feralgun
05-31-2007, 07:04 AM
Hello all. Hope everyone is enjoying the start to summer. It is finally stopped raining out here in the Pacific Northwest, at least for the time being. Anyway, I have a question I wanted to throw out to all you other livestock keepers. We have a flock of 26 chickens. They free range the property, except for the garden, they just tear it up too much. We have an area within the circle of our driveway that is about 50ft in diameter. There is an old log, an old pull behind a horse plow, a couple of bird baths, and a bird feeder, some large 30 to 50 year old pines. And right in the center is a Rhododendron(sp) bush. The chickens love the soil around this bush to dust themselves, but they are killing the plant. We are going to transplant the bush. I would just rip it out and be done with it, but the wife wants to save it, even though they grow like weeds in the mountains here. Anyway, my question is this. This area keeps the chickens for the most part away from the flower beds and vegetable gardens, they like the soil, it is very fine and dry for them to dust in, Does anyone know of bushes or plants that would be good to plant that are more Chicken resistant or Chicken friendly to thier scratching? I hope this makes sense, sorry for rambling on. Feralgun419