Buckwheat

[7 Biddies]

I was just reading that buckwheat is a good winter cover crop for your garden. How is it for feeding to chickens? If it's good for them, I thought I could kill 2 bir ... um, get double duty out of planting it.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote:
Buckwheat thrives in cool, moist conditions but it is not frost tolerant. Even in the South, it is not grown as a winter annual. Buckwheat is not particularly drought tolerant, and readily wilts under hot, dry conditions. Its short growing season may allow it to avoid droughts, however.

 

[JNB]

Well Im not sure about if its good for the chooks or not.. But they do seem to like it.. My FIL.... has a 5 acre "personal" garden plot He plants Buckwheat every year after he cleans it out. We live in WA State. So he plants it in mid to late September and lets it sit all fall and winter.. Then he tills it in in the spring... In the meantime the Chooks are allowed to Freerange in the Garden area and love to gobble abound the buckwheat. The benefits he list that he gets are.

1. The root system of the BW is such that it helps areate the ground.
2. It slows and prevents other weeds from taking hold.. he says it "chokes them out"
3. It adds Nitrate to the soil when tilled in.

Drawback is that it does reseed it self to some extent so it often will come back during the growing season... It is easy to pull out

 

[Island Roo]

I saw a poultry pasture seed mix online that contains buckwheat - so they must think its ok...

I cleared some bush and I'm about to throw some seed down - buckwheat, white clover, crimson clover, winter rye, low maintenance grass mix (sold as goat pasture) and some peas seeds that are still on plants in the garden.

I've never tried this before so hopefully it will be a low maintenance mix of perennials and self-seeding annuals that will work for the chickens.

It's on a slope with a few big trees so mowing is not possible.

I didn't intend to hijack your thread about buckwheat but once I started typing it all came out.

 

[Chris09]

Quote http://www.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/feed_ingredients/grains.html
Chris

 

[Island Roo]

This a link to the seed mix that i mentioned for chicken forage.

http://www.groworganic.com/pvfs-omega-3-chicken-forage-blend-irrigated-nitrocoated-seed-lb.html

Buckwheat is listed as an ingredient.
It is intended to be eaten as greens - not grains.

 

[7 Biddies]

Thanks for all the interesting information on buckwheat. As Dr. Frankenstein said, "It sounded like a good idea at the time". But, back to the drawing board in my search for something to plant for the winter.

 

[Island Roo]

I've got winter rye in the garden. Sprouts fast, deep roots, winter hardy, cheap seed, hens love it.

I know rye grains are not the greatest for chickens but not sure about the greens. My hens seem to do ok with it.

 

[7 Biddies]

How about winter wheat?

 

[7 Biddies]

Aha! I just found this:

PVFS Omega-3 Chicken Forage Blend

This blend is planted for chicken forage to achieve a high Omega-3 result. University studies show significantly higher Omega-3s in eggs from hens who can forage in pasture instead of just eating an industrial diet. Our mix has the alfalfa, clover, and flax that increase Omega-3s in eggs.





http://www.groworganic.com/pvfs-omega-3-chicken-forage-blend-irrigated-nitrocoated-seed-lb.html