Easy to grow crops for supplementing feed

[Ebony Rose]

https://morningchores.com/zone-six-gardening/

Avoid Nightshade family unless certain you can keep your flock out of it, the leaves and stems are poisonous to humans and birds.

Protect your garden. Is a greenhouse possible? You can construct one relatively inexpensively with clear gardening plastic to let the sun in. This would enable you to harvest what you want before turning the place over to your flock.

 

[Alagirl]

https://morningchores.com/zone-six-gardening/

Avoid Nightshade family unless certain you can keep your flock out of it, the leaves and stems are poisonous to humans and birds.

Protect your garden. Is a greenhouse possible? You can construct one relatively inexpensively with clear gardening plastic to let the sun in. This would enable you to harvest what you want before turning the place over to your flock.

Hoop Coops with plastic instead of birds.

 

[My Bagurks]

I don’t know if I would do a whole acre. But I’d start off with what you think you can handle. If it proves to be too much, forget it, if you find yourself wanting more then you know how to plan better for next year.

But I would suggest getting the cheapest deer fencing and protect young plants regardless. Section it off so your plants can establish themselves, then plant squash, tomatoes, plant some of everything. It will need to be watered maybe a bag of water solvable fertilizer but it’s not a big investment. Once the plants are grown enough, you can remove the fencing and let your chickens at it. And when they all start to bear fruit, just pick off and throw it on the ground and keep the prettiest for yourself. The chickens will peck, scratch and fertilize and they may even leave enough seeds that stuff comes back the next year.

 

[Alagirl]

an acre is a lot to jump into all at once.
the land wants to be tended to.

 

[Sally PB]

Another idea, but it will also take a few months. Put your chicken coop on that acre, enclose as much as you can, and let the chickens strip it bare (they will) and fertilize it. Or do rotating pens and move them along to another patch when they denude one area. Then plant whatever you have time left in your season to grow.

 

[Cattle dog Mom]

If you have high deer pressure, don't even bother with sunflowers. They will decimate them. They are a deer favorite. They decimated a whole 11 acre field of black oil sunflowers here 2 years ago. The only way to have enough left to harvest is to have a few HUNDERD acres worth.

 

[NatJ]

Any other crops worth looking into?
Level of effort is hopefully just till the soil, drop in a seed, come back 3-4 months later, and lop off the part that I want to harvest.
Not really going to be offering any grazer protection - if I lose some of the crop to wild deer, that's fine.
Hardiness zone is 6.

Maybe fruit trees?

I'm especially thinking of apple trees (apples can be stored) and mulberry trees (that drop nice chicken-bite-sized fruit at a different time of year than the apples are ripe.)

You might need to protect the trees from deer at first, but after that they should continue to live and produce without care. You might get a better crop if you do provide some care, but you should get something anyway.

Once the trees have grown, if you let the chickens forage underneath, they will enjoy the shade in summer, will find various bugs and worms and dropped fruit, and will fertilize the trees as well.

I would not plant the entire acre in fruit trees, but 2-3 each of several kinds might be good. The fruit will provide some food value, although it's not a complete diet for chickens or people, and any bugs & worms will provide more food value for the chickens. Plus they provide shade and some protection from the wind.

Asparagus is another perennial that can be easy-care after you get it established. It's one of the first things ready to pick in the spring, so a dozen plants or so might be worth having. I would consider this mostly "people food" rather than chicken food, but the chickens could scratch around the patch as it dies down in the fall, to eat some bugs and kill some weeds and deposit some fertilizer.

Personally, I also like potatoes. But you do have to dig them up to harvest them, so they may not fit your idea of "easy." Potatoes should also be cooked before feeding to people or chickens. Chickens don't care if the potatoes are small, oddly shaped, or even a bit dirty, so you could keep the nice potatoes for yourself, and cook the less-desireable ones for the chickens.

Another idea, but it will also take a few months. Put your chicken coop on that acre, enclose as much as you can, and let the chickens strip it bare (they will) and fertilize it. Or do rotating pens and move them along to another patch when they denude one area. Then plant whatever you have time left in your season to grow.

I like that idea too. The chickens get some forage, and the land gets prepared for crops with less human labor.

Avoid Nightshade family unless certain you can keep your flock out of it, the leaves and stems are poisonous to humans and birds.

Chickens will usually not eat enough of those to hurt themselves, if they have plenty of other choices. Just a bite or two isn't a big deal, and apparenty the leaves of potatoes and tomatoes don't taste good enough for chickens to want more than a few bites.

So don't throw the plants into the chicken pen (bored chickens will eat anything), but simply having the plants in the field should not be a big deal.

Protect your garden. Is a greenhouse possible? You can construct one relatively inexpensively with clear gardening plastic to let the sun in. This would enable you to harvest what you want before turning the place over to your flock.

A greenhouse can get too hot during the summer, although the extra heat can be nice in the winter.

A fence, or a dog kennel, or a few cattle panels, or something of the sort might be a better choice for protecting the plants in summer.

Some plants need more protection than others, and it can vary from one place to another (different wildlife, and plants growing faster or slower in different weather). Trying small amounts of many things can help figure this out.

 

[high5]

Another idea, but it will also take a few months. Put your chicken coop on that acre, enclose as much as you can, and let the chickens strip it bare (they will) and fertilize it. Or do rotating pens and move them along to another patch when they denude one area. Then plant whatever you have time left in your season to grow.

Pigs will help speed up the process too!

 

[Penpal]

Grow BOSS for the winter months, but a different sunflower, such as Mammoth for the rest of the year BOSS is too high in fat for summer. Grow the most nutritious corn that you can, probably Blue Hopi. Grow the oldest wheat variety that you can, higher nutrition than modern varieties.

Amaranth (pigweed) is good as is quinoa.

 

[high5]

Grow BOSS for the winter months, but a different sunflower, such as Mammoth for the rest of the year BOSS is too high in fat for summer. Grow the most nutritious corn that you can, probably Blue Hopi. Grow the oldest wheat variety that you can, higher nutrition than modern varieties.

Amaranth (pigweed) is good as is quinoa.

Some good tips, Thanks!