Developing the grass in your yard for increasing free ranging nutrition

[Beekissed]

You know what else they love? Chicken manure. Darkling beetles are one of the primary bugs that feed on chicken manure in poultry houses and they hate them there because they get in the walls and destroy the materials therein. Anyone having deep litter in their coops probably already have a good population of darkling beetles growing there....it's like cutting out the middle man(you) and providing habitat for bugs that turn into food for the chooks.

Now, a lot of folks would be concerned about the beetles recycling intestinal parasites but in a flock where these are not a problem, I don't worry much about it. One cannot control the bugs a chicken eats out on free range and such things as beetles and earthworms are always going to be a link in the parasite chain. The key is to cull the flock judiciously, not overstock the soils, and promote intestinal and immune system health. Has worked for me for a long time with good success.

I'd definitely recycle some chickie manure into your meal worm production....just think of the symbiosis of it all.

I know a lot of folks would rather just open a bag and feed the chickens, scrape out the poop in the coop and compost it until they can put it on the garden, etc. but it's a very short range view of livestock, soil and pasture management. I think this thread and others like it could maybe open up the minds of those thinking that keeping chickens comes from a bag and get them to thinking of all the possibilities, even on their own small holdings. Intentional, intensive management of your available, natural resources for the animals is an easy thing and it doesn't have to break the bank to initiate it.

I'm not talking about tilling the land and planting BOSS, millet or sorghum....not many backyarders have enough land to make that pay off and those grains are not going to provide a well rounded nutrition, plus they have to be replanted each year and the little dab of harvest won't pay off for the space used. Improving the grasses in the lawn, using a deep litter system in coops and runs, forage frames of pick and come again greens for those birds in confinement, growing bugs and worms, etc. are all relatively easy to do and won't cost too much money or time to maintain, or start, if a person can just use a little imagination and ingenuity.

I love the bedspring idea and that can even be used in a smaller fashion by using discarded baby mattresses. I picked up one out of the curbside trash one time and utilized the "horse hair" over the springs to restore the springs and upholstery on an antique settee...wish I had thought to use those springs for an interesting little garden feature. I love recycling things into other things that have purpose. Just like gathering wheat from the local feed place that would ordinarily be discarded or left to waste....excellent idea! Scoring brewer's grains from a local distillery is another....lots of folks getting in on that. Fermenting the chicken feed from the bag is also another great way to take something and repurpose it into something much, much better and also cutting feed costs in half. Using the composted deep litter on the lawn instead of just in the garden is another idea...farmers do it all the time with their barn manure to improve their pasture growth. Getting free manure from a local horse barn is another cool thing...build a bin, dump it in and let nature provide another type of buffet for your birds that you didn't have to buy...and then keep adding to it.

All these ideas used in conjunction can really make for cheaper, healthier and more sustainable ways to feed chickens.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

My little research project of the day is looking into which perennials to seed for the poultry pasture expansion projects we'll be doing here soon.

I'm looking for things that:
- have a high amount of digestible protein
- do well with no irrigation during long dry summers
- can be over-seeded with annuals
- have decent root systems so can "spring back" from chicken scratch (though the idea is to not over stress the pasture in the first place)

If you were suddenly gifted with an extra acre or two of freshly tilled land ear-marked for poultry pasture, what would you plant?

 

[centrarchid]

Plant native prairie or meadow types and go heavy on the legumes for available protein. I like to allow forage plants to rest for regeneration following heavy bouts of grazing. That is where poultry netting could be used as either an enclosure as typically used or as exclosures.

 

[Beekissed]

I'd make a trip to the local extension office and see what native grasses grow well and are good for pasture and I'd get a mix of cool and warm season perennials and legumes that will thrive there. I'd dedicate one acre to legumes of all kinds and the other to a mix of cool and warm season perennials. The perennials will often choke out legumes by the second year, so a dedicated spot just for legumes might be a wise idea.

The pic below is a section of our meadow that we've overseeded with WDC and may do so again this winter. We also planted the same around the base of our apple trees. In the first pic you can see some CX that would hit this patch of clover morning and evening of every single day. The second pic is of a laying hen taking advantage of the WDC planted on the garden rows as a cover crop for fall and is often grazed right through winter. We allow the clover to get tall enough to go to seed and reseed itself and eventually mow it to allow for regrowth and this can be done a few times a season if the rains are good.

