Fastest growing plants that a chicken will eat?

[sonomacluck]

I like the idea of Bush (Snap) Peas, source: https://www.craftsy.com/gardening/article/fast-growing-vegetables/

BUSH BEANS: 50-70 DAYS
Requiring much less attention than pole beans, bush beans (also known as snap beans) also mature faster than pole beans. Additionally, most pole beans give their crop all at once, allowing you to harvest and eat them within a short period of time. If you happen to grow more than you can eat, pressure canning or freezing them are a wonderful ways to preserve them for later.

 

[sonomacluck]

The idea about a cylinder of wire would be that the peas would grow at the perimeter for the first couple of months. The chickens would hopefully poop from time to time around the cylinder of wire fence, pecking at the beans. In the center of the cylinder, you would plant something that would grow taller than 3', and eventually wider, over the course of a season.

 

[Pensmaster]

How about comfrey? My chickens like it. Grows like crazy with chicken compost. I have ten or so plants planted in the orchard and cut them one at a time. By the time I get back to the first plant it’s ready to go for the next cutting.

Duck weed is great they do eat it. However it is invasive and you will regret starting it if your pond doesn’t already have it.

 

[centrarchid]

How about comfrey? My chickens like it. Grows like crazy with chicken compost. I have ten or so plants planted in the orchard and cut them one at a time. By the time I get back to the first plant it’s ready to go for the next cutting.

Duck weed is great they do eat it. However it is invasive and you will regret starting it if your pond doesn’t already have it.

What species of duckweed are you talking about? I literally have three growing in pond and tanks right now and they may be replaced by others next year. They are moved about by waterfowl on a local and regional basis. If you use local species impacts you cause will be minimal.

 

[Pensmaster]

What species of duckweed are you talking about? I literally have three growing in pond and tanks right now and they may be replaced by others next year. They are moved about by waterfowl on a local and regional basis. If you use local species impacts you cause will be minimal.

I don’t know the variety but I wish I didn’t have it. I can never see the pond. I removed 3, five gallon buckets a week for several months. Never even phased it. There are or were some fish in there. It seriously looks like a lawn most of the time.

 

[Kayla's Lunch]

Is there some way to grow duckweed in a container for the chickens? I don't have a pond or a very big yard.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

How about mint? It grows pretty good and can comes back every year.
(Mine used to till they ate it all)
Passion flower also grows like crazy and depending on climate comes back every year. The flowers would attract bugs and some varieties bear fruit.

 

[Pensmaster]

Is there some way to grow duckweed in a container for the chickens? I don't have a pond or a very big yard.

It does grow in my 55 gallon water rain barrel. I assume with the right nutrients it would grow for you. I don’t think it would need to be 55 gallons.

 

[JedJackson]

Hi all - I'm looking for 2 - 4, or more, recommendations on plants that grow quickly (trying to fill cylinder of chicken wire 4' high, 4' diameter. I was inspired by the ideas that I read in other threads, where people fill boxes of mesh and let the plants grow out past the wire, so the chickens can feed at it.

Since all the meshes we get come in rolls, I would like to experiment with cylinders of green instead, much easier to shape than in a box-like shape. From the research I've done, most people make squares but I am about circles of wire.

Chickweed grows like gangbusters and chickens love it. Not very ornamental, though, and not sure if it would grow as well in your area.

New Zealand spinach is nice because it grows fast, and it's a cut and come again plant, and is usually perennial in mild climates. But you'd have to limit how much the chickens ate because it contains oxalates. Swiss chard has the same problem, but it grows fast and is cut and come again, too.

Lettuce can grow moderately fast and some varieties are loaded with nutrients.

Squash grows fast but my chickens at least are not fond of the foliage. They love the squash itself, though.

Garden cress is fast growing from seed but not good in hot weather.

Nasturtiums grow like mad and are pretty. My chickens love the leaves and flowers, but some say their chickens won't eat them.

Mine also like horseradish greens and that spreads fast.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

To my way of thinking there are no succulent plants that a flock of chickens can not or will not kill. The problem is not that they eat it all up, but that they will scratch it into oblivion in a short amount of time.