Comfrey in Chicken Run - How does it work?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2022
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Transplanted 2 yrs ago a row of Comfrey along the fence with the neighbours in order to suppress the bindweed and nettles trying to invade our garden. Suppression works very well and the neighbour chickens eat all the Comfrey they can reach...
Thank you for that information. Just last week I planted comfrey along about half the fenceline between my "dog lawn" and my food forest and I have a bindweed problem in my food forest, because I can't weed it out of the lawn. So I will definitly "comfrey-fy" the rest of the fenceline now, too!
I also noticed that comfrey is good in supressing nettles - which I like very much, because my nettles seem to be extra extra stingy 😂 so: even more comfrey will be planted. Digging up one established plant will do! 😊
Great system there, wow!
WOW KNOXVILLE , TENNESSEE !!!
Ohhh smart!!!
I now use comfrey as an indicator plant to show soil fertility. If comfrey will thrive there, trees do well. If comfrey doesn't grow well, then your trees won't thrive either.
I've watched the soil improvements we have made in the condition of the comfrey.
Very neat additional yield to comfrey.
Wow!
I have been growing comfrey since I was 11.......bought my first roots from an ad in mother earth news....fed it to the chickens,rabbits,goats and pigs. Still today I raise it where I live for rabbits,chickens,compost activation material and to make a tea for garden vegetables ☺️
So neat to read you've been working with this plant for that long!
@@edibleacres seeing as I'm ready to turn 60, absolutely a great producing plant. And after your video I believe I will incorporate it into the edges of my new chicken run.......self feeding is a great idea
That is tried and true and time tested, love the story!
Comfrey roots grow so deep and provides a great predator proof barrier. I will use this as well. I love your entire system and will adopt it.
Best of luck to you!
I need to get my hands on some comfrey for our property. I've been using borage for a few years now and it's wonderful for chickens too, although I don't have it growing in their run. I just chop it when it falls over or gets out of hand and throw piles in to them. The bees love it too of course.
I've had a lot of sucess planting comfrey stems that have a node on it. Put the node under the dirt level and it will start a new plant.
Neat to know!
How are you doing?
Finally found two plants at a nursery. Planted between my raised beds and our back fence. Plan is to use the Comfrey as not only a weed suppressor but also for my hens and the compost. You gave me the idea . Blessings from Australia ❤️
I've had comfrey growing in my chicken area for 4-5 yrs now and they nibble on it here and there. I created a hedge with it and planted it here and there in the rest of my backyard.
I like how you call it a feedback loop because they are literally feeding it back to each other
That is the idea. Having inter-relationships that resonate and support one another. We can design that over and over in landscapes if we put in the effort
When you plant the Comfrey, try laying stones or paving stones around the stem to cover the roots... It's probably a good idea to leave the stones around the base, because I also found I had some well-established Comfrey in an area that I later fenced off part of the permanent chicken pen, the chickens ate off every bit of the tops, the area became muddy with winter so I closed it off they still have not been back in there and just checking there is no Comfrey at all coming up this spring (I live in New Zealand)
So I'm thinking the chickens have actually killed the Comfrey with continuous grazing.
This could be something to try from anyone who has too much Comfrey.
Thanks for sharing these observations :)
I really enjoy all your chicken videos. Thanks for mentioning that you plant your amaranth near the fence … what a great idea!!
An absolute plant to cultivate! 👍
How are you doing?
Thank you for another wonderful video. I’m learning so much about permaculture techniques. After renting for 30 years I bought my first house on a quarter acre. I currently have my chickens on deep litter in a pen. I just got five comfrey root cuttings, which I put in pots. I’m very interested in putting them in the fence edge of their run, thank you for the idea.
Incidentally, I’ve been growing herbs since I was 9. I remember about comfrey
root cuttings and deciding to give it a
try when I was about 12. They grew beautifully. 🌿💚
I planted dozens of comfrey from root fragments in the chickens' run this month after seeing your videos on it, thanks for the great idea, especially since it helps keep the dreaded bermudagrass back too. Hope your lungs are healing up well, cheers.
Thanks John and happy growing
I love your chicken videos. Love the density they have in their runs.
