A few low-maintenance perennial plants can serve as a free food source for your backyard flock through most of the year (depending on your climate zone).
This won’t only help cut costs, but may come in handy during a crisis when commercial chicken feed isn’t available.
Take a look at these eleven useful plants to grow for chickens to eat.
Turn Your Garden Into a Free Buffet for Your Chickens With These 11 Perennial Plants
Chickens are opportunistic omnivores who will eat practically anything (including vomit, dog poop, and Styrofoam).
Most backyard flock owners are more concerned with keeping their birds out of the garden.
However, letting your flock feast on beneficial edible plants gives you extra perks: healthier chickens, more flavorful eggs, and natural pest control as your birds roam the garden and pick off bugs and caterpillars.
The best part is, converting a portion of your garden into a chicken smorgasbord takes very little effort. Most of the plants below are hardy perennials or self-seeders that will just keep going once established and nourish both you and your chickens.
1. Basil
Basil is a flavorful culinary herb that stars in many Mediterranean dishes. It grows as a perennial in zones 10-11, and will self-seed and come back year after year in cooler regions if you let it flower.
This healthy, nutritious herb can help your chickens produce higher-quality eggs with sunny-yellow yolks.
A caveat: from my experience, chickens love basil and will gobble it up in huge quantities unless they have a large variety of other plants to choose from, so make sure to create a diverse food garden for your flock.
You’ll also need to protect the plants until they’re established, because chickens can easily uproot seedlings with constant scratching and dust-bathing.
Fence off young plants or put cages over them until they develop a stable root system.
2. Lemon Balm
Lemon balm is a delicious, low maintenance herb in the mint family. It can grow as a perennial in zones 4 to 9: it may die back in winter, but will come back in spring. It also self-seeds easily.
This lovely pollinator-friendly herb has a refreshing lemony scent and makes delicious tea with calming properties.
Your chickens will enjoy nibbling on lemon balm leaves, and this continuous trimming can prevent the herb from overspreading.
Lemon balm contains a wealth of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Its antimicrobial effects may help your flock stave off parasites, and it could improve your chickens’ overall health and performance.
3. Sweet Scented Geranium
Scented geranium is another plant chickens go wild for.
My birds will eat the whole bush bare if I let them, even when they have access to rich vibrant pasture, so I keep my scented geraniums covered part of the time.
Scented geraniums smell delightful, repel insects, and attract useful pollinators. The succulent leaves make a refreshing, healthy tea and a great chicken treat.
It has wonderful antimicrobial and antifungal properties. Just make sure your chickens don’t over-indulge, since this could cause an impacted crop.
Scented geraniums will grow as perennials in zones 10-11, but will have to overwinter indoors in zones 9 and below. You can also grow them as annuals.
4. Calendula
Calendula, or marigold, is a short-lived perennial in zones 9, 10, and 11, and an annual in other zones. This pretty, hardy plant is very easy to grow and propagate, as it usually self-seeds.
When chickens snack on bright golden calendula flowers, they’ll lay eggs with beautiful sunny yolks. Calendula is rich in compounds with powerful anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that can boost your flock’s health.
Calendula has many other useful properties apart from serving as chicken fodder. It attracts pollinators and readily lends its medicinal properties to various balms, ointments, and other natural skin remedies.
5. Oregano
Oregano is a robust and versatile plant that grows as a perennial in zones 5-10. It self-seeds and spreads easily.
Oregano contains thymol and carvacrol, beneficial compounds that could strengthen your flock’s immune system and improve growth. Oregano also shows antiparasitic properties when given to chickens as a supplement.
You’ll enjoy oregano as much as your birds do. This versatile herb shines in tomato sauces, pesto, and meat dishes. Oregano has also been used in traditional medicine to treat respiratory illnesses, colds, coughs, and indigestion.
6. Blackberries
Your chickens will love pecking at some fresh blackberries in season. Blackberries (depending on the variety) thrive in growth zones 5-9.
These hardy bushes are extremely easy to grow and will live up to 40 years with minimal upkeep. You can use the juicy berries to make pies, tarts, jams, jellies, and so much more.
Dense and thorny, blackberry bushes also make great hedges. Blackberries can spread through tip-rooting and can be quite hard to keep under control.
Make sure to cut back new shoots regularly or grow your blackberries in contained beds.
7. Mulberries
Mulberry trees are beautiful and fast-growing.
They’ll give you plenty of delicious fruit and provide deep, refreshing shade thanks to their luscious foliage. These trees grow vigorously in zones 4 to 8. Mulberries make great jams, jellies, syrups, smoothies, and ice-cream.
Some gardeners hesitate to plant mulberry trees because of the mess: mulberries grow tall, and it can be hard to pick the fruit off the higher branches, so it will eventually fall and attract flies.
That’s where your chickens come into the picture! They’ll gobble up the fallen fruit along with any bugs. Your flock will also appreciate the shade on hot summer days.
8. Alfalfa
Alfalfa is a perennial cover crop that thrives in practically any climate. It’s an excellent erosion preventer and nitrogen source for the soil.
Alfalfa will provide your flock with healthy fiber and minerals, and contribute to deep yellow yolk color. As a legume, it’s also high in protein.
Once alfalfa is established, it should survive grazing by your chickens provided they have a large enough space to roam in and a variety of plants to choose from. This versatile plant goes well with other cover crops, like clover, and herbs like mint, thyme, and oregano.
9. Chicory
Chicory is a short-lived perennial with lovely daisy-like blue flowers. Robust and adaptable, it flourishes in zones 3 to 9.
You’ll often find it as a wild-growing plant in grasslands; don’t confuse it with the cultivated chicory also known as radicchio.
Thanks to its anti-parasitic properties, chicory may help chickens resist illness. Chicory leaves are packed with nutrients like Vitamin A, beta-carotene, Vitamin C, calcium, and magnesium.
You can try some of the young, tender leaves yourself: some traditional Italian recipes feature sautéed chicory leaves.
10. Echinacea
Echinacea is a valuable medicinal plant that will nourish your chickens, brighten your flowerbeds, and impart its healthful properties to many natural remedies.
It’s a resilient perennial that can survive winters in zones 4 to 9.
A recent study has found that echinacea can potentially improve chickens’ growth and immune system health.
Your flock will enjoy pecking at echinacea leaves and petals, which are a great source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
11. Aloe Vera
If you live in a warm climate (zone 9 to 11), plant some aloe vera. This resilient succulent needs very little care, requires minimal watering, and is tremendously useful for soothing rashes, burns, and insect bites.
Your chickens will enjoy snacking on juicy aloe leaves on hot days for extra hydration. Additionally, aloe vera offers some wonderful benefits for your flock’s health and immunity.
Mature aloe plants won’t mind a bit of pecking: they’re tough and keep growing constantly.
