Fastest growing plants that a chicken will eat?

[ChickieChickieMama]

I live in the East Foothills! My chickens go crazy for my kale, which they help fertilize. Kale grows here like crazy....we always have too much! We eat it, we give it away, the chickens eat it and so do the many deer who have destroyed the rest of my garden crops. But not my kale....that stuff just keeps coming up no matter what! I was away for a week even in this extreme heat and my husband didn't water anything....the rest of my garden shriveled up, but not my kale!!

 

[centrarchid]

I eat this stuff too. Next year we will try to raise a lot of it purposely, but have not figured out how to regulate access of free-range birds to it.

 

[Ra_]

He also goes into depth about waste management so that your flock does not create a nutrient overload which can poison your soil and cause water run off issues for you...

I'm able to collect and bag lots of manure from my large breed birds that roost on a cage.
My paddock gently slopes and the area below it has been overgrown by wild Blackberry bushes. They normally only grow a foot or two tall. These plants grew to 7 foot tall by June. They then toppled and the side branches became the tops. It's an impenetrable bramble but they sure love that chicken manure runoff.
The 'soil' here is a fairly sterile yellow sand.

 

[Ra_]

The first thing I got going this Spring was Purslane.
I bought small plants for only $1.67 or so and transplanted them into larger pots.
I tried to keep them out of reach of the birds.
2 months ago I finally put them on the ground.
The free ranging birds pecked at them a little and then completely ignored them!
They prefer my weeds I guess?
I myself have been munching on the Purslane quite a lot and I've been moving those pots into the goat house with my month old Rainbow Rocks and they eat a lot of it.
The Serama in there ignore it.
I was happy today to see how much they all loved their first taste of Comfrey.

 

[centrarchid]

Bird with more or less continous free-range access are not as interested in plantings made specifically for their consumption. I will be setting up so birds in runs have a shot the plantings.

 

[Ra_]

Bird with more or less continous free-range access are not as interested in plantings made specifically for their consumption. I will be setting up so birds in runs have a shot the plantings.

Depends on the plant.
My free range birds go crazy for week old Sunflower plants.

 

[centrarchid]

I stated not as.

 

[Ra_]

My free range birds are far more interested in the Sunflowers than anything else on my land.

They consume all traces of them within 2 or 3 days.
They seem to prefer it to the Sorghum & Millet growing alongside.
They ate all that too once the Sunflowers were gone.

 

[Jaychickenbird]

We put cut up basil, parsley and mint in milk jugs with water and freeze. Nice treat for them during hot days.
Also I go to a local food bank and get the left over greens from them. The hens love all the fresh Greens.