Free-ranging chickens is a great way to give them exercise, engagement, and plenty of extra nutrition beyond what you feed them. But there are risks. Your chickens can wander off, and they can certainly get picked off by predators from above and on the ground. It seems sad to keep your flock cooped up in the run, though!
But you might be able to let your chickens roam free, eat better, and get a little bit of protection from predators if you use cover crops.
Cover crops have long been used in farming to reduce erosion, improve soil structure, and promote fertility but they have benefits for chickens too by providing them with extra food and also a safe place to roam and hide when they are out of the coop or run.
Below I’ll tell you about my experience with growing cover crops for chickens and also what the best choices are.
Why Plant Cover Crops for Chickens in the First Place?
There are quite a few good reasons to plant cover crops for your flock, whether you let them at free-range all the time or just let them out periodically to get a little exercise.
For starters, giving your chickens a large patch of cover crops will better simulate the environment that they would actually live in in the wild. Ancient, wild chickens are jungle birds, meaning there is plenty of foliage growing at ground level.
That’s quite a big difference from the short, nearly featureless manicured lawns or pastures that most of them run around on today!
This is important not only for enriching the day-to-day lives of your birds but also for giving them a very practical advantage against predators in the form of cover.
If chickens have a place to hide or some dense foliage to bolt into, they have a better chance of dodging a predator that swoops in for an attack. Everything helps in this regard, and cover crops can serve as concealment and, in some cases, as meaningful shelter.
And then you have another entirely practical advantage and what cover crops will do for your soil. Cover cropping was extensively practiced all around the United States for many decades.
Plus, cover crops were simply non-cash crops that were grown in addition to the main cash crop, used to increase organic matter levels in soil, reduce erosion, and improve soil structure- especially during crop rotation.
Cover crops can even naturally suppress plant and insect pests that can affect other plants and even your chickens! Plus if you are sick and tired like I am of the bald spots in your yard turning into mud holes because your chickens have scratched all the grass away, cover crops will help prevent that.
The Best Cover Crops for Chickens
The following plants and grasses are great choices when it comes to chicken-beneficial cover crops. Any of them can give your chickens a good source of food, and they will also help your soil in various ways.
Kale
Kale is one of the most famous and nutritious of the leafy salad vegetables, and because most varieties grow very large, it provides plenty of ground cover and shade.
Your birds can nibble on kale and get a huge boost of various vitamins and minerals, and so will your soil after these plants break down and decompose. Kale is also known as an excellent weed suppressor and mature plants provide a good barrier against erosion.
Mustard
Believe it or not, chickens like mustard and mustard greens, and don’t seem the least bit affected by its bracing, peppery taste.
Mustard also benefits the health of your chickens by giving them a great shot of vitamins A and C and also a surprising amount of calcium. Mustard is fast-growing and, like kale, is good at suppressing weeds and preventing erosion.
Most important to some of us, it also naturally eliminates various harmful microorganisms and soil-dwelling pests when it decays into the soil. Like a natural, chicken-safe antiseptic!
Rye
A popular cool-weather forage crop, rye can provide excellent ground cover while easily outcompeting weeds and other nuisance plants at the same time. Its extensive roots lock down soil, which in turn prevents erosion and improves soil structure for future use.
Chickens can benefit from rye by nibbling on the young and tender parts of the plant and it can supply a lot of calcium and other minerals.
Alfalfa
Well known as a protein-packed legume used as forage, pasturage, and in all sorts of animal feeds, alfalfa is also a known nitrogen-fixing plant, meaning it will add nitrogen to the soil over time.
Your chickens will love alfalfa leaves, which are tasty and packed with protein along with an assortment of other essential minerals that they need like calcium.
Note that you generally don’t want chickens to eat too much alfalfa, but assuming you are giving them a well-rounded diet and letting them free range they are unlikely to overindulge.
Oats
You probably already know that chickens absolutely love oats, and they’ll love them even more when they can nibble them right off the plant.
Oats are primarily thought of as a cash crop in and of themselves but they can also make for an effective cover crop because they grow quickly and can squash weeds and other pest plants with little difficulty.
Plus, you don’t have to worry about harvesting them or taking them up in this capacity because when these plants decompose they will dramatically increase the nutrient levels in the soil.
Cowpeas
Another legume family plant that can provide chickens with a big boost of protein and other nutrients as part of a balanced diet, cowpeas can likewise restore nitrogen levels in neglected soil and have other fertility benefits besides.
They can also attract various insects that your chickens will eat in turn. Talk about a beneficial ecosystem unto itself!
Barley
Another cereal grain and another cash crop in different settings, barley seeds are favorites of chickens. Packed with good carbohydrates, a little bit of fiber, and a good assortment of essential minerals that chickens need.
This is a natural and interesting food for your flock and they will love to forage through any barley that you plant. Barley can also provide your birds with good cover since it grows reasonably tall and fairly quickly, and if left to break down will enhance soil nutrition levels for subsequent plantings.
