permaculture

[Ute Bohnsack <sustag@eircom.net>]

Tuesday, February 24, 2004, 4:57:02 AM, you wrote:

f> Does anyone know of a printable, online list of plants compiled 
f> solely for chicken forage?  Does anyone have one they could summon up 
f> lacking an already available online source?  Obviously there are many 
f> plants which fit the bill but I am looking for coastal temperate 
f> (USDA Zone 8b) perennials mainly.  Pea shrubs to...?  I wonder why 
f> PFAF doesn't list Permaculture forage plants for various animals.
f> In Lake'ch
f> lance wildwood
f> robert's creek, B.C.,
f> Canada

Hello Lance,
I don't know of an online list. It'd be great if we could one together
here. I could put it on the alt.permaculture website which is thirsty
for content.
My chooks love all manner of berries:
Red, white, black currant
Blackberries
Raspberries
Worcesterberries
Mountain ash (Sorbus sp.)
Whitethorn/Hawthorn (Crataegus)
fallen fruit from apples, pears, plums etc.
Elderberries
Mulberries

Also:
Stinging nettle (leaves and seed)
Dandelion
Comfrey leaves
Sunflower seeds
Buckwheat
Evening primrose seeds
Duckweed! (high in protein, needs open water and must be harvested)
Garlic

A German source on poultry in pc systems
http://2012.org/publishing/gefluegel/index.html (have not checked
link)
gives loads of plants incl.
Bunias orientalis (careful! in Europe this is an invasive alien! I'm
not going to try it.)
Lycium chinensis
Myrrhis odorata
Oryzopsis hymenoides
Secale montana
Secale sylvestris
Astragalus glycyphyllos
I have not tried these yet. I recently bought a Lycium barbarum
(for berries, suggested by Bill Mollison) to see does it thrive here, and 
found
seeds of Myrrhis odorata (leaves and seed) which I'll try this year. The 
Secale sp. are
wild rye species which I haven't been able to get hold of.

It is not easy to design systems that use many of these plants -
timing of access, root protection, nutritional considerations (some
plants contain anti-nutritional substances) have to be taken into
account. But there would seem to be plenty of options for integration,
e.g. chickens in orchards underplanted with buckwheat (timed access;
buckwheat also attracts beneficials to orchard), chickens in woodland
edge situations (their natural habitat) with berry crops, elderberries
in chicken runs (they like high N situations) etc.

Slán,
 Ute                          


Agri-Environmental Consultancy and Technical Translations 
(English>German>English)
Dipl.-Ing. (TU) Ute Bohnsack
Clogher
Kilfenora
Co. Clare
Ireland
++353-65-7088187
mailto:sustag@eircom.net
http://www.ProZ.com/translator/3130