What to plant for forage?

[DawnCols]

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Ah! That sounds great. Those would be easy choices, since I've grown chard and lettuce before. I also love chard--for me, sauteed with garlic and olive oil

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I didn't know those were legumes. I read somewhere that you have to be careful with legumes--something about a substance that has to be cooked before chickens can eat them? Can you shed any light on this?

If I can, I'd love to try one of these, because I understand those are good for green manures to regenerate the soil. If I can't figure out the green manure thing, at least I'll have snacks for the girls

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This is most helpful. Thanks. Flax sounds good. I wonder if I could plant flax seed from the health food store?

Thanks for the input!
Please keep them coming.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Chard with olive oil and garlic sounds delicious!

Any of the seeds sold for sprouting could definitely be planted. They are fresh and viable. If you don't need much, that is an easy place to get it. Seeds sold for eating may or may not be as viable. You might get a smaller percentage that sprout, depending on how fresh they are. You can always try it, though. If you want larger amounts, then buying seeds sold for planting is cheaper, in bulk or packaged in larger amounts.

I just ordered some of the Omega-3 chicken foraging pasture mix from Peaceful Valley. It's sold by the pound. I read about it in a thread on BYC. I'm reseeding part of the run and part of their pasture/foraging area. They have a lot of seeds you can buy, single and blends, for pastures. If you want to buy online from them, just make sure to register first, then put in an order. They had some kind of glitch recently, if you tried to register from the shopping cart. It's http://www.groworganic.com/omega-3-chicken-forage-blend-irrigated.html Consists of: 20% Common Flax, 5% Ladino Clover, 5% Birdsfoot Broadleaf Trefoil, 10% Non-dormant Alfalfa, 20% Red Cowpeas, and 40% Buckwheat. Plant at 50 pounds per acre or 2-3 pounds per 1,000 sq. ft.

The legumes that you have to worry about are dried beans, like you cook with, plus soybeans. They should be cooked in some way, to eliminate the problem. That goes for people eating them, too. Eating the legumes used for hay, like the leaves of alfalfa or clover, is not a problem.

 

[DawnCols]

The Omega 3 mix sounds perfect. A combination of things that they can forage that are good for them!

While surfing the net looking for information about the plants in that mix, I ran across the idea of planting bird seed. I'm intrigued by this idea.

 

[san415]

Clover, grass, and some edible low growing flowers, like pansy.
I have a 2x4 frame that is about 2' by2' with hardware cloth on the top. I put this on the ground in the run, sprinkle the seeds through to the ground. I use a mix of seeds. Then once the hens are able to eat the plants as they grow up through the hardware cloth, pick it up and move it and repeat the seed sowing. They eat all the plants in 1 or 2 days after you pull the frame off. You could make a couple though for more plants. My hens sit on my frames and poo in it, but the plants seem to do ok, I seed it heavy.

I start cold plants first like, kale, beets ( for the tops) cabbage, carrots, lettuce, and grasses. You can sow them when it is still cold. We still have a lot of snow here in Michigan, but I am going to start a frame as soon as the snow is gone Soon I HOPE! I am going to make a second frame this year also. I wonder if it would be ok to use 2x6 boards? Then it would be taller and the plants would also be taller? would take longer though, and I have so little willpower, I move the frame as soon as it looks like the plants are up a bit. Maybe if I made more frames I could force myself to wait till the plants were bigger and fuller.

Anyway my hens love the one I made last year. Sandra

 

[patman75]

 

[DawnCols]

I have a 2x4 frame that is about 2' by2' with hardware cloth on the top.

I love this idea!

I wonder if you could leave the frame on and let them graze the tops so the plants could keep re-growing?​

 

[san415]

Dawn, I buy to much of the seeds for the veggies and also a small bag of clover and grass. So I want to use the seeds up as much as I can. So I need to move the frame to start out more seeds. I was told that was the best to use the seeds. Not to just add them to what was grown up through the top of the frame. They wont set into the soil good otherwise. So if I had more frames, I would be able to leave one go as long as I want. My husband wanted to build it for me, and so I didn't tell him to build as many as he could. I have lots more hardware cloth so I am going to build me more (when he isn't home). Then I can do it how I want. I didn't want to say anything negative about the one he built not being enough. One is great....lots even better.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

You could definitely leave a frame in place over the grassy plants, like any of the grain grasses, as they will continue to grow through the small holes in hardware cloth. For the bushier plants like kale, lettuce and cabbage, that wouldn't work as well.

You can also plant garden flats or other containers with seed outside of the run. Let them grow as tall as you want and then put them in the run. You can rotate flats in and out of the run as you like.

 

[DawnCols]

I can see why you'd keep the frame moving if you have lots of seed and only one frame.

So here's what I'm thinking so far.
Garden flats (and pots) I have. I could probably go ahead and start some salad greens indoors. I have spinach and swiss chard and lots of lettuce seeds.
Then when the weather turns warm I can plant the omega 3 mix right in the ground.

I found a bag of birdseed that has millet seed, red millet seed, hulled oats, sunflower seed, and canary seed. I figure I can experiment with that--maybe rake some into the soil, maybe plant some in a pot, just see what happens. Maybe I'll even try planting some of the black oil sunflower seeds I have.
If I can get it together to build a frame I may plant the birdseed under it.

I really appreciate all the helpful info and suggestions.

 

[The Kibble Goddess]

I have two parakeets. There's always some uneaten seed in their crock when it's time to feed (daily). It's been sprouting from the top of my compost heap, so I thought, "Why not just scatter this to grow up for the Ladies?" There's an unused corner of the yard under the fig tree where this now gets pitched. I just scratch it in a bit, or not. It should make a nice foraging plot later.