# Best combination of plants for chicken pasture?



## Locutus (Apr 24, 2012)

I have a small section bare earth in my backyard, no more than 1000 square feet, that I need to plant some cover, adjacent to my lawn. Some of this area is under the branches of a large cedar tree. Since I am planning on eventually raising a few layer chickens (legal max: 3) I thought it would be a good area for forage.

What are some good ground cover plants that would blend with the adjacent lawn, without being invasive of the adjacent lawn, that would also provide a good nutritious variety of forage for the chickens?

Or should I just plant grass seed to make the lawn bigger?

Given only 1000 SF of forage, what percentage of three chickens' diets would it be likely to provide? I'll be keeping them out of the vegetable garden until after harvest. They'll also receive garden and kitchen vegetable wastes as additional supplements. I'd like to keep purchased feed costs to a minimum.

Climate zone is 8A (western Washington State).


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

if you go to a farm supply you can usually find something called pasture mix..(seeds) it will have timothy grass and clover and alfalfa and other various good forage plants. I have two pens for my chickens and shut one off and grow this mix lush and then let them in. .in about a week it is all gone! they love it.


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