fruits. Best to keep chickens away from them altogether.
• ✘ Potatoes: Another nightshade veggie. All parts of the plant, save ripe spuds, contain the toxin. Avoid!
• ✘ Eggplant: Another nightshade veggie, and another one packed with dangerous solanine. Don’t risk it.
• ✘ Peppers: More solanine. Chickens can eat ripe peppers, though, and some even like them. Still, the risks from the foliage just aren’t worth it.
• ✘ Rhubarb: Leaves can contain high amounts of oxalic acid, which can in turn cause serious kidney damage or death in chickens. Most birds avoid it, but again, you are advised against growing it entirely.
• ✘ Any Beans: Beans of any kind are no-gos for chickens when raw. Severe organ damage and circulatory issues can result from ingestion.
• ✘ Apricots (leaves included!): Ripe apricot flesh is safe for chickens in moderation, but all other parts of the plant, especially the leaves and stems, contain deadly cyanide precursors. Sudden death is likely if your chickens eat them!
• ✘ Ferns: Many, many types of ferns are toxic to chickens. Don’t grow them and remove them from the garden and elsewhere on your property.
• ✘ Rhododendrons: Pretty and popular ornamentals, but notoriously dangerous to many animals, including chickens. Grayanotoxins affect the heart and nervous system.
• ✘ Daffodils: Surely not! Sadly, yes: these pretty blooms are full of toxic alkaloids. Bulbs are lethal if chickens eat them.
• ✘ Foxgloves: Contain deadly cardiovascular toxins. Small amounts can kill chickens before you can react! Must be removed or carefully blocked off.
• ✘ Angel’s Trumpet: Another gorgeous but lethal ornamental. Tropanes target respiratory systems. Gotta go or be blocked off as with Foxglove.
• ✘ Monkshood: Among the deadliest plants for chickens and sadly one of the most prolific killers. Monkshood plants are packed with aconitine and a cocktail of nasty alkaloids, a double-whammy that targets the heart and lungs of affected birds.
• ✘ Oleander Sage: This is a tricky one since these plants are variously toxic. Some are not so much and so may lull keepers into a false sense of security. Some individual plants and varieties are downright deadly!
• ✘ Morning Glory: Quite toxic, but often not immediately deadly. Ingestion causes severe digestive issues, nervous system disruption (including hallucinations!), and potentially death.

Plenty of keepers will tell you that your chickens are smart and will avoid eating things that are toxic to them, but this is no guarantee. Ask me how I know…

It’s up to you to keep your birds safe at all times.

Plants That Your Flock Will Love

The good news is there are lots of garden plants out there that are both safe and nutritious for chickens to graze on. Consider any of the following for your free-range garden:

• ✓ Lettuce
• ✓ Cabbage
• ✓ Kale
• ✓ Swiss Chard
• ✓ Clover
• ✓ Dandelion
• ✓ Purslane
• ✓ Chickweed
• ✓ Arugula
• ✓ Rosemary
• ✓ Comfrey
• ✓ Wheat
• ✓ Nasturtium
• ✓ Sunflower
• ✓ Alfalfa
• ✓ Oregano
• ✓ Thyme
• ✓ Sorrel

The Right Approach Makes All the Difference

Okay, you’ve decided to grow a proper garden buffet for your flock. How do you do it? Where do you begin? And how do you get your flock on the right track? The following sections have answers to these and more. It’s simply a matter of making things work for your property and your workflow.

All Plants Should Be Safe and Nutritious

The first and most important rule: As mentioned, any plants that you’ll be growing for your chickens to eat must be safe for them and, ideally, highly nutritious. A varied diet is always good, too, but growing just three or four different species can be enough to give your birds almost everything they need.

But more than that, remember that if you’re going to be letting your flock free range to partake of the buffet as they will, chances are good they will get into other plants on your property, including ones you’d rather they not.

This could be garden veggies or herbs for you and your family, landscape plants, ornamentals, and anything else.

Take it from me, unless you have your chickens contained, any plants that you want to protect must be protected with cages, mesh, or high fences. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Choose Prolific Plants That Regrow or Spread Quickly

If you want to make things easy for yourself, or at least easier going forward, pick plants that are prolific, either regrowing from damage and pruning or spreading quickly. You might be surprised at how fast chickens can chew edible plants right down to the ground. Some good choices form the chicken-approved list above include dandelion, purslane, chickweed, clover, oregano, thyme, nasturtium and comfrey.

Fast-growing plants will make rotating and managing your garden buffet even easier, and it will also ensure that your birds will have tasty, choice bits to eat week after week.

Layout: Enclosed Garden or Plant Here and There?

Here’s the first big fork in the road for most chicken keepers employing this strategy. Do you want to grow a traditional, compact, enclosed garden for your flock, or would you rather grow different plants here and there as space and conditions allow?

