Best Plants for Chickens to Forage On

[ladyearth]

so like suggested I did the "wheat seeds" in hdwe covered boxes. They like it fine while they were in their runs ... but later ignored it... when getting all the time running into their 1/2 acre fenced area....
Now the "wheat boxes" are overun, like everthing here, with creeping

BERMUDA GRASS..... I detest the invasive stuff. Great for lawns but a Gardeners Bane
thanks yall

 

[Cluckminster Fuller]

Does anyone know a forage that will grow in low light conditions? I have a very large pen for my girls as the dogs and hawks are a problem. Grass grows when there is LOTS of rain, but they finish it off quickly. I throw garden scraps and weeds in the enclosure for them, but would love to find something better for forage.

 

[jheasley]

The average lawn that herbicides "have not" been applied on, usually has a great forage mix already in it

 

[gene22222222]

I Plant oats. Chickens love the greens. They do well in low light

 

[BobinNH]

Thank you so much for the good advice. Will you please recommend something that I can plant now here in Central NC? I have already turned over some of the dirt in the 50 x 50 run. The chickens are in the run helping me get it ready for seed planting. They have been enjoying the worms that I have been uncovering. Of course I will move the run before planting the seed.
Thanks again,

How is it that you are planting inside the run? The chickens don't bother the seeds? Are you fencing of a section till it grows? I have a 14x20 and would like to try and do something like this. Thanks.

 

[gene22222222]

I plant oats in large containers and when they reach about 4 inches I let the chickens eat them, but not to the point that they scratch the seeds out. Then water them and they will grow again. They grow in about 5 days

 

[JayJo]

Is there any harm in offering chickens as much of the chicken forage blend (the groworganic.com one) they can eat, free choice, in addition to as much pellets as they can eat? I ended up planting the chicken forage blend in 2x2 flats, covered with hardware cloth. The chickens love it and will eat it down to about 1/2 inch, but because of the hardware cloth they can't get at the roots. I have four flats growing so I can swap them in and out of the coop. But I don't know if I should always leave it in there, or if I should take it out from time to time to force them to eat more pellets.

 

[bigt447]

Here in North Florida we can grow many greens year round. My chickens like the young tender greens (a spinach - mustard cross) and rape.

(YES that's a variety of greens). Both of these greens are tender, tasty, and full of vitamins & minerals. PS: DEER love them also.

 

[Mossy Dell]

In the East, Midwest, and upper South of the U.S., if you mow your grass at one to two inches, you will encourage other species than tough tall fescue, including bluegrass, plantain, dandelion. Plus clover and other legumes, like lespedeza and little hop clovers. Legumes concentrate protein and minerals.

When I was young, I visited a well known poultry breeder in Rhode Island. His yard was surrounded by woods but an apartment complex had moved in nearby on one side. He probably didn’t want to give hawks a place to watch his chickens, which they did from the tree line. Nowadays, good dogs are known to run under hawks and bark.

Remember, chickens are JUNGLE FOWL and LIKE tree and shrub and weed cover. I favor fruiting trees for them like mulberry, crabapple, persimmon. But even if they don’t make fruit, trees also create a micro climate. They offer shade, wind protection, bugs, and worms. When I visited Paul Webster’s place in Alabama in 1977, he had string walks in his pecan grove. Beautiful, with high canopy shade. And 10 degrees cooler in summer.

For my next chicken yard, I want rows of mulberry and crabapple and apple trees, and every now and then, or a spot one of them dies, I will plant a persimmon and/or a blueberry bush or some such. Autumn Olive is a tough shrub that makes its own nitrogen and a juicy sweet little berry. On the north and maybe west, the outside trees will be hackberry. They grow tall for wind protection. They make a small black berry that birds love, so I figure any that hit the ground the chickens will eat. I’ll space the rows so that a string walk can run between them. Close to the trees and shrubs, grass and weeds can grow up a bit. I want a combo of neat grass and shaggy places.

Growing up, I knew such a paradise -- my friend Joe’s place in West Melbourne, Florida. He was a schoolteacher but had lath houses full of orchids he sold, citrus trees everywhere, and hundreds of chickens, ducks, geese, and guinea fowl. His place had been a homestead in the 1920s, and there were 30-foot crepe myrtles.

There was a weed or scrawny bush against the buildings and trees because Joe noticed it made small yellow berries, about the size of peas. The chickens loved them. We never knew whether it was wild or had been planted by the homesteaders. I’m talking about total ecology! Chickens get only 10 to at most 20 percent of their diet from plants and insects, but it’s a very important percentage.

Overall, watching berries ripen in VA and OH, the mulberry tree seems to give the most bang for the buck. I swear I saw one ripening berries in April in VA, and they have a long season.

Having said this, a guy recommended the American hazelnut/filbert to me. They make real small nuts of about 15% protein that chickens can eat. They sound fast, productive, make good cover.

A diversity of plants makes sense.

Some fruiting plants listed in order of ripening for eastern half of U.S.

Mulberries [large bush to medium tree]
Fruiting Season- Early Summer
Other Uses- Fruit for Jams, Baked Goods, and Wine

Serviceberry [large bush to small tree]
Fruiting Season- Early Summer
Other Uses- Pollinators, Nutritious Fruit, Windbreak

Gooseberry
Fruiting Season- Early Summer
Other Uses- Other Uses- Hedgerow, Nutritious Fruit, Pollinators

Caragana, Siberian Pea Shrub [large bush to small tree]
Fruiting Season-Summer
Other Uses- Nitrogen Fixation, Windbreak, Dye, Pollinators

Currants
Fruiting Season- Summer
Other Uses- Hedgerow, Nutritious Food, Pollinators

Elderberries
Fruiting Season– Mid-summer
Other Uses– Shade, Shelter, Medicinal, Pollinators

Buffaloberry
Fruiting Season– Mid-summer
Other Uses- Nitrogen Fixing, Dye, Nutritious Food, Windbreak, Pollinators

Chokeberry
Fruiting Season- Late Summer
Other Uses- Pollinators, Dye, Fruit for Jams & Wine

Crabapple [small to medium tree]
Fruiting Season- Autumn
Other Uses- Pollinators, Edible Fruit for Jelly, Pickles, High Source of Pectin

Sea Buckthorn
Fruiting Season- Autumn
Other Uses- Nitrogen Fixation, Dye, Medicinal, Nutritious Food, Windbreak

Autumn Olive
Fruiting Season- Autumn
Other Uses- Nitrogen Fixation

Hackberry [tree]
Fruiting Season- Autumn
Other Uses- Dye, Windbreak

A major source for a lot of this list: https://www.reformationacres.com/201...cken-food.html

What do you have growing that your chickens love?

Photo is of my friend Joe with one of his game chickens around '74 or '75.