A lot of chicken areas are manure flies dirt and not much else!
I have a backyard orchard that is in my chicken run they have full cases to everything. I use a lot of wire rings rocks and Logs hoping for total density in the future. Thanks again for the wonderful content!!
Really happy to share, and to show examples of heavily vegetated areas as being worthwhile to have for our dear chicken friends :)
I loved seeing comfrey as a rhizome barrier by your sea buckthorn driveway
love the chicken updates
WOW SO MUCH LIFE!! This is so great I’ve been waiting for this!!! Thank you so so so much!!!! This video is great!!!
:)
Thank you Sean for your continuing inspiration. I've been watching for a long time now and am continually getting new ideas from you for managing my chickens. I just love the growing of amaranth and hanging that on the fence - will certainly give that a go! And I hadn't thought of establishing some comfrey plants right where the chickens are - I've mostly been cut and carrying! Thanks again for sharing all of this amazing content!!
Hi Linda! 🙂 This video gave me the idea, to add a row of comfrey along my rows of raspberries: same thing: until now I cut the comfrey elswhere and carry it to the raspberries as mulch, but still have to weed out nettles, bindweed and elderberry bushes out of the berry canes). Soooooo many wins in that (I hope 😂) - comfrey seems to be pretty good at supressing my extra stingy stinging nettles.
@@MartinaSchoppe Martina I have been growing raspberries for years (complete with the weed issues) and I had never dreamed of the comfrey option! We generally use old straw or chopped autumn leaves, but your idea sounds great. Thanks so much for sharing
@@bjohnston3659 Yes, I mulch the heck out of them, too. The soil there is getting really good (heavy clay) but also the soil live is getting hungrier and hungrier every year. Last fall I put about one big bag's worth of leaves per 2square meters and all of that was gone on late april. Had to add wood shavings, and tons of green stuff in it and that was gone in August... So I hope, the comfrey will help at least with shading the soil, and supressing the nettles, because those are monsters!
And here I am, wishing I had nettles! 🤣
Great idea to hang the amaranth! I planted some this year, so I will try that.
Beautiful video. Fantastic relationship between the chooks and the comfrey.
Glad you enjoyed it
Excellent. Really good. Thank you.
I was on the way to replication of this chicken yard in Montana. (Yours being the most peaceful, beautiful, perfect, yard I've ever seen.) Now starting all over in Ohio. But I've warmed by 2 climate zones, so hopefully I will catch up. Sad to say I lost my best compost tool though; gravity.
Thank you. Thank you Sean. I really enjoyed this one! The "kids" look great. I remember when they first arrived.
How are you doing?
love to see your videos to get more information
Glad you like them!
Love this! You gave me more things to think about. Thank you for sharing. You both are a blessing. 😊
How are you doing?
So glad!
I will definitely start a comfrey border in my chicken run as soon as I next visit our property. Thanks for you amazing videos.
Good luck!
Lots of good advice. Thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
Great video! I am going to try growing some in my quail aviary❣️
Good luck!
I will expand my comfrey using your root method. Sure will save me time and money.
I planted quite a bit around my property and none of it made it through this crazy hot Texas summer. But I'm going to try again in the spring and water quite a bit more and maybe it'll work. I really would love to have this plant in my landscape
Would be valuable to try to find comfrey this fall and plant before the rains of winter come in. Maybe they can get established before the heat of next summer...
Same happened to me here in Catalonia, Spain. Will try again and plant them in a shadier spot.
When planting the comfrey you could bury between two plants an olla or an upside down soda bottle with holes drilled in it
We bought some comfrey crowns from you and it's looking great. The elderberry and black currants are also doing well. Thanks so much!
So very glad!
Love this! I’ve grown it to cut and feed for two years now.
I have a question about the chicken yard with the elderberry growing…. I grow elderberry as well but I was under the impression that it’s too toxic to the chickens to have them in the area(granted I work for The Farm Life and bring cooked elderberries home all the time after making syrup)
Is it not a true threat to them?
