Looks similar to Smartweed or Lady's Thumb, but you may want to research it to make sure.
I have a lot of Lady's Thumb and pull some of it occasionally for my flock. If you free range it's usually not a huge problem because they will pick at this, that and the other. If they rely on their human for bugs, weeds, veggies, etc., then a variety is best. I usually pull/clip a lot of different weeds/vegetation for mine, but I've invested in research/plant id time to make sure of what I am giving to them.
I put up corn today.....so corn shucks, some corn worms and of course...fresh corn
It looks like ladies thumb but there is no "thumb print" on the leaves. I was thinking smart weed too. Mine are not free range. Always afraid I'm going to give them dangerous vegetation. We live in the woods. They had corn, both cooked and raw on the cob. Didn't give them the shucks. I thought about it but wasn't sure. I have some more to shuck, so this time I'll save it for them. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to comment. I'm pretty new at this
I pull a large variety of weeds. If you have a field guide or you can look online at "edible" plants, you may find a lot of stuff you can add here and there. Not everything I give they eat, but they love digging through the weeds to find tiny critters and just hunt and peck. I give lamb's quarters, dandelion, clover, plantain, ragweed, pigweed (wild amaranth) those types of thing. I only have 7 chickens, so there are grasses that I give as well, but I use grass clippers to cut it in very small pieces (I don't want impacted crops) - chickens in a run can't always "nip" small pieces like they may do in a free range setting. I have a suet basket that I can load up with kale/greens for them to pick at, they also like a bundle of kale hung, as well as hanging apple, cabbage, bamboo branches etc., mine love to have things hung up, but I have done this since they were about 3wks old, so they expect something to be hung several times a week. They like to peck at squashes, pumpkin, cantaloupe, watermelon. tomatoes- anything from the garden - you get my driftMine also love to dig through pine needles, so I rake some of those up for them. I would only use leaves/pine needles from your own property or source it where you know there have been no chemicals applied. In fall, I bag as many pine needles as I can so I have some to dump in the run for them to dig through in the winter -keeps them busy and smells nice too. Also I know I mentioned bamboo, but I mainly use it in winter-it's usually green all winter, so a bundle hung up when it's cold gives them something to mess with too.
