Buckwheat/Cover Crop and Chickens?

[wildflowerrun]

I'm not sure if this is the place for this so if it's the wrong place--I'm sorry!!

Well, our chicks are still young (5 weeks? I can't even remember anymore!) and will hopefully be going outside at the end of next week, and BOY am I ready to put them out.

We're building the run to allow them to run around in while we're out at work, and although I build it to allow for 15-25 square feet per bird when they're grown (the dimensions are a bit wonky and I don't remember them off the top of my head), I know that will probably be destroyed in no time. So I've thought about planting a cover crop in at least part of the area and heard the buckwheat is great for the summer. Is it even worth putting down at this point? Will it still grow as they're pecking it?

Anyone who's tried to put a cover crop in the same place where your chickens are staying full-time?

Thanks!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I plant it for chickens and bees. The best thing I've found if you have time to get it going which it sounds like you do is alfalfa and dandelions.
They put down deep roots and although alfalfa is difficult to get established, once it is, it is hard to kill. If you've pulled dandelions only to have them come back from the tap root you understand.
Radishes, turnips and beets are good too but don't come back after a season like the other two.
Also, making a ladder like structure laid flat on the ground covered by welded wire in a 1X2 inch mesh will allow you to plant in it and when the greens come up they can nibble without destroying them.

 

[wildflowerrun]

I plant it for chickens and bees. The best thing I've found if you have time to get it going which it sounds like you do is alfalfa and dandelions.
They put down deep roots and although alfalfa is difficult to get established, once it is, it is hard to kill. If you've pulled dandelions only to have them come back from the tap root you understand.
Radishes, turnips and beets are good too but don't come back after a season like the other two.
Also, making a ladder like structure laid flat on the ground covered by welded wire in a 1X2 inch mesh will allow you to plant in it and when the greens come up they can nibble without destroying them.

I like your screen idea They should be small enough for me to get away with that for a while, too.

We are actually also getting honeybees this year (next week! ah!), so that's why I was thinking buckwheat. Serve two purposes We're actually planting clover over a lot of our grass for the same reason.

Do your bees touch the alfalfa at all?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The bees will go for the alfalfa in bloom if there is enough of it. They did frequent the buckwheat when it was in full bloom but not to the extent I thought they would.
Honeybees always look for large sources of nectar so they ignore single or small groups of flowers.
The biggest concentration of buckwheat I had was a raised 4' by 40' bed only 20 feet from the hives so I thought they'd be all over it but maybe they just flew over for whiter pastures.

The nice thing about buckwheat is that it matures so fast. But it hates the cold and can't handle a frost.

Dutch white clover and ladino are great for honey bees. For some reason they don't like red clover. I'm not sure if they can't work the flowers or there aren't enough en masse to interest them.
Around here white clover creates one of the biggest nectar flows of the year. Many of the trees are big nectar producers before the clover blooms.