Feeding Clover

A common thread among all the old poultry books is the feeding of clover. It is the most recommended green feed and yet I hear little or nothing about it nowadays. What is the ingredient in store bought feeds which supplies the nutrients required from greens? The literature I have suggests drying clover and adding it to the feed mix @ 20-30%, or supply it free feed. I know it causes darker egg yolks which is unwanted in these parts, thus wheat feed is #1 choice, but I am more concerned with the fowls health and nutrition. I just read an article from 1950's claiming that clover and other greens play a large part in the fowls immunity to "colds"...we know what that means now eh? So one publication claims that Rowen clover is the best choice, I did some searching but cant seem to get a grip on what rowen?..rowan? clover is, I just get weird search results...any clues anyone???

interesting, I never heard of any clovers but Alsike and sweet but no doubt there are more types....

HI I would check a place that sells heirloom seeds for that variety.
On the topic of feeding .... can you feed cauliflower to chickens ?

GEri

Rasilon wrote:HI I would check a place that sells heirloom seeds for that variety.
On the topic of feeding .... can you feed cauliflower to chickens ?

GEri

Sure!

reneggaide I can't believe that people in your area don't want dark yolks. The darker the better as far as I am concerned!!! In Australia people have identified dark yolks with healthier birds (meaning they get a varied diet including greens) so the commercial producers now put additives in the commercial feed to make the yolks a dark orange colour.

We feed ours clover most of the winter. We put up small square bales of clover x grass hay and the girls get that in the winter.

I haven't heard of Rowen clover and just asked the forage producer sitting on the couch and he hasn't heard of it either.

Ok, rowen is a term used in haying, not a variety. Rowen is the second cut. It is usually best because the first cut has more nitrogen in it then the second cut. Granted, I have yet to find one that grows this far north that you can effectively get more then one good cut from. In general there is main types: red, white and Alsike. Alsike is the one that is poisonous to horses. We grow red clover here. I can say that they love it. It has darkened the yolks some, but I actually planted it in the pasture they graze on. They go after all the bugs attracted to it too. We have a clover/fescue mix that we give all the animals in the winter. Again though, the fescue is creeping, not tall, so it is not the one that carried the poisons.

Alsike is bad for cattle as well. I imagine it is not good for many animals.

A good way to tell if clover is Alsike or not is by looking at the leaf. If it has a whitish V shape on the leaf, then it is ok to feed to animals, it is the red clover. For people not used to clover, the white can be a bit harder to distinguish.

I like red clover too, but white clover is also a nice short pasture clover. I would think sweet clover would give a bit of a better yield than red, since it's a taller plant. Not sure which makes a more nutritious hay though.

White clover also has white spots on the leaves, but can be a bit harder to tell from alsike, though alsike flowers have pink in them compared to the pure white of the white clover.. A birds digestive system is nothing like a horses, so I don't see why you would necessarily be worried about alsike for birds.

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Here's some info.

Hi These guys have different clover seed for sale.

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Geri