Guess what! Marigolds and chickens!

[Ladyhawke1]

The other day I added some Marigolds to my vegetable purchases. I thought I would check out their bug repelling properties and dress up the beds. I had a few left over and I decided to experiment a bit. I put them outside the veggie fence to see what the chickens would do.

They all ran over and JUST looked at them and then walked away.

It has been four days now and they have NOT touched the Marigolds. There are no other greens in the yard and I think this might make a good edging for the veggie fence. Has anyone else had any experience with Marigolds?

 

[Hencackle]

They didn't even try digging them up? Mine love to dig up anything freshly planted--whether in the ground or in a pot. That's why I have big, flat rocks around the trees and fist-sized river rocks in the flower pots to discourage their urge to unplant things.

 

[Ladyhawke1]

Yes, I do have small boulders around some things and that seems to work. Although now I think, I should have invested in Siberian Huskies instead of chickens. They dig holes just as deep however, huskies can pull large loads.and I could have rented them out. Just kidding! I love my baaaabies!

 

[vfem]

See that's just weird... but at the same time, why type of marigold are they? There are several types... and not all are good for chickens to eat, but people have been known to feed certain marigold petals to chickens to get their egg yolks to become more orange.

I use the french marigold's in my garden, and not the mexican, for pest control.

And my chickens eventually dig everything in the garden up... posionous or not... they just want the bugs under them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Interesting. I grew a lot of marigolds scattered throughout the garden last year, not sure if they were French or Mexican. When I was cleaning out the garden, I pulled up the marigold plants and threw them in the run. They had mostly dried up but had some green leaves and a few flowers still blooming. Lots of dried flowers. The chickens stripped the leaves and flowers off for me before I threw the remaining stalks in the compost pile.

Maybe Vfem is onto something with the French versus Mexican. I would have expected them to attack them since they were the only green around, especially after the way they stripped mine.

 

[digitS']

The other day I added some Marigolds to my vegetable purchases. I thought I would check out their bug repelling properties . . .

They didn't dig the marigolds up checking out their nematode repelling properties??



Laying hens are fed astaxanthin in their rations for orange yolks. A important source of astaxanthin for the feed are the petals of marigolds (Tagetes). You will sometimes see Tagetes extract or marigolds listed on your feed labels.

I understand that there are fields of marigolds for this purpose in central California.

We sometimes mix up the Calendula "pot" marigold with the Tagetes marigold. After all, it is the Calendula that is considered edible . . .

I think GardeNerd's BYC page on "Chicken Resistant Plants" is really worth looking at. I can't vouch for every one but she has done a good job of looking for damage and identifying the ones that are fairly well left alone .

Steve

 

[Ladyhawke1]

Well not knowing my botanicals that well I made sure what I bought...they are of the French Marigold persuasion. There are many kinds but the leaves are the clue. The ones with the multiple leaves on one stem are the Frenchies the family is Tagetes. :/

 

[vfem]

The other day I added some Marigolds to my vegetable purchases. I thought I would check out their bug repelling properties . . .

They didn't dig the marigolds up checking out their nematode repelling properties??



Laying hens are fed astaxanthin in their rations for orange yolks. A important source of astaxanthin for the feed are the petals of marigolds (Tagetes). You will sometimes see Tagetes extract or marigolds listed on your feed labels.

I understand that there are fields of marigolds for this purpose in central California.

We sometimes mix up the Calendula "pot" marigold with the Tagetes marigold. After all, it is the Calendula that is considered edible . . .

I think GardeNerd's BYC page on "Chicken Resistant Plants" is really worth looking at. I can't vouch for every one but she has done a good job of looking for damage and identifying the ones that are fairly well left alone .

Steve

Thank you Steve!!!

 

[lesa]

Strangely enough, I had volunteer Calendula come up in the chicken yard- and they never touched it. Looked funny sitting in the middle of the moonscape, in full bloom!

 

[simple life]

I checked out her list, some of the things she says her chickens leave alone mine destroyed.
The lavendar, iris, lambs ear, yarrow and salvia were torn up bad and she said hers didn't bother them so you never know.
There are many other things my chickens could forage on, they have an unlimited supply of food in their bins so its not that they are starving, they are just hooligans.