Ryegrass
Not to be confused with rye, above, ryegrasses can make for excellent forage for your chickens just as they are.
Compared to other types of grass they will provide you with considerable benefits for improving overall soil structure and reducing the likelihood that your chickens will eventually scratch it into a muddy pit thanks to its sturdy, spreading roots.
Ryegrass can also be a good ongoing part of your flock’s diet, if a supplemental one, thanks to its great nutritional profile of protein, carbs, vitamins, and minerals.
Turnips
If you’re dealing with compacted, hard soils, turnips might be just the cover crop to kill two birds with one stone. Actually, I’m sorry, poor choice of words! Jokes aside, turnips can easily loosen up compacted soil and grow in conditions where other root vegetables would struggle.
Chickens also love those tasty, tender greens that grow on top, and they will occasionally eat tender, young roots and benefit greatly from their nutritional content. Turnips rarely grow large or tall enough to provide significant physical cover for chickens, but they still can for smaller breeds.
Wheat
You might not care about growing weed as a cash crop, but it can work wonderfully as a cover crop for chickens, especially while it is young. Mature plants tend to be too tall, however, and chickens will be unable to reach the grains over time.
Nonetheless, it provides an excellent cover for your birds and if it is left to decompose will recharge soil levels over time.
Clover
Often used as a substitute for grass, assuming it isn’t taking over your grass already, various clover varieties can be a great cover crop for chicken owners. The tender leaves of clover are high in protein and provide other needed vitamins and minerals, namely calcium, vitamin A, phosphorus, and manganese.
Like alfalfa and other plants, it’s also a wonderfully effective nitrogen-fixing plant thanks to specialized bacteria that live in its roots. Plus this stuff is tough enough that it will invariably grow back even if your chickens seemingly wipe it out.
Even better, lots of insects and worms like to shelter beneath clover, meaning your birds will have a veritable buffet thanks to it.
Buckwheat
Another grain that can give chickens some fun foraging opportunities and plenty of carbohydrates for energy along with various minerals. Buckwheat grows fast and will outcompete weeds and other nuisance plants that you probably want to get rid of already.
Although it’s not known as a big nutrient-boosting choice or as a noteworthy improver of soil structure, left to decay the nutrients that it has will still go back into the earth and improve your follow-on plantings.
Our Experience With Building a Run
Last year we built a nice big run, to protect our chickens from hawks and foxes that unfortunately picked off most of our free-range flock. It was full of grass and so nice to have them foraging around in without the worry of being attacked.
Unfortunately, it took about a week for them to completely destroy all vegetation in their yard, and they were down to bare dirt. And when it rained, mud… for days.
I LOVE the idea of free-ranging our flock, but I’ve come to realize that for us it just isn’t practical…
The chickens don’t know how to stay out of my garden beds, or my flower bed. And so, we have got to get them back under a protective cover. But we have to find a better way of doing things…
My Brilliant Idea…
I was thinking we could section off their run, plant grass on both sides, and then rotate them around so they have a constant supply of forage. But it would take a lot of materials to build a run like that.
I also thought about building a chicken tractor (a moveable coop), but I don’t really wanna have to worry about lugging a chicken coop around the yard every so often.
Plus, the only place I’d really want them digging is in the garden where they would benefit the soil, which just wouldn’t be practical.
These options sound like a lot of trouble to me. Not to say I won’t end up trying them one day, but for now, I’d just like to have the coop and the run and leave the chickens there.
I was trying to figure out which grasses (or other cover crops) would be most beneficial to plant for chickens, when I came upon a fantastic idea: building raised beds of fresh feed crops to put in the run with the chickens.
Instead of planting grass in the chicken run and having them tear it all up in a matter of days, you would build some shallow raised beds to put in with the chickens, plant the crop of choice in the beds, and cover them with a poultry wire.
Kind of like what I’ve got pictured below, only this was a chainlink fence we used to cover our strawberry bed. You get the idea.
When the grass or whatever you plant grows, the chickens will only be able to eat what comes through the wire on the top of the box. They will still get their fresh forage, but won’t be able to scratch it to oblivion.
Isn’t this genius?
Well, I think so, anyways…
So I’m gonna try it.
It may turn out to be a total failure. But it’s plan A for now.
To deal with the mud in the rest of the run I’m gonna cover it with a constant thick layer of leaves and grass clippings. Not only will this help to keep the run sanitary, but it will also provide a perfect breeding ground for worms and other little bugs for the chickens to scratch and peck at.
Now… to get Jerry to work on that chicken run!
It may be months before you see pictures of this project finished folks. But I was so excited about the idea I wanted to share it with you now.
As far as the beds are concerned, I’ll probably have two or three covered raised beds in their run. So, what do you think? Don’t you just love this idea?
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