Planting an optimal chicken pasture

[El Exorcisto]

My parents have been raising chickens for a couple years now, and I have been feeling the itch to get out of the neighborhood and get out where I can play around myself. I bought an acre and a half, and will be clearing all of the overgrown weeds and brush this fall and next spring. I have a two wheel tractor with plow and disc, so I am planning on turning over a lot of the old "sod" made of goldenrod, briars, and wild parsnip and turning it to pasture for a flock of tractored chickens of about 50 birds (along ith cutting in a big garden and plating some of it to orchard).

If you were to start with a clean slate, what would you plant in an optimal pasture for chickens? The usual pasture greens like alfalfa, clover, timothy, etc are nice and all, but from what I have read do little to supplement the birds' diet. I have read that comfrey is a great source of calcium and protein but what else is a must-have?

 

[jpcode]

It might help to know what region you are from, will you be irrigating the pasture, I would suggest trees for shade, dense bushes for protection from birds.

You might consider dividing up the area and rotating the chickens and pick plants that will self seed like swiss chard, spinach etc, but this is entirely depended on where you live.

 

[El Exorcisto]

I live in Upstate NY. The pasture definitely isn't going to be irrigated, although the occasional watering isn't out of the question if it's dry. I'm going to be tractoring my chickens so will be rotating them around anyway. I'm planning on planting about 10k square feet for this endeavor and having three 8'x8' tractors on it. Will this be enough ground to be able to rotate them through and have them both keep the vegetation down but not have the ground scratched down to the soil?

I didn't realize that spinach and swiss chard reseeded themselves, good thought. I was reading that buckwheat is a ridiculously fast grower that's very high in protein. It'll also give the bees I am planning on a good nectar source close to home.