Perennial Plants for Chickens

Hi all,

I've got a pasture for chickens - layers - that I want to use as a feed suppliment (I know you can't feed them 100% pasture). I want to get the most nutritious plants possible and/or the buggiest plants possible, so I don't have to feed them as much. I think the water table is about 3 feet down. Oh, and this is in Southern California.

My first thought is a variety of low shrubs and low grasses. I figure drip to the shrubs would be pretty cool to increase production. Sunflowers (for the yummy seeds)...Indian Rice Grass?? Maybe some sort of quinoa/amaranth/sorghum, native buckwheat??, Something like alfalfa but not as tall....what else??

Thanks!

You might also want to plant some mugwort ( Artemisia vulgaris).

Chicks love to eat it, it repels lice, and it is used as a culinary herb on (you guessed it) poultry.
A win/win for poultry owners.

EDITED to add:

It is a very hardy perennial, that thrives in poor, dry soils. Dried leaves are often used as a tea.

Paul has just done a blog post about growing feed for chickens. Might be worth a look!

Thanks! Yeah, that blog is good!

John Polk wrote:You might also want to plant some mugwort ( Artemisia vulgaris).

Chicks love to eat it, it repels lice, and it is used as a culinary herb on (you guessed it) poultry.
A win/win for poultry owners.

EDITED to add:

It is a very hardy perennial, that thrives in poor, dry soils. Dried leaves are often used as a tea.

I just wanted to put it out there for anyone who may read this in the future because I know this is a fairly old thread.

I have mugwort in my yard unintentionally. I have been trying to kill it all summer long- pulling it by hand does not get rid of it. I've resorted to covering it with a tarp for WEEKS at a time and then pulling what remains. Even still, some of it is coming back, so I have to go back and re-pull it. It took over one of my flower beds in a matter of a year or two. I think I'm going to have to toss some of my creeping phlox because its all entangled with this stuff. I would avoid purposefully putting this stuff in your yard unless you can give a large area over to it... and then some.

I also have free-range chickens and they have never touched the stuff.

Thanks! You must be in an area Mugwort really likes! We only get it in samall patches here, but I'll make sure to keep it out of a chicken feed mix and make sure it doesn't go crazy here.

Burra, Thanks so much for the blog link.