How to Grow Chicken Forage Mix in Australia

Chicken forage mix blends twelve forage plants, among them pea-family legumes (Fabaceae) such as lucerne (Medicago sativa) and sub clover (Trifolium subterraneum). It is sown as a cover crop or forage patch for chooks to graze, or for greens to cut and carry to the run. What decides whether a patch lasts is keeping the hens off until it has rooted.

Three mistakes that matter

1. Letting the chooks in too early. Hens scratch out seedlings and pull up young plants before their roots can hold. Keep the flock off until most plants stand 15 to 20 cm tall and resist a tug, as Grazing and Cutting describes.
2. Grazing it to the ground. Plants eaten or scratched to bare soil lose the crowns they regrow from, and the patch can thin with every visit. Move the hens off at about 5 cm, then rest the patch.
3. Burying the seed. Most seeds in the mix are small, and seed covered by more than about 10 mm of soil is slow to come up or fails. Rake it in lightly and firm the surface, as Sowing Seeds sets out.

When to plant

Sow in autumn or spring, into moist soil warm enough for quick growth: chicory establishes fast once the soil passes 12°C. Millet and sunflower are summer plants, while buckwheat grows fast in mild, moist weather, wilts in dry heat and dies with frost.

In frosty districts a spring sowing is safer, because autumn seedlings must be well grown before the first frost. Outside the tropics and subtropics, avoid a mid-winter sowing.

Site, soil and setup

Put the patch beside the run or in a fenced section of it, so the hens can be let in and shut out easily.

Container growing

With no room for a patch, sow 1 to 2 g of seed in a seedling tray, then set it in the run when grown. For a pot to cut from, use one at least 30 cm across holding 10 to 15 L of premium potting mix. The blend has no compact varieties to choose between.

• Watering: keep the mix evenly damp until seedlings show, then water when the surface dries.
• Feeding: seaweed solution at half strength, 15 mL per 9 L, fortnightly from the first true leaves.
• Position: full sun to part shade, out of the hens' reach until plants are about 10 cm tall.
• Turnover: take a tray out before it is eaten bare and let it reshoot, or resow it.

Sowing Seeds

Broadcast Chicken Forage Seeds Mix straight onto the patch where it will grow, because the hens graze it in place.

Sowing direct

• Where clover, lucerne or medic have not grown before, coat the seed with inoculant (root nodule bacteria) matched to each, or they fix little nitrogen.
• Scatter 2 to 3 g of seed per square metre over a raked, weed-free bed, so 100 g sows 33 to 50 square metres.
• Rake lightly so no more than 10 mm of soil covers the seed; small chicory and clover seed does best at about 5 mm.
• Firm the surface with the back of the rake or a roller, then water gently and keep it damp until the seedlings are up.
• Germination starts within 2 to 3 days in moist soil. Buckwheat shows in 3 to 5 days, and most of the mix within about a week.
• Leave the seedlings unthinned; the patch grows as one dense sward.

Protecting the patch

Any of these methods keeps the hens out while the patch roots.

Care by growth stage

Water decides how soon the patch is ready to graze. The legumes fix their own nitrogen once root nodules form, and grazing hens manure the patch, so it needs little feeding.

If growth stalls on poor, sandy soil, scratch in a light dose of all-purpose controlled release granular (NPK around 14-5-10) and water it in.

Companion planting

Hens help plants they cannot easily damage and harm young or cropping ones.

Grows well with

• Established fruit trees, where hens catch pests such as fruit fly and codling moth.
• Comfrey along the outside of the run fence, which hens pick through the wire without destroying. It holds liver-harming alkaloids, so keep it a small share of their greens.

Keep apart

• Vegetable beds in crop, which scratching hens damage; let them in only between crops.
• Young fruit trees, which need a wire cage until they are established.

Grazing and Cutting

The patch is ready when most plants stand 15 to 20 cm tall and resist a tug, often 8 to 14 weeks after sowing.

• Let the hens in for a quick graze, not a long stay.
• Move them off when plants are down to about 5 cm.
• Rest it three to four weeks in fast growth, six weeks or more when growth slows.
• Graze lightly from late autumn to early spring, when regrowth is slow.
• To cut and carry, shear leaves to about 5 cm and toss an armful into the run.
• Graze or cut often in spring to keep chicory leafy, not stalky.

There is nothing to store: cut fresh each morning, only as much as the flock finishes. Offer the greens alongside the hens' usual feed, not in place of it.

Resowing

The annuals die out within the year, though sub clover and barrel medic return each autumn if they set seed in spring. Lucerne, chicory, plantain and cocksfoot can carry on for several years with rest between grazings. To thicken a thin patch, let chicory seed as Common problems describes, or rake bare spots and oversow in the next window.

Weed lists, state by state

None of the twelve appears on the declared weed lists of the other states and territories, or on Western Australia's declared plants page. Several are naturalised, though: in New South Wales chicory is a common roadside weed and plantain a widespread garden weed.

Common problems

A bare, scratched patch. Too many hens or too little rest strips the cover (see Three mistakes that matter). Fence off half, oversow it and graze the halves in turn.

Patchy seedlings. Dry soil, deep sowing or weeds leave gaps. Rake the bare spots and resow while the soil is moist and warm.

Lucerne fading out. Waterlogged or acid soil kills lucerne first. Fix drainage and lime as Site, soil and setup describes, or let acid-tolerant chicory and clover fill in.

Chicory disappearing. Grazing animals pick out chicory first, so it thins under constant grazing. Give it rests of six weeks or more from late spring into autumn so it can seed.

Tall, stalky growth. A patch left ungrazed through spring runs to stems that hens leave. Graze it more often, and slash old stems in a dry spell, not just before rain.

Pests and diseases

The patch draws the pasture pests of southern Australia, which do most harm to seedlings in autumn and spring.

Redlegged earth mite (Halotydeus destructor). Mites about 1 mm long, velvety black with orange-red legs, feed in groups and turn leaves silvery white. Seedlings can die as they emerge.

Lucerne flea (Sminthurus viridis). Light green-yellow springtails up to 3 mm long, often with darker mottling, rasp clear windows in clover and lucerne leaves. They thrive in moist weather.

Bluegreen aphid (Acyrthosiphon kondoi). Matt blue-green aphids up to 3 mm long cluster on lucerne, medic and sub clover tips, mostly in spring. Hoverfly larvae, lacewings and ladybirds eat them. Read more

Spotted alfalfa aphid (Therioaphis trifolii). Pale yellow-green aphids about 2 mm long, with rows of tiny black spots, feed under lucerne, medic and clover leaves, mostly in autumn. Veins yellow, then leaves drop. A hard graze sets them back.

Cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae). Velvety green caterpillars chew the bok choy in the mix. Hens pick caterpillars off the leaves, so a grazed patch rarely needs more. Read more

Prevention first

• Clear capeweed and other broadleaf weeds before sowing, as they carry earth mites.
• Check seedlings every few days for their first five weeks.
• Graze well in spring, down to about 5 cm, to cut mite numbers the next autumn.
• Keep flowering plants nearby for the insects that eat aphids.

Tips

1. Plant the patch downslope of the run, to catch nutrients washed out in heavy rain.
2. Brace a grazing frame with extra cross supports, because the mesh sags once hens stand on it.
3. Judge each visit by the plants, not the clock: a flock eats greens faster than most keepers expect.

Due to quarantine restrictions and our shipping policy, we cannot send Chicken Forage Seeds Mix to Western Australia or Tasmania.