Chicken Fodder & Forage Seeds

[CubbieFan88]

Hello! Thank you for reading my thread. I am wanting to start compiling a seed mix that will be spread out to grow as fodder & forage for our hens. I was wondering what things you would suggest putting in the mix? What seeds should I start buying to add to the mix? I know I could probably Google this but I appreciate (& trust) the knowledge, input, experience, & opinions I get on here more. Thank you for your time!

 

[The-White-Elephant]

@Wyorp Rock

 

[U_Stormcrow]

You want a mix of herbs, forbs, grains, and grasses that compliment one another and do well in your climate, optimally coming into sason at different times of the year, and hopefully self propogating. Here's a thread I started, but haven't recently updated, on my efforts to do exactly that)

Where are you in TX??? and your soil - is it the hard clays east of Austin, the rocky hill country, the dead sand prarie of western Texas? and what's your USDA growing zone???

I'm 8a (N FL Panhandle region, with lots of clays) - good results from a mix of clovers (red/crimson, yellow, white), flax, vetch. Buckwheat, sorghum, bluestem, sorrel, even sunflower or corn (for some vertical height), perrenial or cereal rye, panicum (that should do well in most of TX), orchard grass (sem-shady areas, but NOT particularly heat or drought tolerant, N TX only). Seasonally, you may do well with melons, cucumber, squash. Radishes and carrots can be used to help break up the soil some. Lavender, oregano, thyme, mint, rosemary (unkillable once established).

You can use annuals like marigolds, if you can keep the chickens from eating the seeds before they sprout, or buy at the big box, but that gets expensive fast.

 

[CubbieFan88]

You want a mix of herbs, forbs, grains, and grasses that compliment one another and do well in your climate, optimally coming into sason at different times of the year, and hopefully self propogating. Here's a thread I started, but haven't recently updated, on my efforts to do exactly that)

Where are you in TX??? and your soil - is it the hard clays east of Austin, the rocky hill country, the dead sand prarie of western Texas? and what's your USDA growing zone???

I'm 8a (N FL Panhandle region, with lots of clays) - good results from a mix of clovers (red/crimson, yellow, white), flax, vetch. Buckwheat, sorghum, bluestem, sorrel, even sunflower or corn (for some vertical height), perrenial or cereal rye, panicum (that should do well in most of TX), orchard grass (sem-shady areas, but NOT particularly heat or drought tolerant, N TX only). Seasonally, you may do well with melons, cucumber, squash. Radishes and carrots can be used to help break up the soil some. Lavender, oregano, thyme, mint, rosemary (unkillable once established).

You can use annuals like marigolds, if you can keep the chickens from eating the seeds before they sprout, or buy at the big box, but that gets expensive fast.

We're in Houston area, so zone 9 I believe is our area. I so the big box pre-made mixes of seeds, but it seemed to me it would be more cost efficient to make our own. Plus that way we know too what is going in it & we can control proportions & ratios of what is in it. I love the sounds of those you suggested. My hubs is the gardener of us, so he'll have a better idea. I was trying to gather a nice list for him of was suggested on here then he could tell me season information & what will work here in our humid setting of Houston lol.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

We're in Houston area, so zone 9 I believe is our area. I so the big box pre-made mixes of seeds, but it seemed to me it would be more cost efficient to make our own. Plus that way we know too what is going in it & we can control proportions & ratios of what is in it. I love the sounds of those you suggested. My hubs is the gardener of us, so he'll have a better idea. I was trying to gather a nice list for him of was suggested on here then he could tell me season information & what will work here in our humid setting of Houston lol.

I started with a couple 50# bags of seeds, and lightly coated about two acres, then let things go from there to see what would do best.


That was two years back - first year was rather sparse,its much better this year, and should be mostly complete in a couple more years. That in spite of roughly 70 birds and (now) 5 goats nibbling what they want.

I put down a big bag of no till overwintering premix with vetch (did ok), flax (did well), daikon, clovers (did reasonably well), fenugreek (have since planted more - it should do good for you as well), millet. I also threw down a 50# bag of bird seed (sunflower, millets, milo, safflower), a 50# bag of pasture grass mix, plus small bags of red clover, yellow clover, and some individual plantings of panicum and bluestem. After that, its what the passing birds bring by.

If I can find cheap seeds, I'll be adding buckwheat and cowpeas this spring.