planting chicken forage

[piccololily]

I am putting in a new chicken yard in an area recently vacated by my goats. The soil is sandy, but enriched by plenty of manure, and I was wondering what grasses/legumes would make good forage for layers. Thanks for your help!

[Bearfootfarm]

I plant cheap birdseed and sunflowers

[FarmboyBill]

Seed catalogs usta offer a chicken lettuce. Never saw or heard of any planted

[airotciv]

My chickens will eat most anything. I'm not sure what part of the country you live in, so it is hard for me to tell you what to plant. I would call your State Ag agent. But in my erea, I don't have to plant Clovers, Hairy Vetch, Lambs ear, just weeds here. But in others areas thay do plant these plants for the chickens. Chicken also love fruit, blackberries, raspberries if you have room for them. We also grow a large garden, they love all veggies.

[piccololily]

My chickens are all free-ranging right now, and we have large gardens, but they need to be yarded very soon, as they do tremendous damage in my gardens and around anything mulched. I have three large yards to rotate them in, so as not to do too much damage to the plants growing there. So that is why I was wondering what grows best for that situation, is nourishing to chickens, and can handle their vigorous activity. I'm zone 4 WI, and I've had chickens for years and know that they love to eat lots of things, and will eat grass to some degree if they *have* to, (I've tractored them in the past) but wanted something in addition to just plain grass, that will densely cover the ground. I don't have a farming background, so I'm not terribly familiar with with all the various forages. I think I want something perennial.

I don't know why I didn't think to call the state extension. Duh. Interesting thought to grow berries. I always have way too many runners that I just end up tilling in, but maybe I should put them to good use in the chicken yard?? I would have to protect them for a while till they got big, however.

Bearfoot, do you just plant some rows of the birdseed, or do you thickly broadcast it in their yard? How quickly do they decimate them? When do you let them have access?

[SquashNut]

thickly broadcast the seed, Some of it may reseed it self, the chickens are going to damage any thing they can get to.
I had to put a floor in my rabbit tractor because of the damage the rabbits wre doing to my lawn. The floor is wire but sets the rabbits up off the ground by just and inch. That's enough to stop the digging.

[Bearfootfarm]

Bearfoot, do you just plant some rows of the birdseed, or do you thickly broadcast it in their yard? How quickly do they decimate them? When do you let them have access?

I just broadcast, but not in the run.

I do it along field edges where they can access it during the day.
If it seeds out, they will eat the seed, and some of it may come back the next year.

The problem with having things growing IN the run is not only the destruction by the birds, but also the excess Nitrogen from the droppings

[arcticow]

Old- time commercial egg folks around here used to plant a mix of wheat, oats and rye in a run, but they had several connected to each house. Really one big one sub-divided. For summer, it was millet. Rotated runs, sorta like intensive pasture. Main reason they did was worm control, not hen pasture. Did not want ground to get "worm-sick".

[Rusty'sDog]

Lamb's Quarter Chenopodium album, also known as "Fat Hen" makes a good hen feed. The leaves taste a lot like spinach (but they don't bolt in hot weather). It is an annual, but if you don't leave the ladies in there too long, it readily reseeds.