I love your TH-cam channel, sorry I’m blanking on you and your wife’s name at the moment but I really appreciate what you do. I take a lot of inspiration from your channel and the way you work with water has been one of my most exciting and inspired field work/permie things ever
Thanks for such kind words, much appreciated! We are Sasha and Sean and our dear friend Juan works with us extensively as well...
Oh that's right, I hear you refer to Sasha and Juan a lot, and I see Juan in videos but I almost never remember hearing your name except for your visit that Flock Finger Lakes did and stuff. I love the video you recently did on creating a little stream into a small pond and solar pumping into extra at your friends property. Your content really sticks in my mind and I find I actually apply it both physically and intellectually @@edibleacres
I remember that video when you planted it. So simple and easy. I need to plant more along my coop run for the chickens. Maybe using a wire barrier for a year will get it established enough to let them have at it! Thanks!
Certainly easy for the hens to destroy before it is established!
How are you doing?
I tried growing comfrey from root fragments and despite weed pressure and drought most of them sprouted. Thanks for another great video on the benefits of comfrey!
So glad they are thriving for you!
Interested to see how it fairs in the spring where the comfrey is coming up from underground. Our chickens pound new growth, especially when things start warming up.
Could put a crate upside down over the new growth yo protect it somewhat from marauding chickens
Awesome vid. Can’t wait to get my comfrey hedge started. I’ve got plans to use it as a rhizome barrier between crimson clover and lawn. Also looking forward to having comfrey mulch and tea.
How are you doing?
Good luck!
@@edibleacres how tall and wide do these varieties get? I was wondering if I should build barrier between neighbors grass that keeps creeping into my native garden.
We' are planning to plant Comfrey and amaranth next year. I'm going to plant Russian Comfrey which isn't as invasive. The seeds of Russian Comfrey are sterile but the root system is what continually reproduces though. Great video. Blessings 🥰
Also safe for tinctures supposedly.
@@lillianmeyers4315 Yes!
There seems to be so many benefits to comfrey. According to google it's only good to zone 3-4. We are in zone 2 (it snowed today 😯). Perhaps we can find a particularily hardy variety. Any suggeestions?
We had 3 hatches this year and differentiated them by calling them the teens (May), toddlers (June), and babies (July). 23 lovely chickens but not an egg in sight. 🤷
Check out goji berries! Another robust bush that packs a lot of nutrition, for chickens, other animals, and us. They add nutrition to salsa, tomato sauce, and traditional stir fry dishes. The plant needs no care, and like comfrey, it can spread.
Great suggestion, Goji is a great plant
Not just chickens that love it, my dog is addicted. First thing he does in the mornings when let out is have a good browse then a few more goes during the day. Keeps it will pruned.
That is a new one to me!
Thank you Jedi Master!
Thank you for the great context tn your video.
So happy to share
Thank you for this, too. I have an area that could potentially serve the chickens in this manner. Thanks for the idea.
For sure!
Thanks for the wonderful informative videos! Do the chickens that prefer the treed bushy areas, lay their eggs there?
my chooks layed in their nesting boxes inside their coop, where they slept every night. Then they roamed all over the garden during the day
I really like the idea of using food to also provide cover and protection from your chickens from arial predators, but what about terrestrial ones. Raccoons and possums come to my mind. Does that fence stop them?
Snakes too
Excellent educational video.
I see your comfrey has white flowers as do mine. What variety is this? Everyone I know has purple flowering comfrey. Also, you mentioned using the grain of your Red amaranth but what about the leaves?
Thank you again
This is bocking comfrey. It has blue flowers although they may look white at first?
I live in East Africa and am trying to do something similar. I have 7 small paddocks with gates, and each day, I let the chickens into a different paddock. I have Amaranth, Aloe Vera, and Alfalfa growing in each paddock. Rotating daily between paddocks. Can you suggest other things I should include in the paddocks for healthy chickens? I am trying to completely wean off commercial feeds.
How did you mean, not to dig in the inside of the garden? Well comfrey not invade unless disturbed? Do the chickens constant scratching discourage the plants from setting seed or do you manage in other ways?
I'm loving this idea. One of my big garden goals is to do a chicken "mote" around a few of my gardens because we suffer from rhizome grasses, deer (and goat) garden raids 😂, & just the sheer convenience of coupling our living systems together for time & resource management.
