European Fibro Meat Bird Project

[Ridgerunner]

No, I have no special knowledge about that. You might contact your national agricultural ministry and see if they have recommendations, especially for that specific soil and climate.

For my dual purpose birds I just use natural grasses and weeds, plants that are native to the region. Mine is year around, with CX you may be looking at a specific season. I'd look at a mix of grasses, legumes, and other "weeds" or plants to get a variety.

I'm not sure how big of a problem it is with chickens. Horses, cattle, and such can flounder or get bloat by eating a lot of really rich foliage, especially in spring when the growth is fresh and lush. It's not just clover, many things can cause it. It ferments so fast they can't get rid of the gas. We had a bull bloat when a neighbor threw a lot of muskmelons in the pasture, thinking they were doing a good thing since the bull liked them so much. The bull survived but it was in bad shape for a while. I'm not sure chickens would eat that much to cause a problem.

To me clover is a great addition to animal fodder. When we grew clover for hay we mixed it with grasses though so it was not pure clover.

 

[Skyeknight]

No, I have no special knowledge about that. You might contact your national agricultural ministry and see if they have recommendations, especially for that specific soil and climate.

Thank you for answering! No idea who else that is still online would potentially know. The agricultural Ministry won't be any help here. Basically no one here raises their own CX. People mostly process their own roosters if they need to get rid of them. That's about it and it's generally frowned upon. Meaning that most broilers are in barns and not outside or in natural environments exposed to different shrub types.

Mine is year around, with CX you may be looking at a specific season.

Also year round, these CX are for breeding.

I'm not sure how big of a problem it is with chickens. Horses, cattle, and such can flounder or get bloat by eating a lot of really rich foliage, especially in spring when the growth is fresh and lush. It's not just clover, many things can cause it. It ferments so fast they can't get rid of the gas. We had a bull bloat when a neighbor threw a lot of muskmelons in the pasture, thinking they were doing a good thing since the bull liked them so much. The bull survived but it was in bad shape for a while. I'm not sure chickens would eat that much to cause a problem.

My apologies for the confusion. I mentioned clover mostly as example to show that toxic plants is not black and white but grey. Sadly Google isn't really that helpful with these grey area's. I have owned sheep all my life, but only learned last year that clover can cause bloating because I watched the TV serie Yellowstone. So not all that obvious when something is toxic.

To me clover is a great addition to animal fodder. When we grew clover for hay we mixed it with grasses though so it was not pure clover.

Same here, although it already grows in the field.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My apologies for the confusion. I mentioned clover mostly as example to show that toxic plants is not black and white but grey.

So true. Practically anything you eat or they eat has something in it that can be considered "toxic", whether that means "life threatening" or "might make you or them sick". A huge part of that is dosage. For the vast majority of these things one bite will not kill you but if that is your entire diet it could. A good example is white potatoes. Not the sunburned ones that have turned green but regular white potatoes. They contain a substance that can make you or the chickens sick. But a human would probably need to eat over 20 kilograms of them at one sitting for it to be a problem. Chickens would need to eat well over a kilogram. We just can't eat that much. Yet I regularly see posts on here warning about how dangerous they are. So, yes, lots of myths out there.

Also year round, these CX are for breeding.

Then I'd look for a native plant mix. Maybe get a soils analysis and use lime to reduce the acidity so they can thrive. I would hope whoever analyses the soils could recommend how much lime you would need based on the results.

No idea who else that is still online would potentially know.

@NatJ perhaps.