Butternut squash in the chicken pasture

Of all the annuals I've planted in the chicken pastures, the most appropriate seem to be butternuts.  (Actually, I didn't plant them --- volunteers came up from the compost pile.)

The chickens were absent from the pasture long enough for the squash leaves to get big and spiny, so when the flock was rotated in, the birds mostly left the butternut plants alone.  They did damage the developing fruits so much that the squash won't be able to be harvested for humans --- the day after taking the first photo, that butternut was about a quarter eaten by our smart chickens.  But that's a good thing since the goal of plantings in the chicken pasture is to make chicken food.

In fact, the butternut vines that made a jailbreak and tried to enter the main garden (which I then trellised up the pasture fence) will probably make some extra squash for us.  So I guess our butternut was a dual purpose planting --- some for the chickens and some for the humans.

What failed?  Most of the sunflowers were too shaded to do much, but a few made big blooms...then got trampled by our ravenous hordes.

The ground cherries came up and got lost in the weeds.  They might still be there --- I'll know come fall if their distinctive fruits stand out.

Grain amaranth and pearl millet either didn't come up or didn't grow fast enough to reach above the weeds.  I planted all of these annuals in spots scratched bare by the flock, but it didn't take long for the wild pasture plants to regain their toehold on the empty ground.

Despite the butternut success, I still think that planting perennials and building the diversity of the chicken pasture is a better strategy than trying to plant annuals specifically for the chickens.  But it's good to know that at least one plant can stand up to moderate chicken abuse.