10 Best Fresh Herbs to Grow for Your Chickens

Easy backyard herbs for happy, healthy hens

If you've got chickens scratching around the backyard, growing a few herbs for them is one of the simplest ways to add a little extra goodness to their diet, and honestly, once you start, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

Herbs have been used alongside animals for generations, long before bags of supplements lined feed-store shelves. Many contain naturally occurring plant compounds, antioxidants, aromatic oils, vitamins and minerals, and they're ridiculously easy to grow.

You don't need an elaborate medicinal herb garden, either. A sunny patch, a few pots near the coop or even some herbs tucked into existing garden beds will do the trick.

The hens will happily take care of the harvesting.

Here are ten of my favourites to grow for the flock.

1. Oregano

If I could only grow one herb for my chickens, oregano would be right near the top of the list.

Oregano contains naturally occurring compounds including carvacrol and thymol, which are responsible for much of its distinctive smell and have been widely studied for their antimicrobial and antioxidant properties.

It's also hardy, loves Australian conditions once established and generally survives my gardening philosophy of plant it and hope for the best.

How I use it: Offer fresh leaves for the hens to peck at, chop a little through food, or hang bunches around the run.

2. Rosemary

Rosemary is another brilliant chicken-garden staple.

Those wonderfully fragrant leaves contain aromatic plant compounds and antioxidants, and rosemary has traditionally been valued for far more than making roast potatoes taste amazing.

It's also tough as old boots.

Once established, rosemary handles heat and relatively dry conditions beautifully, which makes it particularly useful for Australian chicken keepers.

How I use it: Toss fresh sprigs into nesting boxes, hang bunches around the coop or finely chop the leaves and add them to fresh food.

And the coop smells pretty darn good afterwards too.

3. Thyme

Tiny leaves, big reputation.

Thyme contains thymol, the same naturally occurring compound responsible for much of thyme's characteristic aroma.

It's one of those herbs worth having permanently growing somewhere around the chicken area because it doesn't take up much space and can be picked as needed.

How I use it: Fresh sprigs can be offered whole, chopped into food or bundled with other herbs and hung inside the run.

4. Mint

Mint is almost impossible to kill, which, in my garden, automatically earns it bonus points.

It grows rapidly, smells beautiful and is particularly lovely scattered through nesting boxes or around the coop.

But here's your warning:

Plant mint in a pot.

Unless you'd like your entire property to eventually become a mint plantation.

Chickens can peck at the fresh leaves, and you can also crush or cut handfuls to scatter around their housing.

5. Lemon Balm

Lemon balm is part of the mint family and has a gorgeous fresh lemony scent.

Traditionally, lemon balm has been valued as a calming herb, and it's a lovely addition to areas where hens rest and lay.

It's another enthusiastic grower, so a pot or contained garden bed isn't a bad idea.

How I use it: Fresh leaves in nesting boxes, scattered through the run or offered directly to the flock.

6. Sage

Sage isn't just for stuffing.

Its leaves contain naturally occurring aromatic compounds and antioxidants, and it has a very long history of traditional use.

It's also a hardy perennial, so unlike delicate annual herbs that require constant attention, one healthy sage plant can keep producing for ages.

Offer small amounts of fresh sage leaves for chickens to peck at or finely chop them into other fresh foods.

7. Parsley

The humble parsley plant deserves more credit.

Fresh parsley provides nutrients including vitamin K, vitamin C and carotenoids, making it an easy green addition to a varied chicken diet.

It's particularly handy because you can grow it in garden beds, pots or containers close to the kitchen and simply grab a handful whenever you need it.

Just don't expect a beautiful parsley plant to remain beautiful if your chickens discover it.

They are not respectful gardeners.

8. Basil

Basil is another easy herb to share with your flock during the warmer months.

It's aromatic, packed with naturally occurring plant compounds and grows beautifully through spring and summer.

And if your basil starts bolting faster than you can turn it into pesto, congratulations, you've got chicken snacks.

Offer the leaves fresh or roughly chop them through other greens and vegetables.

9. Lavender

Lavender earns its place on this list slightly differently.

While chickens may nibble at it, I particularly love lavender around the nesting and housing areas.

The scent is beautiful, the plant is hardy and its traditional association with calm and relaxation makes dried or fresh lavender a lovely nesting-box herb.

Mix a small handful with rosemary, mint and lemon balm for a beautifully fragrant nesting-box blend.

Your hens probably won't appreciate your interior decorating efforts.

Do it anyway.

10. Coriander

People seem to fall into two camps with coriander: this is delicious or why does my dinner taste like soap?

Fortunately, chickens aren't writing restaurant reviews.

Fresh coriander provides antioxidants and micronutrients and is another easy leafy herb to add to a varied diet.

The leaves, stems and seeds all have uses, so don't panic when the plant bolts and goes to seed.

Let nature do its thing.

How to Make a Chicken Herb Garden

You absolutely do not need to turn this into another complicated chicken project.

Start with three or four hardy herbs.

For Australian conditions, I'd begin with:

• Rosemary

• Oregano

• Thyme

• Mint in a pot

• Lemon balm in a pot

Plant them close enough to the coop that you'll actually use them, but don't necessarily give your chickens unrestricted access to the plants.

Because there's gently nibbling fresh herbs...

…and then there's six hens completely excavating a $14 rosemary plant in approximately two minutes.

Ask me how I know.

A simple option is planting herbs around the outside perimeter of the run where chickens can reach through and pick at the foliage without digging up the entire root system.

You can also grow them in pots and rotate them through the chicken area.

Fresh or Dried Herbs?

Both.

During spring and summer, fresh herbs are abundant and easy to offer straight from the garden.

When plants need pruning, tie the cuttings into bunches and hang them upside down somewhere dry and well ventilated. Once completely dry, store the leaves for later use.

Then during winter you've got your own home-grown dried herb supply ready to sprinkle through feed, nesting material or fresh-food mixes.

Nothing wasted.

My Favourite Everyday Chicken Herb Mix

If I've got them growing, I'll grab a little:

oregano + rosemary + thyme + parsley

Roughly chop it and scatter it through whatever fresh food the girls are getting.

No complicated measurements.

No twenty-seven ingredient supplement routine.

Just real plants, grown in the backyard, offered as part of a varied diet.

That's the kind of chicken keeping I love.

Grow What Your Chickens Will Actually Use

You don't need every herb on this list.

Start with what grows well where you live.

If rosemary thrives beside your coop, grow rosemary. If oregano takes over a garden bed, fantastic. If your hens go absolutely feral for parsley, plant more parsley.

A chicken garden doesn't need to be perfect.

It needs to be useful.

And there's something wonderfully simple about walking outside, snipping a handful of herbs you've grown yourself and throwing them to a flock of very enthusiastic hens.

Natural. Inexpensive. Easy.

Just the way backyard chicken keeping should be.

Mother Clucker Tip: Plant twice as much as you think you'll need.

Because apparently chickens have never heard the phrase everything in moderation.