Growing Chicken Feed?

[Osprey]

I planted a 20'x200' strip of red clover/white clover/annual rye next to my coop early in fall, every day or two I give the birds a bucket of those greens. One of the few mixes that will grow some during winter here. When I get really ambitious I get the push mower out and cut until the bag is full, that really fills them up. (they also get a bags of grass/clover clippings during the summer). It's not enough to cover their feed needs, but helps and gets them something green. Warmer months are easy, always plenty for them.

Been giving them plenty of meat during these cold months, too. At least once a week, sometimes twice, I cook a pack of old ground venison for them (helps when you shoot enough deer you can't eat them all in one year

). They've been getting a lot of fowl, too. Duck season just ended, many of the smaller divers like buffleheads, ruddies, goldeneyes, etc aren't that tasty, but I cook and chop them up for the chickens and they love them.

I may have to plant an acre of kale this year, sound like a good crop for them.

 

[gsim]

Quote:
But do you give them this and no store bought chicken feed? I'm interested in the idea too, but I think protein is an important ingredient.

Glad to see I'm not the only one interested in this XD and hmm. It sounds like it might be? In fact, some of the greens mentioned like kale, completely floored me because it's like "why didn't I think of that?!" I used to keep iguanas and that was one of the #1 greens you feed them to prevent metabolic bone disease due to it's high calcium content (something the girls would also likely need, even if i have crushed oyster shell).

What would you give for protein? I know my girls will be getting a lot of wild bugs. Heck, as I constructed their run - I kept disturbing little baby crickets in the grass and dirt from digging for the poles. Suckers were bouncing all over the place. Them and the ants that kept biting the tar out of my feet. Also, most of my food scraps are meat-related. Should I attempt to breed crickets to ensure they get enough animal protein? Or are you thinking plant protein to accompany the animal sort?

I am interested in growing more of their food too. Reason is, if the economy worsens, it soon may become impractical to buy a lot of commercial feed and still have food for ourselves. (Not to mention yearly property taxes that will never go away, utilities, etc.) AS it is, I now have 9 months feed on hand just in case. We do it for ourselves, so why not our chooks which feed us too? Mealybugs are a good choice being easy to raise and relatively cheap once you get started. Not smelly and can be done indoors. Redworms should not be too difficult to do and could be confined to the pen itself to minimize escapees. Am also doing cherry tomatoes inside of pen and sunflowers all around the place expecting to toss one or two flower heads a day in to them. I also give them tons of grass clippings weekly from mowing the grass. As for bugs in the pen, forget it. The bugs now biting your feet are history when your chooks move in. I have not seen one insect including a chigger since mine got into their pen. It is 2000 sq ft for 24 chooks. I think the buckwheat, chickpeas, and millet sound especially good. Easiest to let them into it to forage for themselves. Am figuring on likely needing a hand scythe some day for both us and the chickens. When it comes down to it, I will then let mine free-range to cut feed costs. I do expect losses too tho as that goes hand in hand with free-ranging. I know a guy who has mulberry trees inside of his pen. The chooks make their way to the very tops of his 30 ft trees to get those mulberries. Sometimes one will exit the pen from the top of one of the trees. He planted them there for his chickens.

 

[Ms~Silkie~Girl]

we were going too but decided it would be too much work

 

[TinyBirds]

Quote:
Be aware that beans are toxic to chickens unless they are cooked! Cooked beans are fine.

I free-range my flock extensively in 3 seasons.
As of 1 year ago, I only feed whole grains, with no formulated feed at all.
In the cold months, I do supplement protein a few times a week with things like ground turkey meat, kitchen scraps and cooked legumes. I also give them alfalfa hay for bedding, which has protein in as well as many other great nutrients. I will eventually start raising mealworms for them, but have been a little squeamish to get going with that!

Interestingly, I've kept a flock of a couple dozen chickens, give or take, for 11 years, but this year, on the whole grains, is the first time that I've had eggs (coming out of my ears!) all winter so far. I am at high altitude, with severe winters, so this is quite an achievement for me.

Me too! I feed only whole grains (scratch) and they free range.

 

[sben451]

Has anyone else grown a type of kale called "thousand head kale"? I read some info about this kale a couple of years ago, then had major problem finding any seeds for the stuff. According to what I read, this is a type of plant used for feed for chickens and cattle many years ago--before feed stores. You can even hang it in the coop--like hanging up a cabbage. I finally found seeds from someone in the UK. The price was reasonable, so I ordered them. I plant in trays in my greenhouse (not heated). Then transplant into the garden. It will grow through the winter here in the south. I really like this kale. My chickens love it, especially in colder weather when there's not much green grass in my yard when they free range. This kale grows tall, like a collard plant. It's good for humans, too. I usually just start pulling a couple of kale plants for each coop every day--they love this kale.

 

[Kickin.Cowgirl]

Quote:
But do you give them this and no store bought chicken feed? I'm interested in the idea too, but I think protein is an important ingredient.

I do have layer pellets available for them at all times but I am working towards growing a lot of their food myself. For plant ideas I am using this recipe: http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/ChickenFeedRecipe.html . Layer pellets usually contain soy for protein but the hard wheat, legumes, quinoa, and amaranth (and buckwheat) are the main protein sources in the feed recipe. On the recipe page it does state that the birds also forage for bugs and such.

My goal is to reduce the amount of food that I have to purchase and provide fresh food from a known source (my garden) as much as possible. I don't have the space or climate to grow all of the plants in the recipe and I don't know if I can grow enough of any to be able to store some for at least part of the winter so this is an experiment for the year. That said, we have a mild climate here and I am using my front and back yards and my neighbour's front and back yards. Because of the mild climate I can keep greens going all winter long under row covers and get at least two crops of some of the items.

Oh that link is great thanks.!

 

[Florida]

I have sooooo many eggs and I feed them back to my chickens, cooked of course. I mixed them boiled shells and all into other things. The eggs they lay have very yellow yolks. Out of the 7 hens I imagine I get 6 eggs a day. They are all young Orphintons, under 2. Now two are setting on the community nest.