The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Scott H]

Ok, I posted the girls demolished a bunch of Swiss chard....so I hung the mustard greens this AM......nice bright pretty green colored mustard greens...still hanging there....not a hit.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Scott, some of the greens have a lot of oxalic acid in them and they won't eat them. But sometimes they'll eat them if you lightly cook them which breaks it down some and makes it more palatable and the nutrients more bio-available.

Quote: http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400344/Avoid-Vegetables-with-Oxalic-Acid.html However, the oxalic acid in vegetables is broken down in cooking and doesn't interfere with the absorption of calcium present in other foods, cheese for instance, that you might eat at the same time. Calcium is available from many other food sources ....

My kiddos will eat kale but not spinach and some of the greens. Other birds will eat some of the stuff mine won't...probably depends on what they need at the time.

 

[Scott H]

Mine love spinach and broccoli...and evidently chard.....I know about the cooking thing to release nutrients in some veggies. That's how I keep my girlish figure....

 

[aoxa]

Mine love spinach and broccoli...and evidently chard.....I know about the cooking thing to release nutrients in some veggies. That's how I keep my girlish figure....

Funny, mine won't touch lettuce, spinach, chard, or broccoli. I save all those things for the rabbits and goats. The goats LOOOOOVE broccoli. One of their all time favourites. Alice loves carrots, but the others aren't huge fans.

I haven't tried greens for a long time. They may like them now that there is nothing really green to eat. They do like timothy hay.

 

[Leahs Mom]

yeah,...it's almost like they need/like something in some greens and then won't touch others. And I find it's not consistent from flock to flock and sometimes winter to summer. Strange...but true...

I got some chard for my kiddos and they wouldn't touch it. Spinach - no. Kale...look out! Stampede and a competition. And these were all organic so it shouldn't be an issue of pesticides residing in the veggies so...

 

[aoxa]

yeah,...it's almost like they need/like something in some greens and then won't touch others. And I find it's not consistent from flock to flock and sometimes winter to summer. Strange...but true...

I got some chard for my kiddos and they wouldn't touch it. Spinach - no. Kale...look out! Stampede and a competition. And these were all organic so it shouldn't be an issue of pesticides residing in the veggies so...

My first 12 chicks went absolutely bonkers for spinach. I'd feed it through the playpen and I got them very tame with it. These guys? No way. They are so weird. My last flock would eat spinach any day of the year. Not this one. I think this flock is broken

I love spinach myself. I do not like watery greens. I like my spinach for salads.
We buy organic as well.

Hopefully I can grow it this year.. My garden was a total failure the last year... the goats made sure of that.

 

[Scott H]

I tried greens in the summer and they looked at me like I was crazy...haven't given up on the mustard greens yet...maybe they fulfilled their green quota yesterday LOL

 

[ki4got]

Quote: Minis should be long legged IMHO. They should look like a standard only smaller, correct, not like a poodle breed with a Bassett hound,LOL.

ALL poodles should have a roughly square frame. it's the poor quality backyard breeders / puppy mills that do the stumpy legged ones that do NOT fit the breed standard.

I'd love another standard, but not sure my bed could hold myself and 2 large dogs (twin size bed). it was crowded when sunny and shadow both had to be on ME at the same time. LOL usually Shadow won, but he was older and crankier so sunny backed down each time.

and I don't know what color I'd look for. I don't want another black. Shadow's been gone for well over a year and it still hurts. I feel like Peter Pan when he couldn't get his shadow to stick, but mine's gone forever.

 

[Scott H]

Our standard is 13 this spring..he does not allow any dog, other than our immediate neighbors dogs, to hang around or even pass thru..LOL...hates coons and pays no attention to the chickens. Pretty much won't let anything in the yard that doesn't belong there....but he's getting old.

 

[Scott H]

Here's Jake hanging in the shop....