Is Crimson Clover Toxic for Chicken Feed?

Chickens and Food

• Chickens are commonly conceived as mindless creatures incapable of taking care of themselves, but when it comes to food they generally do not make mistakes. When a chicken is not absolutely starving, it very rarely eats anything that is not good for them. Chickens are discerning in regards to their food; they possess the innate ability to judge what will or won't hurt them.

Feeding Chickens Clover

• If crimson clover were poisonous to chickens, they probably would not attempt to eat it. Fortunately, it is not the least bit poisonous to them. In fact clover is considered a very high quality feed for chickens, especially after it's matured. Crimson clover that is allowed to reseed will propagate, providing larger yields year after year, providing your chickens with a rich food source that requires little effort or money to sustain.

Great Rotation

• If you are growing vegetables and raising chickens, crimson clover is a useful addition to the garden. The clover can be grown in your vegetable beds in the off season to help fix nitrogen in the soil and make it available for vegetables to be grown next season, and portions of the crimson clover can be used as chicken feed as well. In this way, you can feed both your chickens and your vegetables with the same plant.

Coop Ground Cover

• Crimson clover is typically used as a cover crop in vegetable beds, but it can also be used as a ground cover in larger chicken coops. The clover seed is laid in the early fall and allowed to grow through the winter, when the chickens have a slower appetite and do not eat all the seeds. When the plants mature, your chickens have a readily available source of food. By virtue of the clover growing in the soil the soil also gains fresh nutrients and a new micro ecosystem begins to develop in the soil, providing even more food for the chickens.