Developing the grass in your yard for increasing free ranging nutrition

[LindaB220]

The nay-sayers on comfrey, I believe, are funded by the soy movement. Comfrey is a fantastic feed. I'm not worried about it at all.

Got it in one!!! Comfrey has been fed to animals AND people for thousands of years. Surely if there was a problem, don't you think someone would have noticed? The soy industry is so overwhelmingly large and wants no competition.

 

[gjensen]

Great Thread! I just ran into it and look at the response. This fall I moved the flock into the garden area which also included a plot that I had cover cropped last year (the red clover was spent, but the other plant, I think it was tricticale sp? was still going strong) plus the compost pile! They had a feast and used the sunlfower, Okra and tomato cages as protective cover. I plan to plant more tall crops to enhance not just their diet, but their overall environment as well. For me it is about having a good pasture, because they need grass under their feet, I will not accept anything less, but also, how does the plant enhance their environment, in terms of diversity, insect habitat etc. That's why I respect the native weeds, because I think they belong in the pasture. When I get a small denuded area, I may not even reseed, but instead allow the natives to move in. I know I am rambling, but I needed to post, to thank Bee for starting this thread.

Mark

I do not know if this has been mentioned before, but here is an experiment for you to try.

When left exposed weed seeds will blow in, get dropped in, etc. Your birds will have consumed much of what was there. BUT, if you till the area you will bring ages of weed seeds to the surface. The tilled spot will explode with new growth.

I have sandy acidic soil, so I like to lime and till patches for the birds to pick through once the new growth had become established. As they wear it down, they scratch through finding weed seeds etc. Try it and see how it works for you. I think that you will find that the like to frequent this patch.

 

[lazy gardener]

Just stumbled onto this thread. Love the info. here! I've been considering comfrey for a couple of years. Plan to take action this spring. Sounds like established plants or cuttings of #4 are the way to go for chicken fodder, and additions to compost pile.

Now, here's a f/u question for anyone in the know. I bought a 3 seed mix containing Timothy, possibly alfalfa, and a clover ? Alsike (? spelling) I planned to sprout it this winter for fodder, if not to do a planting similar to green manure and turning the girls loose on it. Got curious about the Alsike, and googled it, reading that it increased photosensitivity in animals that ingest it. Any readers have any experience or info on this clover? If it was sold as a pasture seed, it should be safe, but I hesitate to use it.

Now, I'll throw an other ? your way. Any experience with Siberian Pea Shrub? It's reputed to be very cold hearty, nitrogen fixer, produces yellow pea blossom shaped flowers followed by a pod with small pea type seeds that are high protein, supposed to be good for attracting birds, good for poultry, 30% protein.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I too would like to hear experience in regard to that Siberian Pea Shrub. I have seen a little info on it and thought it looked like something I might be able to use here. I wondered about the leaves of the shrub for chickens that might eat them but never got very far with finding more information.

 

[lazy gardener]

Good question, one I hadn't considered. I don't think I'd worry about the leaves of any thing planted in my yard... where chickens are concerned... concern is not that the leaves will destroy the chicken, but the chicken will destroy the leaves. In my yard, I'd be more concerned about the latter!

 

[Beekissed]

Most of the info I've seen listed says it's an invasive shrub. Is this something that is growing locally for you folks? I've never seen or heard of it until now.

We have some horribly invasive shrubs around here now called Autumn Olives, which my sheep love but not many other livestock seem to. They are taking over all the pasture lands around this state and have become worse than the multiflora rose problem we used to have, which was so bad that they used to give farmers poison to put at the base of them to kill them.

I'm not sure I'd intentionally plant an invasive specie if given the choice of things more compatible with the other native plants.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I would love a bunch of Autumn Olives. Can you pull a bunch up and send them to me?

 

[Beekissed]

I would love a bunch of Autumn Olives. Can you pull a bunch up and send them to me?

I think they are kind of pretty and they smell good when in bloom, the birds eat the olives/berries, etc. but when my mother sees them she says their name like a curse word and she uses it every single time we drive by a field overtaken with them...which is often. Autumn Olive has become the curse word for her generation of homesteaders. Used to be the nasty multiflora rose. Get one killed off and soon another pest springs up in its place.

I'll tell you a funny.....my sis had this HUGE honeysuckle clump take over a place in her lawn, so I asked her to bring me a slip of it to plant at my place. It was early spring before anything had bloomed and she brought it to me. I thought it looked a little funny but still planted it by my fence and was envisioning it growing, entwining the fence and me sitting out on the porch smelling that sweet aroma of a summer eve.

Mama came for a visit and I showed her the slip and the new green leaves just sprouting out on it and she said, "Why in the world did you plant one of those things????" Turned out it was not honeysuckle, but the dreaded autumn olive.

Oops.

 

[lazy gardener]

From the reading that I've done, anecdotal for the most part, people are saying it grows where they plant it, and it does not spread. Thanks for the warning though, will take it in advisement.

 

[lazy gardener]

I do not know if this has been mentioned before, but here is an experiment for you to try.

When left exposed weed seeds will blow in, get dropped in, etc. Your birds will have consumed much of what was there. BUT, if you till the area you will bring ages of weed seeds to the surface. The tilled spot will explode with new growth.

I have sandy acidic soil, so I like to lime and till patches for the birds to pick through once the new growth had become established. As they wear it down, they scratch through finding weed seeds etc. Try it and see how it works for you. I think that you will find that the like to frequent this patch.

My take on weeds in the garden is this: If you have bare ground, you will have to fight with weeds. I consider weeds to be free green manure crops. I intend to leave a few areas mulch free this spring to allow a good cover crop of weeds to start, then turn the chickens loose on them in their 3 x 6 tractor. Otherwise, my soil is always covered with mulch or crops.