Chickens are a gardener’s best friend, providing plenty of free fertilizer and tiling services, but a good garden can also help support and nourish your flock of backyard chickens with a wide range of different benefits. Providing nitrogen for your compost pile, replacing machine tillers, fertilizing your garden, turning compost, spreading mulch, disposing of your garbage, controlling pests, and sanitizing your orchard are great missions when you put chickens to work. For these good reasons, chickens are great friends to you and your garden, right?
How to care for them? There are hundreds of plants that are well-suited to being grown around chickens and even more that will help your chickens stay healthy. And the post today, we’ve listed the 13 Best Chicken-Friendly Vegetables and Herbs for your chicken. These plants also can save you some cash because a feed bag can be somewhat expensive, and if you’re growing these plants, your chickens will love the treats.
#1 Corn
Source: Britannica
Corn is one of the chicken’s favorite feeds. They love eating corn that’s on the sweeter side of things. So, you should grow a row or two to feed your chickens.
#2 Oregano
Source: Thespruce
Oregano is not only a great herb for cooking but also is the chicken’s favorite. In addition, oregano seems to provide a healthy boost to chicken immune systems since it works as an antibiotic.
#3 Carrot Greens
Source: Gardenerdy
Carrot Greens are the favorite part of the chickens. So, when you’re growing carrots, don’t toss the greens once you’ve pulled them out of the ground.
#4 Watermelon
Source: Harvesttotable
All parts of watermelon are the chicken’s favorite. They will devour the entire melon – seeds, rind, and the flesh.
#5 Strawberries
Source: Theenglishgarden
Chichen loves a wide array of berries, so you should watch out for them when you grow strawberries in the garden. Or you can feed them your berries that have gone soft.
#6 Cucumbers
Source: Simplemost
Cucumbers are one of the major favorites of chickens. Additionally, the seeds seem to do a great job at getting rid of nasty intestinal worms.
#7 Mustard Greens
Source: Harvesttotable
Mustard Greens is another leafy green that chickens cherish. This vegetable contains a lot of nutrients that help your bird’s overall health. Besides, since these greens tend to be attractive to pests, you’ll also provide your chickens with insects to munch on as well.
#8 Swiss Chard
Source: Dengarden
The green leaves of Swiss chard are a treat that chickens love. All leafiest varieties of Swiss chard almost always are a major favorite of chicken.
#9 Beet and Beet Greens
Source: Petcareadvisors
Both greens and the vegetables of beets are the best parts chickens cherish. This veggie does a great job at cleansing the blood of your birds, and chickens will simply peck them apart until they are fully consumed.
#10 Fennel
Source: Ashridgetrees
Fennel attracts your chickens by producing some delicious seeds. Also, the lacy pods provide a treat that your chickens can snack on. The seeds also improve the reproductive health of chickens.
#11 Dandelions
Source: Live-native
Dandelions are edible weeds, and chickens tend to love this particular breed of weed.
#12 Sunflowers
Source: Kitchengardenseeds
Sunflowers produce seeds that are a delicious treat for both you and your chicken.