We have enough of other kinds of grasses in the meadow that they don't have to have only legumes, but I'd like to improve on those grasses as well by allowing them to grow tall enough to reseed themselves better and by adding some phosphates and calcium to the soil. If I could keep my mother from scalping the whole place with the mower every few days the simple process of treating the lawn like a pasture that is being grazed would allow the native grasses to grow better, thicker and provide better recovery of any barren soils. Mowing on the high setting can help with this, allowing grass to go to seed, and to decrease mowing frequency in the dryer months so as to not damage the grass during these times can all help the health and growth capacity of the more desirable grasses in a lawn. Just can't get her to see beyond having an always smooth, always short lawn.

 

[Aphrael]

You know what else they love? Chicken manure. Darkling beetles are one of the primary bugs that feed on chicken manure in poultry houses and they hate them there because they get in the walls and destroy the materials therein. Anyone having deep litter in their coops probably already have a good population of darkling beetles growing there....it's like cutting out the middle man(you) and providing habitat for bugs that turn into food for the chooks.

Now, a lot of folks would be concerned about the beetles recycling intestinal parasites but in a flock where these are not a problem, I don't worry much about it. One cannot control the bugs a chicken eats out on free range and such things as beetles and earthworms are always going to be a link in the parasite chain. The key is to cull the flock judiciously, not overstock the soils, and promote intestinal and immune system health. Has worked for me for a long time with good success.

I'd definitely recycle some chickie manure into your meal worm production....just think of the symbiosis of it all.

I know a lot of folks would rather just open a bag and feed the chickens, scrape out the poop in the coop and compost it until they can put it on the garden, etc. but it's a very short range view of livestock, soil and pasture management. I think this thread and others like it could maybe open up the minds of those thinking that keeping chickens comes from a bag and get them to thinking of all the possibilities, even on their own small holdings. Intentional, intensive management of your available, natural resources for the animals is an easy thing and it doesn't have to break the bank to initiate it.

I'm not talking about tilling the land and planting BOSS, millet or sorghum....not many backyarders have enough land to make that pay off and those grains are not going to provide a well rounded nutrition, plus they have to be replanted each year and the little dab of harvest won't pay off for the space used. Improving the grasses in the lawn, using a deep litter system in coops and runs, forage frames of pick and come again greens for those birds in confinement, growing bugs and worms, etc. are all relatively easy to do and won't cost too much money or time to maintain, or start, if a person can just use a little imagination and ingenuity.

I love the bedspring idea and that can even be used in a smaller fashion by using discarded baby mattresses. I picked up one out of the curbside trash one time and utilized the "horse hair" over the springs to restore the springs and upholstery on an antique settee...wish I had thought to use those springs for an interesting little garden feature. I love recycling things into other things that have purpose. Just like gathering wheat from the local feed place that would ordinarily be discarded or left to waste....excellent idea! Scoring brewer's grains from a local distillery is another....lots of folks getting in on that. Fermenting the chicken feed from the bag is also another great way to take something and repurpose it into something much, much better and also cutting feed costs in half. Using the composted deep litter on the lawn instead of just in the garden is another idea...farmers do it all the time with their barn manure to improve their pasture growth. Getting free manure from a local horse barn is another cool thing...build a bin, dump it in and let nature provide another type of buffet for your birds that you didn't have to buy...and then keep adding to it.

All these ideas used in conjunction can really make for cheaper, healthier and more sustainable ways to feed chickens.

My little research project of the day is looking into which perennials to seed for the poultry pasture expansion projects we'll be doing here soon.

I'm looking for things that:
- have a high amount of digestible protein
- do well with no irrigation during long dry summers
- can be over-seeded with annuals
- have decent root systems so can "spring back" from chicken scratch (though the idea is to not over stress the pasture in the first place)

If you were suddenly gifted with an extra acre or two of freshly tilled land ear-marked for poultry pasture, what would you plant?

This is what I have been trying to research as well. I want a nice base of perennials that will return year after year (if not just go on right through the winter) and thrive without lot of extra water in my hot arid Texas climate (once they are well established of course). One thing that I am definitely going to be trying out is sunchokes.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I'd make a trip to the local extension office and see what native grasses grow well and are good for pasture and I'd get a mix of cool and warm season perennials and legumes that will thrive there. I'd dedicate one acre to legumes of all kinds and the other to a mix of cool and warm season perennials. The perennials will often choke out legumes by the second year, so a dedicated spot just for legumes might be a wise idea.

