COWPEAS, COOL SEASON PEAS, YELLOW SWEET CLOVER, HYBRID BRASSICA, SUNFLOWER, BUCKWHEAT

Chick magnet is a cover crop blend designed to provide brood cover for upland game birds, increasing chick survival. Game bird mortality is highest in the first few weeks after hatching. Chick magnet is composed of species that attract a series of soft-bodied insects (90% of a newly hatched chicks diet consists of insects), then drop high protein seeds beginning in summer and continuing until winter.  This mixture also provdes desireable structure, providing good overhead protection from avian predators but an open ground level for ease of travel. Although designed for game birds such as pheasant and quail, it is also useful to whitetailed deer and many other wildlife species. In addition, Chick Magnet is an agronomically useful cover crop blend in its own right, with nitrogen fixing legumes, deep taprooted crops, and species that attract beneficial insects. It is particularly useful if the following crop in rotation is corn or sorghum.  Chick magnet can be planted from March through July with good effect, but optimum planting date ranges from mid-April through mid-may.  Chick Magnet can be allowed to stand through June of the second year, as the sweetclover survives through the winter and can provide a second year of brood cover.