Developing the grass in your yard for increasing free ranging nutrition

[Sam3 Abq]

In addition to our 1st flock of chickens being started this spring 2014, we will be making over our backyard into an "Urban Farm".
Here are the components of our proposed Urban Farm.
01. Chickens - 7 hens .
02. Straw bale vegetable garden.
03. Herb garden.
04. Compost bins (1 made from recycled wood pallets - plans for 2 more).
05. Espalier fruit trees (apple/pear).
06. Aquaponics for various vegetables.
07. Rain harvesting from house roof and chicken coop.
08. Eco-lawn - "Fleur de Lawn".
09. Various shrubs, flowers and general plants surrounding our eco-lawn.
10. Bee hives (2)

#8 is the one most appropriate to this thread. Here is the link to the company where I purchased the seed . http://protimelawnseed.myshopify.com/collections/sidebar/products/fleur-de-lawn.

If anyone is interested in this we have a Facebook page that was created for this Urban Farm.
FB page = 7 Heavenly Hens Garden.

-Sam

 

[SunnySkies]

I did this in the fall. I over seeded the fields with forages that will be helpful for the birds and the horses. The plan is to actually keep the horses off, bale it once with the intent of raising some of our own horse hay, then let them back on. Obviously, the chickens cannot be kept out and can have access to the grasses as they grow in the spring as well as after cutting. I used a general equine forage mix and added clover and timothy. Perhaps not ideal for birds, but it will be adequate, particularly since they have access to forage in the woods as well.

I have noticed in the areas where a chicken tractor was -- now, I do use tractors differently than most, as my birds only sleep in them but free range, instead of being moved daily to fresh forage with the chickens in it, and I move the tractor when the soil looks scratchy -- the clover is much thicker. I'm cool with that, as bees are next on the list of livestock to add. They love clover. This makes me wish all my coops were tractors...it's mobile fertilizer. The area around the stationary coops is just barren.

 

[centrarchid]

I did this in the fall. I over seeded the fields with forages that will be helpful for the birds and the horses. The plan is to actually keep the horses off, bale it once with the intent of raising some of our own horse hay, then let them back on. Obviously, the chickens cannot be kept out and can have access to the grasses as they grow in the spring as well as after cutting. I used a general equine forage mix and added clover and timothy. Perhaps not ideal for birds, but it will be adequate, particularly since they have access to forage in the woods as well.

I have noticed in the areas where a chicken tractor was -- now, I do use tractors differently than most, as my birds only sleep in them but free range, instead of being moved daily to fresh forage with the chickens in it, and I move the tractor when the soil looks scratchy -- the clover is much thicker. I'm cool with that, as bees are next on the list of livestock to add. They love clover. This makes me wish all my coops were tractors...it's mobile fertilizer. The area around the stationary coops is just barren.

I do the free-range bit using tractors as roost sites. After juveniles have been in it a week or two for imprinting on it they are let out in the early morning. They back in at dusk and I close it up for the night. I can also move it incrementally to spread out feces and to preposition birds for transitioning to an elevated roost that is in a fixed location. Getting birds up means I do not have to check so many tractors or move them. They pretty darn heavy.

 

[SunnySkies]

Yep. The heavy part kills me. I use a tractor or my truck to pull them. But I'd love to have a whole bunch marching across my fields if I could be sure they wouldn't blow away, LOL. The wind has blown mine away a few times (no chickens have ever been hurt or lost).

Most people don't seem to do this though. They confine the birds n them and move them with birds in them.

I will say I would probably have moved to a tractor style of chicken-raising had I not gotten LGDs. The predator pressure was becoming heavy enough I was reconsidering my entire set-up. But because of them, I have been able to continue to free range, allow the birds to forage for their own food from grasses and insects, and supplement with feed.

