Tick-trefoil and morning glories as chicken feed

There seems to be very little information in the literature about plants that chickens particularly like on pasture.  So I've taken to sitting with our flock now and then and watching what they seem excited about eating.  Scratching through the soil for insects is preferred to eating plant matter of any sort, but certain plants do get our hens excited.  I've talked about chickweed in the past, and I have to say that chickweed still seems to be near the top of our hens' list, perhaps because the girls had been in the tractor for so long without access to succulent greenery.

Tick-trefoil (Desmodium sp.) seeds are another favorite.  At this time of year, the triangular seed pods snag a ride on my pants legs, and our hens will spend as long as I allow them picking the cloth clean of hitchhikers.  I'm not surprised that tick-trefoil is preferred since the species is a legume with, presumably, high protein seeds.  Purdue's famine foods website notes that people eat the seeds of one species of tick-trefoil in China and the leaves of another species in Nigeria.

Morning glory (Ipomoeae purpurea) seeds are mildly toxic, but our hens seem to like them in small quantities.

I've read that Ring-necked Pheasant and Bobwhite will eat morning glory seeds too, so I assume my girls aren't poisoning themselves.  The seeds are quite large, so they probably give the hens a good dose of nutrition.

My goal is to manage the forest pasture so that the chickens have a wide variety of wild foods available at all times.  I'll keep you posted as I notice other chicken favorites in different seasons.