How to create a chicken victory garden and cut back on feed.
Our hens love lots of treats! So much so that I can’t walk outside without feeling guilt if I don’t have anything in hand for them. Our girls come running as soon as I walk outside, but they know it’s treat time when I whistle. I’ve tried planting many different plant varieties for treats in the past but they wipe them out before the plants even get a chance to establish themselves.
I wanted to be able to grow beautiful plants around their coop without them getting ahold of them and killing them. Even a strong & well established plant would be wiped out in a day. I decided I would need to make some sort of raised bed with chicken wire to keep them from wiping the plants out completely.
It was also very important to me to use what we already had on hand to create their raised bed garden. We had a lot of old pallets piled up in the backyard I knew would make great scrap wood for this project. Instead of taking the boards apart, I had Chad cut them in half for me to create a large raised bed.
After cutting 3 pallets in half and screwing them together to create the bottom of the raised bed. I decided to pull a few more pieces of scrap wood from the pile, that already had wire attached, from an old chicken coop that feel apart. I tested a few different ways I could attach these pieces to create a raised bed that would grow healthy plants, but also keep the chickens from destroying the plants completely. This house shape was my absolute favorite, it’s like a little chicken greenhouse.
I took a few pieces with wire already attached and overlapped them to create a house effect. I hammered a few nails & screws to hold it in place. Making sure there was an opening for me to pull weeds and harvest the hens treats daily, I started planting lavender, candela, nasturtiums, tomatoes, zinnias, kale, beets, carrots, lettuce and even some borage for the bees. Then I covered the two sides with more chicken wire.
In order to ensure the plants could grow I had to secure the sides with wire too, so that the hens wouldn’t destroy them them right away. Now I can harvest as much or little as I’d like daily to spoil them. It also makes a beautiful addition to the chicken coop area. I do plan on adding more herbs as well as sprouting grains to there diet this summer, but please tell me in the comments below, what treats do your hens enjoy?
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