I think he's using the Russian/Bocking cultivars, which don't have fertile seeds. So the only way they spread is if you disturb or transplant their roots.
This is great! Your video is very inspirational. My chickens like to leave barren wastelands in their wake... do you have any tips to prevent this? I would love to have a overgrown "jungle" area for them!!
THere may be value in offering them much more space if you can to avoid the barren sentiment as well as more shrubs and trees planted in their area!
I harvest the comfrey just as the flowers begin to set seed. Pollinators get a second flush and the birds get a feed.
We normally do that as well. This batch got one really hard cut not long ago and will most likely make a few flowers before winter
Do you use sterile comfrey or the regular comfrey?
Would it be gross to run our backyard hens in our greenhouse over the winter if we still want to grow food in there in the summer? Love all your videos.
I personally wouldn't see that as an issue at all, especially if you are adding a nice carbon source and compost for them to work with and scratch in. Keep it hydrated so it isn't a super dusty mess in spring and there should be some lovely, albeit a bit young / 'raw' compost to work into the soil...
@@edibleacres Thank you! How do I make a donation to edible acres? thanks
What zone are you in? I am in zone 4 and my chickens love the woods. I am also keeping my kale going and freezing it for a treat for the chickens in the dead of winter. I will shred it and warm it with a little warm water. I never thought of comfrey. I have the non invasive kind. It will still spread but not like the comfrey in the South. I have to look it up and see if all comfrey is safe for chickens.
We are zone 5b. This is Comfrey type Bocking 14 and some Bocking 9. Non-spreading. Really only spreads with root disturbance.
How are you doing?
I think the design is valid only in temperate humid climate like yours. I grow comfrey around fruit trees in semiarid conditions (with ocasional irrigation) for fertilizing purposes and ocasional free ranging guinea fowl on the 2000 sq mt plot stuns the comfrey - they eat all the leaves top to buttom and the plant has a hard time recovering if the browsing presure persists. That s why i can't "afford" to free range guineas on my plot
We don't have experience with super dry areas so your observations are helpful. I wonder what deep deep mulches would do both for your trees but especially the comfrey and it's ability to rebound...
@@edibleacres i do practice super 👌 deep mulching for fruit trees with straw (encouraged by you 😋) so comfrey benefits as well. I believe comfrey simply doesn t perform at it's best in dry climates. No matter the soil humidity available, the daytime heat is to much for it. Of course, it can gain momentum if left uncut/unbrowsed but constant fowl presence around it is detrimental. Cutting it, i get around 4 yealds per season, no problem, with a sufficient "resting" period prior to natural winter dieback. (Our annual average is around 300 mm)
Do you know which species of comfrey you have?
I tried to add comfrey this year and the chickens would dig it up before it could ever get established..
When you plant the Comfrey, try laying stones or paving stones around the stem to cover the roots... It's probably a good idea to leave the stones around the base, because I also found I had some well-established Comfrey in an area that I later fenced off part of the permanent chicken pen, the chickens ate off every bit of the tops, the area became muddy with winter so I closed it off they still have not been back in there and just checking there is no Comfrey at all coming up this spring (I live in New Zealand)
So I'm thinking the chickens have actually killed the Comfrey with continuous grazing.
This could be something to try from anyone who has too much Comfrey.
Try covering it with a milk crate until it is established
I planted one in the compost run, behind some wire fencing- the ate it to death through the fencing!
Yikes. Well, time to try again, with a bit more protection and probably more plants :)
@@edibleacres Yes, probably a full cloche!
Brilliant but how do you find the eggs?
They have a coop with nesting boxes.
Where can I buy comfrey bulk to try for salves? I am currently in Lincoln Nebraska.
Not sure, but it is SO SO easy to grow perhaps you want to grow your own so you can harvest?
i see that your comfrey has the leaf mildew problems minute 3.49 -do you try to fix this? as im continually fighting it as to not have it spread to other plants
I don't worry about it. It is seasonal and goes away it seems
Mine get a bit mildewy in spots where it is a bit too dry. As I cut the comfrey to use as mulch, i don't even worry about that and I did not notice any mildew on other plants even right next to those comfrey plants.
