Chickens not thrilled with oats and peas

I posted previously about letting our chickens graze a pasture of annual winter forage.  After watching them utilize the pasture for four days, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed.  Yes, they did nibble at the annuals --- especially the tenderest mustard leaves, which the chickens pulled all the way up and killed --- but the flock just wasn't that enthusiastic about the pasture.  Despite that fact that I cut back their grain rations, the chickens were still spending most of every day snoozing on the sidelines and waiting for me to bring them snacks.

To be fair, I was similarly disappointed by our chickens' reactions to grass in their spring pastures, then later learned that the chickens did enjoy grass in the summer when weeds were less succulent.  So perhaps the winter oats and peas will be eaten with more relish later in the fall and winter when perennials have gone to sleep.

Another factor to be considered is the continual grazing that all of our pastures have endured this year.  Yes, I've been rotating our chickens from paddock to paddock every week or so, but I can tell my management wasn't top notch.  I've read that cows have "repugnance zones" and won't eat any pasture plants within ten feet of a cow pie, often avoiding that area for a year and a half!  Perhaps our chickens consider all of these over-grazed pastures to be repugnance zones despite the rest periods between bouts of grazing?

I'll keep you posted as I tweak our pasture system, but meanwhile, our chickens are enjoying scratching up the nearby woodland.  More on that in a later post!