is there any hope of growing in the chicken pen?

[pregnantpause]

Hello,

I have chickens. Have had for years now, so I know grass is not an option. But what about anything else? Just something to make the pen nicer, are there any plants- barring nettles, that I can grow around them?
I have considered trying to plant a few crab apple trees in with them, but will the chooks kill any sapling they see?

Has anyone grown anything in with their feathery friends that wasn't eaten, scratched up or pooped on to death?

Thanks

short answer - no its plants or chickens not both. really big mature shrubs they leave alone but not new things that we plant. mine destroy crocus's and are free ranging. they also love some of the summer bedding. I just have a list of what they don't like and plant that.

I'll give a shot with some shrubs, or hedging then, I think. they are free ranging in a 13m squared area, and we have a garden beyond them, but (particularly when they're all moulting and don't look nice in themselves) the muddy barren wasteland depresses me. I would just like a border or a few trees to make it more pleasing to the eye.

I should use decent sized shrubs then. When my girls escaped from their run the first thing they did was uproot my new hebe which was about a foot high.

could you wrap it with staked down chicken wire?

mine leave the bamboo plants alone and that makes quite a nice hedge in our wasteland bit