Is the plant invasive??
We are doing permaculture in Kenya, and people eat comfrey a lot here. I wonder if the B12 in comfrey is enough for people… duckweed is the only plant source we’ve tried so far for ourselves
Good to hear folks in other places find so much value in this plant!
Have you used nasturtium tofeed chickens. I have been told it is antiviral.
I love comfrey and need to get more at my new home. But the comfrey I had in the chicken yard was destroyed by my chickens. 😂😂😂
An overturned wire basket or crate will protect new growth until it gets established. The chickens can only peck a little bit of it through the wirr
So with all the natural habitat do the hens still lay in the coop or do u have to go on a scavenger hunt?
They seem to lay all in the coop, at least I hope thats true!?!
I wonder if comfrey would grow well in on and off drought conditions here in the deep southwest?
It needs shade and water. I interplant it with sweet potatoes and in pots all over under my trees.. and under elderberry plants. I’m on the az Mexican border. You may notice he’s in a lusher environment than ours.
When it gets very very dry they slow down immensely
How are you doing?
I have no luck with comfrey. Super frustrating. Burdock grows like crazy, comfrey I have to baby and then I forget about it and it dies.
Is there stuff underground that eats comfrey?
Could be creatures that eat them. Also super dry or damaged soils don't host comfrey very well... Could need more compost/mulch?
Do you have issues with the chickens laying eggs all over the place in there?
For the most part they do a good job of laying in the nesting boxes
Does anyone have experience using comfrey in guilds? I'm thinking Goji with comfrey or some sort of fence climbing vine right now. Open to suggestions 👍
Goji and comfrey together resonates as a really reasonable path and combo... I'd encourage experimenting with that.
I know my hens like to eat comfrey during the growing season, but was wondering if comfrey could be cut and dried and fed to hens during the winter? Anybody know???
That is a great question, I believe I've heard of people trying to do it, but I know we haven't...
What other plants endure in a chicken run?
Nasturtium, borage
Some people caution the use of comfrey in chickens due to some of the “chemicals” in the plants. I haven’t been able to find any information on comfrey poisoning in chickens and your chickens appear to be extremely healthy.
There is documentation about toxicity that I've seen, but it is from trials that seem really insane with how much leaf they tested... I wouldn't worry about it as a free choice leaf available in a diverse context of options
Nice environment for chickens which likely evolved from a jungle/Forrest bird/dinosaur.
We try to mimic that setting for them when we can
Sorry to be thick, but what stops the comfrey from going all over the place?
plant a non-seeding variety. Or cut before they go to seed. And don't hack into their root system. And if you have one, where you don't want it, keep cutting the leaves off as soon as they regrow, because even comfrey can't survive without solar panels 🙂
They only spread by root disturbance if you grow Bocking 14 or Bocking 9
@@MartinaSchoppe thanks so much
@@edibleacres and thank you too!
I can't find anybody that has comfrey.
can we eat comfrey
That is up to you, but we have
After this video I tried this and the comfrey I put in there was gone by 2 days lol
Wow!
@@edibleacres I'm going to plant some outside the fence and they can munch on the leaves that come 8n
Hi! Wondering how you keep your chickens in with such a short fence, or do they not try to fly out? Mine have. I've tried clipping wing feathers too and they still managed to do it so I just made the fence a little taller.
I have a tiny garden in the city with neighbors on every boarder. 6 girls here and I have never clipped them, as long as they are happy with plenty of variety to peck at and scratch, they can be trained like dogs to stay in certain areas. I also rotate them between a fenced off area and giving them the run of the whole garden. Maybe you could divide up the place you have yours, so if they do break out, they will try to get to the place they have been fenced off from but like to go (hope that makes sense 😅)
Is it possible to put a cover crop on chicken compost? I have a 3 month old compost pile and want to wait maye 3 more months for it to decompose because it has wood chips, and it takes longer to decompose. Anyway, i feel the hot weather will dry the top too much and slow decomposition even more. Was thinking of placing alfalfa. Any ideas?i live in a desert so temperatures get to 115f on summers .