We have enough of other kinds of grasses in the meadow that they don't have to have only legumes, but I'd like to improve on those grasses as well by allowing them to grow tall enough to reseed themselves better and by adding some phosphates and calcium to the soil. If I could keep my mother from scalping the whole place with the mower every few days the simple process of treating the lawn like a pasture that is being grazed would allow the native grasses to grow better, thicker and provide better recovery of any barren soils. Mowing on the high setting can help with this, allowing grass to go to seed, and to decrease mowing frequency in the dryer months so as to not damage the grass during these times can all help the health and growth capacity of the more desirable grasses in a lawn. Just can't get her to see beyond having an always smooth, always short lawn.

(every time I see photos of your birds in your clover meadow I hear bluebirds singing ... it is absolutely ideal)

So you live with a compulsive mower. I feel your pain. I live with a compulsive plower. Full disclosure: I live with an old-school farmer who thinks RoundUp is better than the tears of laughing unicorns, and insists on spraying anything/everything that sprouts in spring, then plows it under as soon as it is well dead, then roto-tills it into increasingly finer particles as the summer wears on, always on a day when the breeze can blow the dust past my house. I don't have air conditioning, so I leave my windows open all summer. By September I have as much "soil" inside my house as out.

I'm definitely going to ask the Extension Service about pasture seeds specific to our soil/slope ... but it definitely helps to be armed with a bit of info before one places that type of call. Oregon is great for farming, but that's the flat parts. Most of the hillsides in our area like the one we live on have been converted to Pinot Noir grapes because other stuff doesn't do so well.

 

[Beekissed]

(every time I see photos of your birds in your clover meadow I hear bluebirds singing ... it is absolutely ideal)

So you live with a compulsive mower. I feel your pain. I live with a compulsive plower. Full disclosure: I live with an old-school farmer who thinks RoundUp is better than the tears of laughing unicorns, and insists on spraying anything/everything that sprouts in spring, then plows it under as soon as it is well dead, then roto-tills it into increasingly finer particles as the summer wears on, always on a day when the breeze can blow the dust past my house. I don't have air conditioning, so I leave my windows open all summer. By September I have as much "soil" inside my house as out.

I'm definitely going to ask the Extension Service about pasture seeds specific to our soil/slope ... but it definitely helps to be armed with a bit of info before one places that type of call. Oregon is great for farming, but that's the flat parts. Most of the hillsides in our area like the one we live on have been converted to Pinot Noir grapes because other stuff doesn't do so well.

The tears of laughing unicorns!!!!!!

Yes! That would be my mother, who sprays weed killer all around the base of her home to keep the weeds out of her mulch and the fan brings it right in the window and into my mouth, where I gag and almost puke. Same with bug sprays as she keeps a running battle with the carpenter bees that bore holes in her log cabin.

And I'm trying to provide healthy foods and soils for the chooks and also healthy food for us? Different generation where weeds used to be controlled with weed wackers, burning and brute force and then along comes some chemicals the USDA deem an agricultural miracle and they grab them and run with them. It would be nigh impossible for me to pry those from her fingers now so I don't even try. It's a generation gap thingy.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

If we lived closer we could arrange a blind date for our parents. I think they'd get along.

 

[Beekissed]

Love.... by Roundup

 

[AletaG]

My little research project of the day is looking into which perennials to seed for the poultry pasture expansion projects we'll be doing here soon.

I'm looking for things that:
- have a high amount of digestible protein
- do well with no irrigation during long dry summers
- can be over-seeded with annuals
- have decent root systems so can "spring back" from chicken scratch (though the idea is to not over stress the pasture in the first place)

If you were suddenly gifted with an extra acre or two of freshly tilled land ear-marked for poultry pasture, what would you plant?

We used to live in Hillsboro, then Gaston... We planted WDC, which was billed as a lawn replacement getting only 6" tall. Um, not! Our record was a 37" flower stalk, and it grew year round with no watering where we were. I don't think Sherwood is that far away... Also, got it at a great price from a local seed production farm out that way. Was 10yrs ago, but bet you can find it! Like 8$ for a pound... I still have 2 cups left! Will still sprout, tho am more careful about where I plant it!

Love.... by Roundup