Herbs have long been valued for their medicinal and culinary uses for people, but did you know that they are great for your chickens too? I love growing herbs for my chickens, and despite my green thumb not being the best, I still manage to maintain a little herb garden for myself and my flock. Using herbs with your homestead flock is a great way to keep them healthy naturally and sustainably. These eight beneficial herbs to grow for chickens are ones that I grow and use every year. They provide great benefits for my homestead flock!
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There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the use of herbs for chickens. In my post, How to Use Herbs for Backyard Chickens, I cover why this controversy is present and how we can handle the controversy on the homestead. I really encourage you to read that post before you continue reading this post. Let me just define a few terms that I use in this post that you may not be familiar with:
I grow parsley, lavender, oregano, thyme, rosemary, garlic, and spearmint in my herb garden. One herb that I don’t grow in my herb garden, but still give it to my chickens, is dandelion. These herbs have amazing nutritional benefits for your flock if you know how to use them properly!
These are two extremely helpful resources if you want to start using herbs for your flock. I use these books as a reference very frequently!
Planting: Parsley is a biennial herb, which means it only produces for two years. It can re-seed itself however, so it could become a perennial. I have had the best success with growing parsley when I planted it as a started plant. Both parsley seeds and started plants like to be planted in full sun to partial shade. Parsley likes well-drained soil and is a nice, cold hardy herb to grow for chickens.
Harvesting: I harvest my parsley throughout its growing season, trimming off leaves whenever I need them. As with any herb, do not harvest more than one-third of the plant at a time. Sometime in the fall, you can either pot the parsley plant and bring it inside, or you can harvest the leaves and dry them for later. To learn more about drying herbs, read my post on Harvesting, Drying, and Storing Herbs.
Uses: Parsley is a fantastic herb to grow for chickens! Because it is not an extremely strong herb, it can be given to chickens in more generous amounts. I love offering parsley as a free-choice supplement or mixing some of it into my flock’s feed. In the winter I often add crushed, dried parsley to fermented feed or special treats like overnight oats or quinoa.
Herb Tip- If you give your chickens handfuls of weeds from the garden or lots of leafy green table scraps, throw in a handful of parsley leaves for them to eat too!
Planting: Lavender is another perennial herb that grows best in well-drained soil. I planted my lavender as a seedling but it also grows well from seed too. Lavender can also be grown in pots as long as you keep the soil well-drained.
Harvesting: Just like sage, I harvest my lavender throughout the growing season. I cut off some of the larger stalks and strip them of their leaves to dry in the oven. You can also tie bunches of lavender stalks together and let them air dry by hanging them in a cool, dry place.
Uses: Lavender is best known for its calming effect and is a great stress reliever. I put bunches of lavender in and around my flock’s nesting boxes to help the hens feel like it is a safe place to lay their eggs. Hanging lavender in and around the coop can make it smell good too.
Planting: I have found that oregano is one of the easiest herbs to grow. It is another perennial herb that grows in well-drained soil and prefers full sun. I started my oregano from seed but it can also be planted as a seedling. It does not require a whole lot of water and grows very well without much maintenance.
Harvesting: Oregano is a ground covering herb that can be harvested throughout its growing season. I like to dry the leaves and save them to feed to my chickens during the winter months. I also cut fresh bunches to place in my coop and brooder. Oregano is one herb that I don’t want to be without!
Uses: Oregano has a very strong taste and is a very powerful herb, thus you should use it with caution when giving it to your chickens. It is a very beneficial herb and fights many poultry diseases including coccidia, infectious bronchitis, avian flu, and E. coli! Because of its strong properties, I advise you give oregano to your chickens only as a free-choice supplement. Also, I don’t recommend you give oregano to your chickens on a daily basis.
Herb Tip– Very strong herbs like oregano and cayenne pepper should be fed to your chickens with caution. Too much of a powerful herb can throw a chicken’s gut out of whack and cause unwanted effects.
Planting: Thyme is another ground covering herb that spreads well. I transplanted mine as a small plant into well-drained soil. It grows best in full sun. Thyme is also another perennial herb that is very hardy.
Harvesting: Like all the other herbs, I harvest thyme throughout its growing season. I like to cut stalks of thyme and strip off the leaves to dry. Thyme can also be dried similar to lavender, by hanging groups of the stalks in a cool, dry place.
Uses: Thyme is a great herb to promote respiratory health! I like to provide it as a free-choice supplement for my chickens and place bunches of it around my coop. Thyme would also be a good herb to make some tea with and offer it cooled to your chickens!
Planting: Rosemary is a perennial herb that likes full sun and well-drained, sandy soil. Be sure not to over water your rosemary. I planted mine as a seedling as I have heard that it does not grow as well when planted from seed. Rosemary is a frost sensitive herb so it is best brought indoors when the weather turns cold.
Harvesting: You can harvest your rosemary very similar to thyme. Trimming stalks when needed or stripping leaves off the stalks to dry. I like to hang bunches of rosemary around my coop.