 

[centrarchid]

Even the heavy ones roll when it blows. I have had my smaller ones blow over 30' hedge rows and a neighbor has had much heavier and lower to ground versions taken out by very small tornado. In both instances the birds did not do well. Another individual uses mobile metal garages surrounded by electrified poultry netting. He raises Cornish X for meat at high densities of several hundred per unit. The Cornish X birds do not seem able to take advantage of the greens and can actually burn up the soil with their feces. The feces they produce is impressive in its volume and appears to be poorly digested. A big problem I see with my birds on fescue which dominates my landscape is that some they do not like to eat. Such patches with closed tractor do not provide as much benefits from plant forages.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

You might want to build a grow frame in one end of the run, lace that litter up with some lime to sweeten the pH and then plant your clover and other grass seed.  I think you'd have better luck with it growing that way and it also would have time to establish a good root system in the grow frames..that way it could be clipped and grow back again over and over by the chickens. 

This is the same thought as rotating the plants in a square frame garden except that once established the frame gets moved to begin a new spot. Some of mine I did this with and the chickens use those areas most. I compost within the frame (4x4x4 minimum) and when ready I harvest the top section to begin a new spot and plant in the lower part! Always has worked well in gardening. I just apply it to the chickens now. A mesh over it permits them to graze the top without uprooting when it is getting started.

I'm glad you are here too, LJ!  It helps to have someone with similar interests to bounce ideas off of and see what comes back.  Helps me think and then formulate my thoughts into action.  I've only been intentionally improving pasture for the past 7 yrs or so for the purpose of livestock feed but it makes a lot of sense to me to use that green stuff out there as free food that I don't have to buy.  I had to go a long way to keep my mother, the mowing queen, from cutting the grass too often or too short so as to let the grasses go to seed and reseed themselves these past two years.

At my place, I just kept sheep on the grass and didn't have to worry about mowing, letting the sheep condition the pasture in a more natural way...all the while fertilizing it as they went along. 

Along the strip running woods edge (I call my field) we planted clover, chicory, alfalfa, pasture grass, buckwheat, oats, rye grass, winter wheat mix. This was done the first time as a nutrition wildlife plot for the deer. I have been doing a mow 1/4 section rotations each year. I overseed the mowed area each year end. The taller area provides cover and also gives bedding/grazing for deer and insects. It is fun to watch the chickens run the edge of the taller and scratch it for anything they can dislodge or scare up. Also if you leave the seed heads of perennial flowers the chickens eat some of those as well. My uncut phlox heads are picked at and this also helps scatter the seed for a larger clump of plant next year. Beebalm seeds were a favorite this year.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Am I the only one that also scatters my past years unused greens seeds in with the pasture? Funny that brasicas, lettuces, greens, carrots, and beets will grow in the pasture mix as well! At least they did here. Chickens, deer and rabbits had a ball this summer searching the grasses for these treats! Foraging and ranging incentives!

Next year I am adding more sweet clover and alfalfa to refresh the percentiles.

Oh forgot to mention I actually planted some dandelion seeds and transplanted some plantain.

 

[Triple Willow]

@Bee... what size or type of wire do you use for grow frames?

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I just posted this to another thread and though it could be useful here for people wanting to get soil testing done on their property ... presuming they live in the USA. It is a clickable map to Extension Service locations by state. Extension Service offices can be a very useful resource for local poultry issues, too. My state has a designated poultry expert, for example.

http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Am I the only one that also scatters my past years unused greens seeds in with the pasture? Funny that brasicas, lettuces, greens, carrots, and beets will grow in the pasture mix as well! At least they did here. Chickens, deer and rabbits had a ball this summer searching the grasses for these treats!

Foraging and ranging incentives!

Next year I am adding more sweet clover and alfalfa to refresh the percentiles.

Oh forgot to mention I actually planted some dandelion seeds and transplanted some plantain.

I like the idea of tossing extra garden seeds out to see if they germinate. Might as well!

I notice we got some rogue sunflowers here this year ... scratch the birds missed. That was fun.