good and tasty plants for chickens

our chicken coop is barren and muddy due to their being over 18+ chickens in their. they do free range most of the day.... but what plants are really tasty to them? a plant that is easy to grow and comes back? we have 2 polish, 3 bantys, 10 Welsh and 10 buff, 2 mixed, 2 unknown breeds, and a Rhode island red rooster.

Here's all the things I have seen chickens eat

Perennial:

-siberian pea shrub (leaves and peas)
-service berry (leaves and berries)
-Mulberry (leaves and berries)
-Russian olives (the olives)
-jerusalem artichoke (leaves and roots)
-indian rice grass
-alfalfa
-prickly pear fruit
-common mallow
-horehound (not preferred, but when it stays green in winter and so chickens use it get some fresh food)
-goji berry (fruit and leaves)

On the serviceberry, mulberry, and gojiberry you need to be careful that the chickens don't destroy new trees. Put some protection around these or only put them around mature trees. Remember that chickens will even jump to get a leaf.

Also an annual weed that chickens eat is kochia. This is an invasive weed that gets no respect, but has high levels of protein hence it's nickname as poor man's alfalfa. It also can survive nearly any conditions. Great Basin Seeds are the only place I have seen to buy the seeds, but you could probably find seeds in any abandoned lot around town.

a person I was working for recently has 50 chickens and 8 roosters and his mother would bring them apples from their small orchard and they would all run over to her and eat apples
the fresh eggs they gave me from those hens were very good... I was tempted to incubate them as I know they had not been refrigerated and had just been collected!

IMO the best plants for restoring a nuked chicken yard are the same things that grow well in a lawn. Assuming you live in a temperate climate, kentucky bluegrass and dutch white clover would be the best candidates since they can tolerate close grazing and persist really well. Along with countless broadleaf "weeds" that grow in lawns in your area. Around here dandelion, wild violets, chickweed, plantain and purslane are common weeds relished by chickens.

Whatever you do, to ensure your chicken yard doesn't turn back into Mordor, it's essential to split it into paddocks so that each area gets a period of rest. Even four paddocks that you move them around every couple of weeks should do. Although seasonality is important, if you have hot or dry summers the plants that do well in cooler weather may get too stressed out. Luckily, summer is also when there is an abundance of other food, like berries and seeds, so you should allocate another area like that for them to go. Then once the fruit is all gone you can move them back to the grassy areas.

This is easiest to do with a mobile coop and electric netting (which also helps keep predators out). But if you've invested a lot into a static coop, setting up a lane leading to the various paddocks is another way. I haven't tried that with chickens but I imagine it would be very nice once set up.

Also, if you live in a warmer climate, crabgrass is apparently great for chickens in much the same way as bluegrass. If you can tolerate crabgrass...

I have a plant question. Potato/tomato leaves?  In a potato forum one poster mentioned his chickens love the plants. BUT in the various books etc about guinea pigs there is often a warning not to feed them any solanium greens.  Also there are  warnings in many sources for people not to eat potato/tomato greens. Is it different for poultry? Chickens are on my "some day" list.

leigh gates wrote: Potato/tomato leaves?  In a potato forum one poster mentioned his chickens love the plants. BUT in the various books etc about guinea pigs there is often a warning not to feed them any solanium greens.

I do not intentionally feed my chickens nightshade family greens. I have observed young wild rabbits munch on potato greens in the past but my research has found that solanine can adversely effect poultry I'm not going to risk it personally.

I have a covered run directly attached to my chicken coop that doesn't get rotated. What I have found to be effective to have some greenery to peck at is to create a sort of protected grazing pad.

Take some wood boards and make a big ole rectangle. Cover the top with mesh wire and secure it to the wood. If it is off the soil a few inches, it should give seeds the ability to germinate and root. Chickens can come by and 'trim' the grass/clover but they won't scratch it to oblivion.

The rest of the run gets a wood chip/flake coating to deal with manure/potential erosion.

Gardeners curse chickweed because it's incredibly prolific in disturbed soil. But chooks go crazy over it! When a patch gets away on me, I chop it off at ground level with a sharp hoe and give it to my neighbour's chooks. They come running! And I get an occasional gift of tasty eggs with nice dark orange yolks.

Are you going to grow the plants in the chicken run area or in a different place with less chicken pressure? If it's the former, like Timothy suggested, the seedlings will need protection before they are big enough to be grazed. Depending on how big the run is, it can be challenging to grow a lot of food this way. Otherwise, there are many plants that chickens like to eat and are easy to grow, some maybe existing"weeds" themselves: chickweed, white clover, spring wildflowers, all kinds of brassicas etc.  In winter time, I like to sprout some winter wheat or rye seeds indoors and give them to the chickens for additional nutrition.

I find Malabar Spinach a good plant for chickens. It is extremely prolific, self-seeding, healthy, and well liked. Another good thing is that it has a very high water content, which I think really helped a chicken I had that was sick and getting really listless, to the point that drinking water was an issue. I didn't expect her to make it, but after giving her a pile of leaves, she perked up in no time.

Hi Libby.  Chickens are so destructive it's hard to keep anything growing.  I'm working on this as well.  I try to keep my chicken yard covered with wood chips.  It keeps the ground from being muddy, or a dust bowl in the summer.  I planted sweet potato along the fence. I made a very crude fence with chicken wire to keep the chickens from digging them up.  All the vines that get close to the fence are fair game.  What they can't reach makes a pretty fence with a little added shade.
The south fence is covered with grape vines ( planted before we had chickens). They love to eat the leaves, and grapes that are on there side of the fence. Thanks goodness there's plenty for everyone.
I made a box of wood with a wire top to plant fodder in. A lot of people have great luck with these, but with the wood chips the chickens kept covering them up.  I'm going to try a new version of this with sides to keep the wood chips out.  
I tried to grow calendula and a few other plants, but other critters eat them up, so this year the fence will go around the plants to keep out what ever was enjoying the yummy treats.
This year I'm going to line the entire fence and plant lots of flowers, herbs and definitely sweet potato.  
Good luck to you.