Bocking comfrey for chickens and a giveaway

Autumn comfrey

I wrote over on my homesteading blog about the power of comfrey last week.  What I didn’t mention there is that I splurged and bought two Bocking 4 comfrey plants last fall.  Bocking 4 is reputed to be the best comfrey variety for livestock due to its higher protein Russian comfrey flowerslevels and better flavor, and we want our chickens to have the best.



Even though the Bocking 4
plants will be in our pastures eventually, my new method is to put
purchased pasture plants on the outside of a fenceline at first. 
That way, the plants can get established without being pecked and
scratched to pieces, some parts of the plants will dip into the pasture,
and, after year 1, I can split these plants apart to create lots more
that will actually go into the pasture.


Comfrey along a fenceline

So now it’s time for that
split!  As you can see from the photo at the top of this page, two
little roots grew into two huge plants that filled up a
four-foot-by-two-foot zone along the fenceline.  I’m hoping I can
get at least a dozen babies from these plants and will plant them along
the inner fencelines of our tree alleys
in our new pasture.  The photo above shows how I already planted
out some of my unnamed comfrey variety into that setting.  The
plants look droopy now, but as I learned last year with my terrace experiment, the comfrey will be bushy and thriving come spring with no care on my part.

Do you want to join my in my comfrey-for-chickens experiment?  I’m
going to set aside two starts for one lucky reader.  Just leave a
comment below by midnight on Thursday, November 28 (Thanksgiving). 
I’ll use a random number generator to choose the winner and will
announce here on the blog next week.  So be sure to check back to
find out if you won!

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