Both have their merits. You’ll enjoy greater efficiency in attending to your garden with a traditional layout, and it can make better use of your property if you have lots of space. But, this is a more intensive form of gardening that requires more careful management of soil, seasonal rotation, and more.

Closing in the garden with mesh, fencing, and other barriers can help you contain your chickens while they roam and nibble, and in some cases protect them from predators while they are out, but getting them in there in the first place can be another task unto itself.

On the other hand, planting at various points around the property means you’ll have more walking to do in the course of tending, but it supports a more natural lifestyle for your birds and means that ringing the dinner bell is easier.

Just let them out of the coop or run, and they will eventually do their rounds…

Consider a Climbing Garden if Space is at a Premium

If you’re keeping chickens in a small space, like a tiny backyard, don’t despair because you aren’t out of luck. You might not have room for a proper garden, but you can give your birdies the same benefits by installing a climbing garden on a fence, wall, or other surface.

This is also a good choice if you already have a garden for other purposes in place and you would rather keep your chickens out of it.

Monitor Consumption and Adjust Accordingly

One tricky element of this strategy that takes observation, time, and experience to master is planting enough. Understanding how much your birds eat and how often is critical for making sure they have enough food but also making sure they will have enough long-term.

Chickens are much like every other animal in that they won’t restrain themselves from eating too much…

If they like something, they will keep eating until it is all gone, and if you have a larger flock and not enough plants to support them all, don’t be surprised when you come out one day and are confronted with woody, barren plants that have been stripped of every leaf and bud, or even a bare patch of dirt!

To prevent chickens from decimating a garden, limit their “buffet” time to 1 to 2 hours per day if you are growing the aforementioned prolific plants like dandelion, purslane, chickweed, etc. This is further modified by flock- and and garden size. For instance, a small flock of 6-8 chickens might graze a 100-square-foot garden of mixed purslane and clover for about 1 ½ hours daily without causing any lasting damage, as these plants regrow quickly.

Inspect the garden after each session; if your plants are showing significant leaf loss or bare patches, reduce foraging time by 30 to 60 minutes. Consider rotating access to different garden sections if you have the space and using temporary fencing to block off areas that need rest.

Also, be sure to provide enough variety and enough food in total to stop total defoliation from happening.

How Old Should Plants Be Before Your Chickens Get to Eat?

If you want them to last you must give your plants a fighting chance before letting your flock loose on them.

Plants that are well-established, at least 6-8 weeks old or standing at 4-6 inches tall will fare much better and keep on growing after they get nibbled. Some plants are much tougher than others. Comfrey, for instance, is a tough one.

Don’t you dare let your birds near any tiny seedlings or nearly anything under 3 weeks old! They’ll be history in one go. If you do have young or vulnerable plants out iun your garden or elsewhere on the property where chickens can reach them, once again, use cages, mesh, or whatever you’ve got to shield them.

Chicken Logistics: How You Keep Your Birds May Change Your Approach

The appeal and applicability of this strategy for different keepers likely hinges on how you keep your birds right now.

All chickens need a coop, but you might be keeping your birds in a run or a tractor instead of letting them free range as a matter of course. The living arrangements of your flock will impact your implementation, so consider the following.

In a Run

Assuming you aren’t going to hang little baskets or pots inside the run for your birds to eat, you’ll have to let them out to enjoy. As always, chickens can be wary and cautious of any new addition to their environment, so they might not run up and dive into what you’ve grown for them immediately.

If you’re growing an enclosed chicken buffet, you’ll need to throw the gates open to encourage them to enter. If you are growing plants at different points around the yard, just give them time, and they should discover them on their own.

In a Tractor

You can treat tractor life for your flock as you would keeping them in a run. As a rule of thumb, you’ll need to let them out to partake of the garden unless you’re growing low, creeping plants that you can roll the tractor over.

Full-Time Free-Ranging

If you already let your chickens free range full time, chances are good that they already roam far and wide on your property looking for choice bits of different plants and lots of yummy bugs. You won’t need to do much to encourage the desired behavior in this case.

However, because the flock is already well acquainted with going where they want and eating what they want, you might struggle to get your plants established at all.

Young, green, tasty plants that are just starting to sprout and grow are gourmet fare for chickens and very likely to be wiped out before they ever have a chance to prosper.

You’ll have to rigorously protect your plants with cages, covers, or other defensive measures in the meantime; otherwise, you’ll never be able to even partially feed the flock with them.

Keeping Your Birds Out of Beds, Landscaping, and Other Protected
Plantings

Like I alluded to above, your chickens won’t know the difference between plants that they are allowed to eat and plants that they aren’t. And don’t delude yourself for a second that they do!

Your prized ornamentals, cherished berry bushes, and any other plants are 100% on the menu if your chickens can get to them. For this reason, if you’re going to let your flock out to free range, they must either be contained in the garden while they are eating, or if roaming the property, all off-limits plants must be caged or protected.

There’s just no other way to guarantee good outcomes.