We put in a few fruit trees (plums and apples) a couple years back and I give the bird-pecked ones to the chickens...they love 'em!
I totally agree with this.
We put our chicken pasture fence around our little family orchard. The girls are doing a GREAT job with the apples, and I believe the trees help protect the flock from the hawks which circle the fields around our property constantly! I honestly haven't seen apples this nice in that orchard in ... ever, and we haven't lost a bird to a hawk yet. We also have some plums and some pears in there and a taller stand of evergreens the flock loves to scratch around under because there are lots of fun bugs under there and it is nice and cool. Our farm is a nursery where we grow fruit trees to sell to garden centers, etc., so I'm I'm going to plant more fruit trees and extend the orchard. I'm certainly more interested in the fruit now that I'm out there all the time playing with the birds. I'm doing applesauce next.
I also bought a pasture mix with extra clover to plant this spring, but we got too busy before it got too dry, and now I'll have to wait. I'm not sure I can plant it once it starts raining again in fall, but I can find out. Otherwise I'll plant it next spring. And I'm going to see about adding a bit more pasture land to the farm ... our farm manager really wants to do some cattle, and I am looking into doing rotational pasturing of cattle, sheep, poultry and maybe pigs as I believe this will be a good use of land which is actually very difficult to farm for nursery stock (too hilly, to dry). I am sure it will improve our soil quality, will help feed us all, and will really make happy birds who lay awesome eggs. I'm just concerned about what our dry summers will do to the pasture ... everything is pretty well dormant from dehydration right now. But I'm not sure I could get "permission" to plant permanent no-till pasture -- it would be such a switch in farming philosophy! Several generations of my family worked hard to clear this land, get formal education in "modern" farming practices, and invested in expensive equipment to be able to till/plow/rototill ad nauseam ...
One odd thing about farming that I don't think a lot of people understand is water. We are not allowed to irrigate without a permit, and new permits are nearly impossible to get. Actually, irrigation permits are impossible to get in my area. Sure, I could use something like 25,000 gallons per day to fill a HUGE swimming pool with water as often as I like, but if I try to use water for any agriculture the state would probably fine me. I'm allowed to irrigate something like 1/2 acre of personal lawn/garden area. They check for violations with satellite photographs. They're pretty serious about it. And regardless, I'd rather NOT irrigate if I can help it, so I've been investigating drought resistant perennial pasture mixes that have a good mix of grasses, grains, and broad-leaf seeds.
Luckily, we do have an irrigation permit from an irrigation pond which was installed on the property a long time ago. We can use that water on specific lots, and it usually allows us to go around the hilly part of the farm once each summer. I'm going to ask to have the pasture included in this pass, though we must give first consideration to the business crop.
And I can certainly plant winter veggies this year. We should ALL eat more kale. Next spring ... corn, etc. We'll have nice fertilizer.
