Homemade scratch that will sprout

[micstrachan]

I have been growing a chicken forage blend mixed with grass to create a lawn/pasture. It’s working great! However, I am trying to seed a new area, and I’m having trouble with the wild birds, plus my chickens, eating it up before it has a chance to sprout and grab hold.
I would like to supplement with nutritious grains... like a high-end scratch. Also, don’t worry, they are penned up with a complete grower crumble most of the time, but get about one hour per week night and several hours on weekends to free range.
I was thinking of ordering some sprouting sorghum, millet, flax, alfalfa, and clover (the forage blend already has the flax, clover, and alfalfa, plus buckwheat, a couple types of rye grass, and field peas). Is there any reason not to also throw wheat berries? My girls love it when I sprout these for them, but I haven’t in a few months. I haven’t really been giving any treats at all the last several months, as I want them to have as balanced diet as possible, except a small handful of raw, hulled sunflower seeds to call them back to the pen from free ranging on weekends. Thoughts?

 

[lazy gardener]

How big an area are you trying to seed? And what is there now? If you are wanting your mix to mature to produce a crop of edible seeds/grains, be sure not to plant too thickly. You might want to add some millet also! No matter how much you plant, you are going to need to put bird netting over it to keep the chickens AND wild birds from eating the seed until it is well established.

 

[micstrachan]

The area I’m working on right now is only about 12x25 (?) and there is just soil and gravel, since we recently lifted a plastic floor off of it. I also spread a bale of pine shavings in there and have added several shovels full of composted chicken manure. I am looking to treat it like a lawn, but like to have the omega threes and other good stuff mixed in with the grass.
Here’s the area I’ve already seeded, which is much larger and the girls love it. Also, oxialis (the “sourgrass” variety) grows as a weed here and they love that, too!