What to plant for free range chickens

I have an idea and do this for my girls. I take little flats, partially fill them with soil and plant rye seed. I plant several a week at different days to keep them growing. When one tray is nice and grown, I place it in the pen with my girls. They go nuts! They will clean up every blade! When they are done, I remove the tray and replant  more seed. Rye grows very fast.

Hope this helps you.

Is that rye ( as in the grain), or rye grass? Where do you get the seeds?

You might try contacting your local extension office to find out what high-traffic pasture grasses grow best in your area, but depending on the size of the yard and the number of chickens you're keeping on it you will likely still need to implement a good ground management plan to keep this from happening again. Remember, taking them off it for a few days when it's low but not completely gone is much easier than letting them kill the whole lot and having to start over from scratch. Designate one area of the yard a run and commit to it as your sacrifice area and practice good management on the rest of the land in order to get the most out of it.

Forgot to add, if you want flowers and landscaping ours love things that grow about as tall as they are that they can go in amongst and scratch about. Especially things that grow in thick clumps so that they can walk between and scratch in the soil and mulch. Hardy varieties hold up nicely even with the chicken traffic (provided no overcrowding). Look in people's yards where you are and ask around, again the local extension is a good place to start, and see what grows well where you are. Things like hardy day lillies and irises ...

Are they eating free choice layer feed??  I wouldn't think their egg yolks would turn lighter if they were, with or without eating grass.  I've planted raspberries and blue berries for my chickens, but they are slow growing and are more for treats than "grazing."  I know you don't want to, but you might consider penning them in an area that's pretty much dead for a month or so.  Some folks build something that resembles raised garden beds (but smaller) covered in hardware cloth to grow greens for their chickens.  As the grass grows, the chickens can only eat it down to the wire, but no further.  They keep eating it as it grows through the wire.  So you could try the rye in something like that until your yard grows back...???