HYPOTHETICAL DISCUSSION: What to feed your chickens when we can't buy chicken feed anymore

[centrarchid]

We row cropped dent corn and had token amounts of Indian and popcorn mixed in. Also had pumpkin planted among corn rows. Harvest of the mixed lower quality fields with corn picker. Kids including self rode in wagon behind picker and sorted Indian and popcorn ears out by sight and feel. Bulk of drying while corn stoop in field. Active drying reserved for shell corn.


Much of ear corn fed directly to hogs. Chickens rummaged aftermath each day and gleaned feces for semi-digested corn particulates. We also had ear corn ground with supplements geared for hogs and chickens could actually produce eggs using that as sole food source.



Around perimeter of many fields some corn left standing to provide eats for wildlife. Chickens (games) would go a few hundred yards to get into those rows to consume felled corn. We would also hand-shell to make easier for birds to get at it.

 

[karlamaria]

Most back yard folk can not grow enough here to ever make it work long term, it's to cold, and the growing season is very short. I decided if I wanted my girls to have food long term, I needed to buy it and put it in Mylar bags and in five gallon buckets and stock as much as I can and always rotate. Right now I am using pellets and crumble, I know people say it does not stay fresh long, but it does in Mylar bags that fit five gallon buckets and with an oxy absorber in it. I have also purchased 250 pounds of wheat, and oats, and will do corn also and put them in Mylar bags. Rotation is the key, and also letting them free range when possible. I can not grow much, but what I did grow they loved. This year I grew a huge amount of tomatoes. My yard is small, so I grew my tomatoes where ever I could fit them, the problem here is the growing season and getting them ripe enough. Unfortunately some have gotten frost bit . I'm protecting the others with sheets now.
I'm. Not sure long term , but I do have a years worth of food now. Keeping it dry, and with out oxygen is the key to Mylar and oxy absorbers.

 

[centrarchid]

Consider growing cold tolerant greens like winter wheat and turnips. Foliage can meet some of birds energy requirments if birds can get at it. Also consider alfalfa and clover hays. Chickens can ferment fiber and the hays in particular can also be a protein source.

 

[furbabymum]

Absolutely, Joyce! We just have an urban lot so we're pretty limited as to what and how much we can grow. If you've got space and don't have acidic soil, alfalfa would be ideal! You plant it, give it a bit of water and then cut it just after it blooms...don't let it go to seed. Then, give it a bit of water and it'll grow back. Repeat as necessary, LOL. You can feed it either green or dried...just make sure it doesn't mold. It's an excellent feed for most livestock, is really good for the soil, and doesn't need tending.

Since we have such a little space, we're just going to use the lawn mower with the bag and then spread it out to dry.

There are LOTS of veggies you can share with your chickens...zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, kale, chard, carrots (although our girls won't eat carrots), beets...you get the root, they get the leaves. We put in a few fruit trees (plums and apples) a couple years back and I give the bird-pecked ones to the chickens...they love 'em!

I've been trying to get rid of all the wild alfalfa in my front lawn. The one place I want grass and the alfalfa is taking it over! Impossible to kill that stuff with weed and feed. VERY HARDY!

 

[mickey328]

LOL, turn yer chickens loose on it!

 

[Yukonchick]

What about whole wheat bread. I get all the expired bread and buns from the grocery warehouse where i used to work. They give me all sorts of bread, buns bagels wraps etc.

 

[ZenChicken]

I just had a wierd/funky thought/question:   Is there anything we could grow in place of our grass lawns that we could still use as lawns, mow like lawns, and yet be more nutritious for the birds when we give them the mulched cuttings?  Dumb question?

I would guess that clover would be good. It's related to alfalfa but makes for better ground cover. My hunch is that clover is higher in nutrition (based on my precious experience with horses) and easier for them to digest than grass.

 

[mickey328]

Clover is a great source of nutrition as well...high in calcium and all that good "green" stuff. I put in a patch in the spring to use for herbal tonics, but it's pretty much all gone to the chickens. I don't mow it, but I do go out every 2nd or 3rd day and just cut a bunch of it off for them. It's a hoot watching them eat it...they grab the leaf end and then run around with the stem hanging down like a kid with a piece of spaghetti in the mouth, LOL

I give our girls some bread, but not too much. Most of it is so "processed" that it's more empty calories than nutrition. I stick to stuff like the whole, multi-grain types and then cut it into thick slices...they get a couple slices (broken up) about once a week or so.

 

[Red Barn Farms]

Clover is a great source of nutrition as well...high in calcium and all that good "green" stuff. I put in a patch in the spring to use for herbal tonics, but it's pretty much all gone to the chickens. I don't mow it, but I do go out every 2nd or 3rd day and just cut a bunch of it off for them. It's a hoot watching them eat it...they grab the leaf end and then run around with the stem hanging down like a kid with a piece of spaghetti in the mouth, LOL

I give our girls some bread, but not too much. Most of it is so "processed" that it's more empty calories than nutrition. I stick to stuff like the whole, multi-grain types and then cut it into thick slices...they get a couple slices (broken up) about once a week or so.

This must be location wise and what a flock gets use to eating. It's so funny how I can feed my chickens clover I've hand picked and hand fed to them. When they free range they just stand on the clover in the yard and never eat it. Must be them thinking they are getting a real treat when it's hand fed but not when they have to work for it themselves?

 

[mickey328]

I wonder the same thing, RBF. Ours absolutely LOVE dandelion leaves, but when we move the run and there are dandelions growing, they seem to pretty much ignore them. If I pull them and toss them in the run, they go nuts. Spoiled critters! LOL