Grass fed chickens. Do they get only grass or is this supplemented?

[faykokoWV]

Quote:
how do you get them to leave it alone long enough that it can grow? I was thinking of doing this myself, but couldn't figure out how to get the plants started enough. I thought about closing off part of the run, planting, then when it grows out a little, close of another section....?

 

[edb]

I remember seeing a study showing that chickens could be healthy on a diet of 80% grasses. There would be a lot of variables like Type of grass and what the other 20% of the diet was.

It seems very possible, the type and amount of table scraps would have a huge amount to do with that.

 

[Big C]

Quote:
how do you get them to leave it alone long enough that it can grow? I was thinking of doing this myself, but couldn't figure out how to get the plants started enough. I thought about closing off part of the run, planting, then when it grows out a little, close of another section....?

You have the right idea here, sectional runs but since grasses require more than one season to develope perennial roots the only real way to "graze" your flock is to have an excess of pasture that can never be "over grazed". Even then the preferred grasses would eventually be grazed out and the undesirable would overtake the desirable, so purchased feed supplements would always have to be used. This way with large sectional runs and supplemental proteins grasses and broadleaves would be able to provide an elemental to cut costs in the long term.
Also, since free range chickens are natural "predators" to insects an "organic" program would need to be followed in a scheduled run or large free range since chemicals kill all insects good and bad.

 

[faykokoWV]

are they any crops that would be good for this.. ones that grow fast and provide good nutrition?

 

[Beekissed]

I got a few ruminants(sheep and bottle calf) to put on my free ranger's grass so as to develop the pasture and encourage growth of more nutritive grasses. I will be trying Salatin's rotational grazing when my plan comes together.

Stacking livestock and resting pasture between grazing/foraging is a great way to develop grass without costly overseeding of non-native annuals and perennials. If they don't grow in your soil naturally, they may not establish well nor thrive. That's money down the tubes.

 

[edb]

I'm not sure about chickens but I would think a clover mix would be one of the better plants for poultry too. I know its a legume and not classified as a grass but we see it in most grasses.

 

[Beekissed]

That is the only seed I have overseeded with...white clover. It's native to my soils, the bees love it and so do all the other animals. I don't think one can go wrong with planting white clover.

 

[NotTheMomma]

Quote:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=236670

Here's a link to the same topic.

BTW, I do NOT know about other animals, but with horses, high levels of clover is not advisable. There's some type of fungus, or something associated with clover that causes them to slobber excessively among other things.

The red clover, or pink blooms to me, I've noticed the horses will gobble that up quickly if they find any of it. Though we don't have massive amounts of it in our fields. The rabbits seem to enjoy a stalk of it as well.

 

[faykokoWV]

OMG, I thought I was posting in all one thread.

Too funny.

Our run isn't big enough for any kind of pature rotation plan, but I do think that I could overseed with some clover. I have found out that my chickens do not like Bermuda grass. That was the existing grass in their run and it is all still there with the exception of the stuff they trampled.. you can see little paths through it where they like to run the most.

 

[CassidyCash]

Our son has a corn allergy and I would like to raise chickens without wheat or corn in their supplemental feed at all. We want to do all grass fed but this thread makes it sound like we need to offer them additional feed, too. Do you have options for corn and wheat free chicken feed? Can we make our own?