I am hoping to get 4 hens in the next couple of weeks. I plan on keeping them in a moveable coop so that they can eat all my grass which will then be replaced with wildflowers. A large area of our one acre property is covered with sow and canada thistle growing through the spreading euonymous. If i place coup on this area will chickens eat this stuff too?
will chickens eat thistle and euonymous?
I think they will eat the thistles, especially if you start when the plants are young. Mine are not fond of privet--so euonymous may not be as palatable to them as the thistles.
You need a Nigerian dwarf goat to go with the chickens to get that euonymous under control! They are small and friendly and very good at clearing brush!
I have a chicken tractor. I love it. I put it in the areas I want down, like the garden before and after planting. Its great. Fertilizer and clearing. I dont think you can put a goat in a chicken tractor though. LMBO Just kidding. Ught..Kid! LOL Yes the dwarfs are soo sweet. Like dogs but they eat everything. You could put it out in the area and it would be cleared in no time. :)
Best wishes! I may need pictures of your new chickens. What r u looking at?
Claire, do you know whether goats will eat prickly pear cactus? Our chickens have cleaned their pasture of anything edible and the prickly pear have taken over. We just let them into another area but we'd love to figure out how to clear those prickly pests out of there!
Goodness me, I'm not sure about that! I know they gladly eat rose bushes, which are very thorny, but the prickles in the cacti seem like they would be just too painful....maybe somebody with goats down south would know?
Actually, just found this pdf article...
www.jpacd.org/Fuentes2.pdf
It says goats eat at the base of prickly pear cactus until it falls over and then they eat from the bottom up without damage to their lips or tongue. Weird!
Wow, Claire, what a goldmine of information that is. Maybe we should start looking for a goat.... Thanks!
Leslie