Uses: Rosemary is a great herb to grow for chickens. Hanging bunches in the coop can help repel flies. Steeping rosemary in some warm water and cooling it makes a great herbal tea for the flock too! Making it into a salve would be great for treating wounds. And, of course, providing it as a free-choice supplement is great as well!
Herb Tip- Herbs work the most effectively when they are not fed to chickens on a regular basis. Rather, use them periodically for health maintenance or use them to help improve a health issue or disease.
Planting: To plant garlic, first find some large garlic bulbs. Separate the individual cloves from the bulb, leaving the papery coating on the cloves. Plant garlic in the fall, usually around Labor Day. Garlic grows well in full sun to partial shade areas with well drained soil. Place each clove in a 2″ deep hole and 6″ away from each other. Cover the garlic bed with 4″ straw, hay, or leaves to protect the cloves from the cold and to promote growth. Remove the straw, hay, or leaves in the spring when you see the garlic shoots poking through.
Harvesting: Your garlic is ready to harvest when the leaves turn yellow and start to fall over, which is usually sometime in July. If you see any scapes (curly bulbs that grow with the leaves) during the growing process you can snip them off. The scapes drain energy that should be used for growing the bulb. To harvest, gently pull up each plant by the base. Use a trowel to uproot any stubborn plants. Shake off any dirt and allow the whole garlic plant to dry in a shaded spot for 2 weeks. Then you can snip off the leaves and roots and store them in a cool, dark place. You can save your largest bulbs to plant in the fall.
Uses: I crush four medium cloves of garlic into my flock’s water once a week. Allow the garlic to remain in the water for at least 24 hours for your flock to receive maximum benefits! You can also offer crushed garlic as a free-choice supplement, although the longer it sits the less benefits it will contain. Your chickens may need to adjust slowly to eating or drinking garlic because of its strong flavor. Begin by offering it in small amounts or crushing only small cloves in their water. Increase the amount as they get used to the flavor.
To learn more about the amazing benefits garlic provides for the homestead flock, make sure you check out Garlic 101: Garlic for Homestead Chickens.
You may hear of some people saying that garlic should not be fed to chickens because it contains thiosulfate, which destroys red blood cells, causing anemia. Garlic contains only a fractional amount of thiosulfate and the benefits that it provides far outweigh the minuscule risk it poses. That being said, I don’t recommend you give garlic to your flock every day. Once a week should be fine and use an appropriate amount for the number of birds you have. I use four cloves of garlic per gallon of water as a weekly health maintenance supplement.
Planting: Spearmint is probably one of the easiest herbs to grow! It is a prolific perennial that spreads quickly. It can easily be planted from cuttings or by transplanting some of the ‘runners’ the plant sends out. Spearmint grows in pretty much any type of soil and can even be grown in a cup of water! My spearmint plant is a transplant and is thriving!
Harvesting: If you don’t want your spearmint to over grow the area in which you planted it in, then you will have to be persistent with pulling up the runners and trimming it back. I love trimming big bunches of it and placing it my coop and brooder! I also like to dry my mint to have it over the winter.
Uses: Spearmint is a great herb to put around and in the coop to help it smell fresh and clean! I also like putting pieces of it in the chick brooder to keep it smelling good too! You can also add a few leaves to your hen’s fresh drinking water or toss some in the nesting boxes!
Planting: Many of us may not have to plant dandelion if it is growing in the wild around us. I use the wild dandelion plants that grow in my yard and woods. If you do want to plant dandelion, it will grow just about anywhere! It does seem to prefer full sun and well drained soil though. As you may have guessed, dandelions are a perennial.
Harvesting: Dandelions can be harvested throughout their growing season and all parts of the plant can be used. Flowers, leaves, and roots can all be used. Chickens generally prefer to eat dandelion leaves. You can dry dandelion for later use too!
Uses: One key thing to keep in mind when using dandelion is to make sure you are harvesting dandelions that have not been treated with chemicals. Yard chemicals can be very dangerous for chickens. Dandelion leaves can be fed to chickens in generous amounts as a free-choice supplement or mixed into their feed. The leaves and roots can also be boiled in water to make a nutritious tea that can be offered to full grown chickens or chicks!
With all those fantastic benefits how can you not want to plant at least a few herbs for your hens and yourself?! Most of the herbs mentioned above are fairly easy to grow and will even come back up year after year! I love using my herbs for both myself and for my flock. Every week I make it a point to incorporate herbs into my flock’s diet as well as place herbs in various places around the coop. Herbs can be a great asset in raising homestead chickens naturally, if you know how to use them properly.
Need more tips for raising a homestead flock naturally? Then make sure you become a part of our weekly modern pioneer newsletter community or check out the resources in the Trading Post! We love helping other modern pioneer raise their flocks naturally, so feel free to contact us with any questions!
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Question: Could you use other types of mint too? I don't grow spearmint, but I grow a different type of mint.
Yes, you can! If it is in the mint family it will have similar benefits. Two common mints are spearmint and peppermint.
I grow all of these already so I will treat my hens to an herb buffet this year.
That's great! I encourage you to check out my post on how to use herbs for backyard chickens so you know how to properly give your chickens herbs! Allowing them free-choice to a herb buffet is a good start!